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Chapter 1: Introducing Economic oo o o oo
oo Development: A Global Perspective oo oo oo
Key Concepts oo
As curious as students who register to take Development Economics may be, their knowledge
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and experience of the developing world will vary widely. The first main point of Chapter 1
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is to emphasise how different life in the developing world is. New in the 13th edition is a
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systematic description of four stylised strata of living standards from extreme poverty to rich
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based on Rosling,
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Rosling, and Rosling Ronnlund‘s book Factfulness. This is followed by a discussion of the
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World Bank‘s classification of economies by ranges of average national income using gross
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national income (GNI) statistics.
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The second point is to provide an overview of the nature of development economics as a
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field. A defense of development economics as a distinct field, rather than an agglomeration
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of other economics subfields, is offered. A major theme of the book, that development
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economics must encompass the study of institutional and social, as well as economic,
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mechanisms for modernising an economy while eliminating absolute poverty, is introduced.
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Sections 1.5 and 1.6 looks deeper into the meaning of development and a view of development
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that is multidimensional. Amartya Sen‘s ―Capabilities‖ approach is discussed in Section 1.5. In
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Section 1.6, data collected in a Gallup World Poll on the relationship between happiness (as
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measured by Gallup‘s
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life satisfaction ―ladder‖ question and real per capita income) and other research on
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happiness/life satisfaction is discussed. The level of happiness is not only related to level of
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income but to other factors such as democratic freedoms and the quality of social
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oorelationships. The role of normative oo oo oo oo
values in development economics—a subject dealing with human misery and human potential,
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with equity as well as efficiency, with cultural change that causes losses as well as gains, and
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with transfer
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as well as creation of wealth—is also stressed.
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The conclusion is that development is both a physical reality and a state of mind. The
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meaning and objectives of development include the provision of basic needs, reducing
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inequality, raising living standards through appropriate economic growth, improving self-
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esteem in relation to the developed countries, and expanding freedom of choice in the market
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and beyond.
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Section 1.7 presents an in depth examination of the UN‘s Sustainable Development Goals
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(SDGs). This includes a more comprehensive list of the goals themselves (appearing in
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Table 1.1) and a discussion of the shortcomings of the SDGs. In Section 1.8, the plan of
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the book is introduced through 32 critical questions of development economics.
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Depending on the amount of material
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covered by the instructor, students should be able to intelligently address most of these
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questions by the end of the course. Finally, a comparative case study of Pakistan and
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Bangladesh is presented.
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, Todaro ooand ooSmith, ooEconomic ooDevelopment, oo13e, ooInstructor’s
Manual
Lecture Suggestions oo
It might be best to begin with a discussion of the immense scale of transformation in the
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ooworld
economy. The late Hans Rosling‘s video ―200 countries, 200 years, 4 minutes‖ (readily
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available on YouTube) can be used to confirm this point in an entertaining way. It might
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also be helpful to highlight that real gross world product per capita has almost tripled
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between 1960 and 2018 (implying growth per year of 1.85%) and is 33% higher
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than it was at the turn of this century
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(implying annual growth of 1.56% from 2000 to 2018). This data can be found on the Saint
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Louis Federal Reserve‘s website in the Federal Reserve Economic Database (or FRED).
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Despite such advances, tremendous disparities continue to exist. In terms of easily accessible
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statistics the PEW Research Centre‘s ―World Population by Income‖ provides an
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oointeractive map oo
showing the share of economies‘ population who are economically poor, low income, middle
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income, upper middle income, and high income. While regrettably the data provided is
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for 2011, it
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echoes what Todaro and Smith point out in the text, that more than 75% of the world‘s
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population live on $15 or less a day (or about $5,500 per person per year). Several
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excellent books attempt to give some idea of the range of living standards found throughout
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the world. For example, The Material World by Peter Menzell. This book presents
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o ophotographic profiles of typical families o o o o o o o o
around the world with all of their possessions placed in front of their homes. As one goes
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from one family to the next the instructor has the opportunity to highlight the important
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differences between nations and regions and to touch on key issues of growth and
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development.
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One of the key strengths of this chapter is that it does not focus solely on the hard
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oonumbers that oo
supposedly measure development. The discussion of Sen‘s Capabilities approach and the far
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less than perfect relationship between income and happiness are well worth spending a fair
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amount of class time exploring. Class time should also be spent discussing the 32
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oocritical questions listed on oo oo oo
pages 21–23 of the text and then asking students to identify 3 or 4 questions that they are
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particularly interested in exploring. Asking each student to list what they consider to be
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―critically‖ critical questions on a sheet of paper, collecting their responses, and then trying
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to direct the rest of the term to addressing the most commonly mentioned critical questions
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for that class will be helpful
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in further drawing students in and holding their attention throughout the term.
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At this same point, the instructor might also wish to get some idea of students‘ experiences
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o traveling to developing countries and, in as subtle a way as is possible, determine how
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shaky their understanding of the wider world is. The instructor perhaps could draw on his
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or her own experiences and give some background as to how he or she first became
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interested in Development
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Economics. This may – through the kinds of questions asked – help the instructor further
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gauge students‘ level of sophistication in this area. This is not something that should be or,
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can, be settled in the first one or two classes and will develop over the course of the term.
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In many universities, the economic development course will be filled with students who are
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not majoring in economics. These students may come from different colleges with majors
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such as anthropology, sociology, or political science or business (management, finance, etc.).
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They may have had as little as one semester of introductory economics. Given that you are
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, Todaro ooand ooSmith, ooEconomic ooDevelopment, oo13e, ooInstructor’s
ooteaching an economics
oo Manual class, you may wish to remind the students of this fact and offer
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oowhatever help you can. Given video capture software, you might consider recording some
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ooprimers that then could be made available to students through course management
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o osoftware such as Blackboard or Moodle. You
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