While we wake each day in comfortable surroundings, nearly half of the world\u2019s population lives on less than $2 per day. This course will focus on the plight of this population, a world apart from the traditional \u201crational\u201d world of economic decision-making. In the developing world, most commodity and resource markets are highly imperfect, consumers and producers have limited information, and economic calculations can be overshadowed by political and social priorities, such as unifying the nation, replacing foreign advisors with local decision makers, resolving tribal or ethnic conflicts, or preserving religious and cultural traditions. The specific topics of this course, covered at the country level, will include: poverty and inequality, population and migration, human capital, health care and education, agriculture, industrialization and the environment, as well as the role of political institutions in economic development. At the global level, the course will explore trade theory and policy, foreign aid and investment, and debt issues. Throughout, we will address the fast-expanding impacts, both positive and negative, of globalization on these populations.<\/p>\n
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Once we have established a basic conceptual vocabulary, we will spend the balance of the term looking at case studies from around the globe, described by economists who have worked in these nations and addressed these problems as field experts. The stories are real and I hope you will find them compelling.<\/p>\n
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My objective in this course is not to make you into budding economists (though I would not discourage you), but instead to introduce you to or expand your knowledge of an economist\u2019s way of thinking about global development problems. To that end we will read largely \u201cpopularized\u201d books on economic issues, written by recognized experts in the field, but directed to a broader audience. Each of these authors offers a strong thesis and supporting evidence throughout his book or article, and, not surprisingly, their solutions to economic problems are not always in agreement. My hope is that you will leave this classroom better equipped to engage in these debates, which provide the fodder for front-page news on a regular basis.<\/p>\n
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While we wake each day in comfortable surroundings, nearly half of the world\u2019s population lives on less than $2 per day. This course will focus on the plight of this population, a world apart from the traditional \u201crational\u201d world of economic decision-making. In the developing world, most commodity and resource markets are highly imperfect, consumers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":332,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/332"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/tewell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}