Syllabus
Topics covered in this course are available in the calendar below.
Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 1 session / week, 2.5 hours / session
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.
Prerequisites
This course assumes that you have completed 14.01 Principles of Microeconomics.
Required Text
Banerjee, Abhijit V., Roland Benabou, and Dilip Mookherjee, eds. Understanding Poverty. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780195305203.
Grading
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Class Participation | 20% |
| Short Paper 1 | 20% |
| Short Paper 2 | 20% |
| Short Paper 3 | 20% |
| In-class Final Exam | 20% |
For the short papers, you will each choose three general paper topics. Each Short Paper should be approximately 1500 words long. Please see assignments for paper guidelines.
Calendar
| SES # | TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Measure of World Poverty | |
| 2 | The Record of Growth | |
| 3 | The Historical Context of Growth: Colonialism, Globalization and All That | Measure of world poverty and record of growth short papers due |
| 4 | Can Foreign Aid Help? | Historical context short paper due |
| 5 | The Economic Lives of the Poor | Foreign aid short paper due |
| 6 | Improving Education | Economic lives of the poor short paper due |
| 7 | Health and Fertility | Improving education short paper due |
| 8 | Delivering Healthcare | Health and fertility short paper due |
| 9 | The Poor and Financial Services 1 | Delivering healthcare short paper due |
| 10 | The Poor and Financial Services 2 | The poor and financial services 1 short paper due |
| 11 | Negotiating with Corruption |
The poor and financial services 2 short paper due Corruption short paper due 4 days after Ses #13 |
