The Challenges of Global Poverty - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This is a course for those who are interested in the challenge posed by massive and persistent world poverty, and are hopeful that economists might have something useful to say about this challenge. The questions we will take up include: Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Are the poor always hungry? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is microfinance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish and short"? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene? And many others.

At the end of this course, you should have a good sense of the key questions asked by scholars interested in poverty today, and hopefully a few answers as well.

What you'll learn

• To identify and analyze some of the root causes of underdevelopment using principles of economics
• To understand the unique constraints and trade-offs the poor face when making decisions
• How to interpret the findings of empirical research that evaluates the effectiveness of anti-poverty strategies, policies, and interventions (including strengths and weaknesses of research)
• A basic understanding of various econometric tools used in development research, which will provide the foundation for participating in more technical courses in development economics