Special Topics in Economics: The Challenge of World Poverty
As taught in: Fall 2006
![Photo of a poverty-stricken area in Ghana. Photo of a poverty-stricken area in Ghana.](../contents/chp_poverty.jpg)
Poor families in Ghana. (Photo by Jenny Johnston on Flickr.)
Instructors:
Prof. Abhijit Banerjee
MIT Course Number:
14.11
Level:
Course Features
Course Description
This is a course for those who are interested in the challenge posed by massive and persistent world poverty, have had some economics, and believe that economists might have something useful to say about this question. The questions we will take up include: Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? Why do some countries grow fast and others fall further behind? Does growth help the poor? Does foreign aid help? What can we do about corruption? Should we leave it all to the markets? Should we leave it to the non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Where is the best place to intervene? How do we deal with the disease burden? How do we improve schools? And many others.