Overview
Today we begin considering how to measure development.
Readings
Recommended Readings:
- Sen (1988), “The Concept of Development”
- Boettke and Subrick (2003), “Rule of Law, Development, and Human Capabilities”
- TED Talk: Hans Rosling on the Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen
- BBC: Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
- TED Talk: Hans Rosling on the Magic Washing Machine
We will not have a discussion on these readings for this lesson. However, they may come up in future discussions and provide a good framework for understanding development going forward.
Amartya Sen’s “capabilities approach” to “development as freedom” is a good way to think about economic development beyond just GDP numbers. The reading summarizes his views that are famously expounded in a larger book (Development as Freedom).
Boettke and Subrick’s paper shows (with some modest econometrics) that capabilities are strongly affected by economic development, so GDP numbers remain a great tool.
I highly recommend you watch all of Hans Rosling’s videos. They are amazing.
Slides
Below, you can find the slides in two formats. Clicking the image will bring you to the html version of the slides in a new tab. Note while in going through the slides, you can type h to see a special list of viewing options, and type o for an outline view of all the slides.
The lower button will allow you to download a PDF version of the slides. I suggest printing the slides beforehand and using them to take additional notes in class (not everything is in the slides)!
