Lecture 1: Introduction to Development Economics

MIT 14.771 Development Economics, Fall 2021
Instructor: Esther Duflo

This video introduces the course. The class discusses the enormous differences in income and other important outcomes around the world. Prof. Duflo previews the main topics of the course.

License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Speakers: Esther Duflo

[summatim]

0:15: Introduction
1:51: Course Structure
2:28: Lectures and Recitation
2:36: Reading Papers
3:28: Problem Sets
5:15: Research Proposal
5:32: Course Audience
8:04: PPP Adjustment
12:19: Richest Countries in the World
14:30: Poorest and richest countries
16:28: Income and well-being outcomes
26:05: Differences in growth rates
27:27: Geopolitical news for emerging economies
38:23: Global Welfare Improvements
43:11: Development Accounting
44:27: Explanation of cross-country data
44:54: Revision of cross-country data
46:23: Factors that explain growth
49:23: Variation in macroeconomic policies
50:42: Issues with growth regression
53:04: Inability to explain economic growth
53:52: Assumption of aggregate production function
55:53: Variation in return to investments
58:11: Trust as a factor in investment
58:25: Imperfect market for capital
59:45: Factors contributing to productivity differences
60:18: Poverty trap
68:56: Human capital
69:59: Labor markets, land markets, and credit
70:12: Public sector

[indonesia-romasadisaputra]

What a luxury opportunity to be taught by one of prominent scholars in development economics, thank you MIT for this open course

[chetanpandore]

I'm a Mechanical Engineer and a Maths Teacher and I've recently developed interest in economics and businesses. This lecture was a great opportunity to learn for me from
Esher Duflow and Abhijit Banerjee are Nobel Prize 🏆 winner couple in Economics. She is working leading a team which includes Raghuram Rajan of economist to implement the bottom up economic model with Tamil Nadu government.
Trickle Down economics is a scam to keep rich richer and poor poorer. This women with her husband has turned out this scam upside down. Hats off to her.

[SilvanaBuilesG]

so happy to see the updated version of this amazing course!

[shoaibkahut]

ECON student from #China here. Thank you #MIT for making these lectures available here.

[Asteria_Inc]

Professor Duflo! Awesome! Thanks Mit opencourse to make this available for people couldn’t make to MIT!

[musakhanmedicalenginee]

Finally got your lecture, ❤ I has been waiting.

[xmeansnop]

Computer Scientist here. Looking forward to watch this course. Hope it is fun!
Thanks for uploading

[Er.Sunil.Pedgaonkar]

Infrastructure Development is one of main issue related to Development Economics. Roads, Streets, Water Supply, Electricity, Public Transportation (Buses&Trains, Metros), Gov't Public Hospitals, Sanitation, Hygiene, Gov't Low Cost Houses for poor, Generation of Local Employment or jobs, Public Schools, Colleges & Universities, Jobs for all, Agro based industry, promotion of home & micro industries etc.are imp

[tzachs_]

MIT pls add course 14.02 : Principles of Macroeconomics

[Mohankumar-cycm]

I want to say something about 1.09.
The ability of 5th Standard students to study 2nd standard text depends on many things. It may vary from State to State. There are more than 25 states in India. Even within states, it may vary from town to town.
Private schools are situated in urban areas. Government schools are situated in rural areas. The lifestyle of the students living in urban areas and those living in rural areas is entirely different. For example, a town child may spend extra hours studying whereas a poor rural child, especially a girl child, has to take care of many other things. So this difference.
There is one paradox. In Tamilnadu, ( a state in India)the government spends more on health, education, and library. However, people will prefer private schools, private hospitals, and even private libraries. This is not related to quality. Government hospitals can perform heart surgeries at the cost of free. A student need not spend a single penny on government school. Still, people prefer private.

[Claudia-yddd]

Please MIT, offer more Open courses, Spread your brilliant knowledge, thank you, Greetings from Germany

[OupaModiko]

I am Jacob from South Africa and really appreciate this open course offered.

[ADB]

00:05 Introduction to the core topics in development economics
02:28 Lectures and recitation schedule
07:04 Difference between gross national income and GDP
09:35 The challenge of comparing standard of living between countries
15:08 Income differences of one in 200 matter for well-being outcomes
17:30 Disparity in under-five mortality rates compared to GDP per capita
22:43 Poor countries face challenges in accessing funds for stimulus measures.
24:50 Difference in GDP and growth rates have significant impacts on countries' ability to support citizens during crises.
29:25 The income of people in the bottom percentiles has seen significant growth, mainly driven by China and India.
31:33 Rapid progress in global development and challenges ahead
35:56 Government's loss of ability to measure poverty due to reliance on private companies for survey data
37:56 Poverty's impact at individual and country level
42:08 Understanding the factors behind income differences in development economics.
44:14 Initial optimism in using capital and enrollment rate data to explain income per capita difference
48:25 Development economics involves compensating for geographical disadvantages and considering macroeconomic policies
50:41 Challenges in interpreting the effects of various policies on economic development
55:02 The return to capital and human capital varies greatly within economies.
57:16 Local boys in Tirupur have lower return to capital compared to people from other towns.
1:01:25 Introduction to the public sector
1:03:51 Understanding the concept of poverty trap and its impact on economic development.
1:08:40 Key factors contributing to poverty traps.
1:10:39 Wishing for an excellent semester

[NaveenKumar-jesz]

Dear MIT Opencourseware, please add updated class od FINANCIAL ENGINEERING, PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT etc related to Finance

[aneeamahmood]

Hello I'm from Pakistan 🇵🇰
And I watch your MIT open lecture
Amazing

[Franklina]

她是2019年的诺贝尔经济学奖的获得者. MIT的学生太幸运了. 我感叹教育资源的不平均; 也感叹互联网让学习变的容易

[amritsharma]

Interesting!!
Had read her book, "Poor Economics."
A good read!!

[nawazeeshali]

This was brilliant, truly amazing, you are explaining the concepts so well.

[amandaz]

Macau is not a country...if you can compare Macao with other real countries by definition...then you can also compare Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing assuming they are little countries..