Courses tagged with "Biology" (1)

This course is part of the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy (DEDP). To audit this course, click “Enroll Now” in the green button at the top of this page.

To enroll in the MicroMasters track or to learn more about this program and how it integrates with MIT’s new blended Master’s degree, go to MITx’s MicroMasters portal.

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.