Developmental Strategies for Global Poverty Alleviation

Transcription

1 Developmental Strategies for Global Poverty Alleviation Course Number B Course Title Global Poverty Alleviation Term Fall 2009 (NYU Stern) Credit Hours / Class Duration 3 credit hours / 6.00 pm 9.00 pm (Thursdays) Faculty Dr. Abraham George, Economics Department E: ageorge@stern.nyu.edu Student Assistant Office Hours Name E: M: T: Thursday 2.00 pm 5.30 pm A. Description of Course The objective of this intense course is to offer in-depth understanding of issues related to poverty in developing countries. In discussions on the roles of governments, international agencies, donors, NGOs and private institutions, emphasis will be on developmental strategies and approaches to poverty alleviation. Study of social entrepreneurship and private sector participation will receive special attention. Theoretical classroom presentations will be supplemented with case studies to gain a clear understanding of challenges, obstacles, constraints and solutions. B. Grading Grading will be based on class participation and case study reports. Attendance and assignments are viewable through Blackboard. 1. Class Participation - 40% of final grade: Each class will consist of delivery of lecture by the Professor a) Active participation i) Individual and group discussions ii) Critical thinking b) Presentations delivered by students 2. Case Study Reports - 60% of final grade: a) Case Study Report 1 must be submitted by the end of October (30%) b) Case Study Report 2 must be submitted 1 week prior to the end of the semester (30%)

2 C. Course Expectations Emphasis on participating in class discussions, case studies and delivery of factual data on the topic of Global Poverty Alleviation will enable the students to be sensitized to the complexities of poverty and its solutions. Students will become familiar with the different dimensions of poverty, such as income generation, healthcare, education and delivery of services. This course will prepare the student with the required background to pursue careers in the developmental arena. D. Prerequisites Minimal background in macro-economic theory and public policy E. Topics 1. Overview on Global Poverty a) How is poverty defined? b) Global statistics on poverty levels c) Why does poverty exist? Issues of governance, resources, social conditions, etc. d) Trends in wealth creation and poverty Deaton, Angus (2001), Counting the World's Poor: Problems and Possible Solutions, World Bank Research Observer 16 (2), Fall 2001: Sachs, Jeffrey (2005), Chapter 12: On the Ground Solutions for Ending Poverty, Chapter 13: Making the Investments Needed to End Poverty, The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Penguin Press. Easterly, William (March 2006), The Big Push Déjà vu: A Review of Jeffrey Sachs s The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XLIV pp Developmental Goals a) National goals and priorities b) Goals set by international agencies c) Millennium goals Bradford De Long, J., n.d., Main Themes of Twentieth Century Economic Development, University of California, Berkeley. Kraay (2000), Growth is good for the poor, World Bank working paper. The World Bank, Voices of the Poor

3 3. Poverty Strategies a) Sustainable development b) Target-based strategies c) Technology driven strategies Foster, Andrew & Rosenzweig, Mark, Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture, Journal of Political Economy 103 (6), Gallup, John & Sachs, Jeffrey, October 1998, The Economic Burden of Malaria, Kennedy School CID, Harvard University, working paper, pp Krueger, Alan B. & Lindahl, Mikael (2001), Education for growth Journal of Economic Literature. Morduch, Jonathan (2000), Reforming Poverty Alleviation Policies, forthcoming in Anne Krueger, ed., Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage, University of Chicago Press. Ravallion, Martin (1991), Reaching the Rural Poor Through Public Employment: Arguments, Evidence, and Lessons from South Asia, World Bank Research Observer 6 (2), pp World Development Report 2000/2001. Van De Walle, Dominique (1998), Targeting Revisited, World Bank Research Observer 13 (2), August, pp Poverty alleviation approaches and considerations a) Top-down approach (governments and international agencies) b) Bottom-up approach (grass-root interventions by NGOs) c) Specific interventions (HIV/AIDS, etc.) d) Social entrepreneurships e) Issues of sustainability, scalability, cost effectiveness, and other considerations f) Myths and realities Anand, Sudhir and Ravallion, Martin (1993), Human development in poor countries: on the role of private incomes and public services, Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (1), Winter: Morduch, Jonathan (2000), Reforming Poverty Alleviation Policies, forthcoming in Anne Krueger, ed., Economic Policy Reform: The Second Stage, University of Chicago Press. Munshi, Kaivan (2001), The Identification of Network Effects: Mexican Migrants in the U.S. Labor Market, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, working paper, December.

4 Munshi, Kaivan and Jacques Myaux (2001), Development as a Process of Social Change: An Application to the Theory of Fertility Transition, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, working paper, December. Microfinance: Filmer, Deon, Hammer, Jeffrey, & Pritchett, Lant, January 1998, Health Policy in Poor Countries: Weak Links in the Chain, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 1874, pp Morduch, Jonathan (1998), Does Microfinance Really Help the Poor? New Evidence from Flagship Programs in Bangladesh, Research Program in Development Studies, Princeton University, draft Morduch, Jonathan (1999), The Microfinance Promise, Journal of Economic Literature 37, Morduch, Jonathan, April 2000, The Microfinance Schism, World Development. Pitt, Mark & Khandker, Shahidur (1998), The Impact of Group-Based Credit Programs on Poor Households in Bangladesh: Does the Gender of Participants Matter? Journal of Political Economy 106 (5), October, Three dimensions of poverty reduction strategy a) Delivery of services education, vocational training, healthcare, support services b) Community development infrastructure, water, sanitation, housing c) Wealth and income generation economic activity and job creation, small scale local businesses Bils, Mark & P. Klenow, December 2000, Does Schooling Cause Growth?, American Economic Review, 90(5), pp Duflo, Esther November 2001, Schooling and labor market consequences of school construction in Indonesia: Evidence from an unusual policy experiment, American Economic Review. Ravallion, Martin & Wodon, Quentin (a1999), Does Child Labor Displace Schooling? Evidence on Behavioral Responses to an Enrollment Subsidy, Economic Journal. Ravallion, Martin & Wodon, Quentin (b1999), Does Child Labor Displace Schooling? Evidence on Behavioral Responses to an Enrollment Subsidy, Economic Journal 110 (462), Conference volume, March 2000, C158 C175. Ray, Debraj, chapter 8 - Poverty and under-nutrition, Development Economics. Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, ?, Nutrient Intakes and Income Handbook of Development Economics 3A, pp.

5 Strauss, John & Thomas, Duncan, ? Health, Productivity, and Labor Supply, Handbook of Development Economics 3A, pp. 6. How do the following players function? a) Government at various levels b) International agencies c) Donors d) NGOs e) Social entrepreneurs f) Private sector Aleem, Irfan, n.d. Imperfect Information, Screening, and the Costs of Informal Lending: A Study of a Rural Credit Market in Pakistan, in Hoff, Braverman & Stiglitz, Economics of Rural Organization, ch. 7, pages CGAP, August 1996 Microcredit Interest Rates, Occasional Paper Number 1. Morduch, Jonathan (1999), The Microfinance Promise, Journal of Economic Literature 37, Morduch, Jonathan (2000), The Microfinance Schism, World Development, April. Yunus, Mohammad (1995), The Grameen Bank: Experiences and Reflections. Dhaka: Grameen Bank. 7. Financing poverty projects a) Government budgets for various services by country comparison b) Foreign aid c) Donor contributions d) NGO operations Alesina, Alberto & Weder, Beatrice, September 2002, Do Corrupt Governments Receive Less Foreign Aid? American Economic Review, 92: Boone, Peter, 1996, Politics and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid. European Economic Review, 40(2), pp Burnside, Craig & Dollar, David, September 2000, Aid, Policies, and Growth, American Economic Review 90(4) pp Duflo, Esther & Kremer, Michael, Use of Randomization in the Evaluation of Development Effectiveness, MIT and Harvard Working Paper, 2003.

6 Easterly, William, 2006, Chapter 5: The Rich have Markets, the Poor have Bureaucrats, The White Man s Burden: Why the West s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, Penguin Press. Easterly, William, February 2005, What did structural adjustment adjust? - The association of policies and growth with repeated IMF and World Bank adjustment loans, Journal of Development Economics Vol 76. Easterly, William, Levine, Ross, & Roodman, David, June 2004, New Data, New Doubts: A Comment on Burnside and Dollar's Aid, Policies, and Growth American Economic Review. Rajan, Raghuram G. & Subramanian, Arvind, June 2005, Aid and Growth: What Does the Cross-Country Evidence Really Show? IMF Working Paper. Svensson, Jakob, 2000, Foreign Aid and Rent-Seeking, Journal of International Economics, Vol. 51 (2): Svensson, Jakob, 2003, Why Conditional Aid Doesn t Work and What Can Be Done About It? Journal of Development Economics, vol. 70 (2): Impact analysis a) Examine 2-3 project reports of WB or other published results b) Cost-benefit analysis based on available data on government projects c) Are the present approaches bringing down poverty fast enough? 9. Participation of the private sector a) Types of private sector involvement philanthropy versus business b) Social entrepreneurship activities c) Development versus profit-motive d) Concerns, expectations and safeguards e) Creating incentives for private sector involvement f) Developmental impact from private sector participation Townsend, Robert, May 1994, Risk and Insurance in Village India, Econometrica 62, pp Morduch, Jonathan (2001), Consumption Smoothing across Space: Testing theories of risk-sharing in the ICRISAT study region of South India, forthcoming in Stefan Dercon, ed., Insurance Against Poverty (Oxford University Press) Ravallion, Martin & Chaudhuri, Shubham, January 1997, Risk and Insurance in Village India: Comment, Econometrica 65(1), pp Coate, Stephen & Ravallion, Martin February 1993, Reciprocity without Commitment: Characterization and Performance of Informal Insurance Arrangements, Journal of Development Economics 40 (1), pp-1 24.

7 Foster, Andrew & Rosenzweig, Mark (1999), Imperfect Commitment, Altruism and the Family: Evidence from Transfer Behavior in Low-Income Areas, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, draft Ligon, Ethan, Thomas, Jonathan, & Worall, Tim January 1997, Informal Insurance Arrangements in Village Economies, Dept. of Agricultural and Resources Economics, draft. Morduch, Jonathan August 1999, Between the Market and State: Can Informal Insurance Patch the Safety Net? World Bank Research Observer 14 (2), pp Case studies Two poverty scenarios (described for 2 different countries) will be available on Blackboard for the students. The students will be asked to analyze each situation, develop goals and implementation approaches, and estimate their costs. F. Reading List: Books 1. Required reading- George, Abraham, 2006, India Untouched: The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty, Writers Collective. 2. Aghion & Howitt, n.d., Endogenous Growth Theory. 3. Aghion, P. and Durlauf, S., editors, 2005, Handbook of Economic Growth, North- Holland: Amsterdam. 4. Bardhan, Pranab & Udry, Christopher, 2001, Readings in development economics, volume II: Empirical microeconomics, MIT Press. 5. Barro, Robert & Xavier Sala-i-Martin, Economic Growth, second edition, MIT Press: Cambridge MA Deaton, Angus, 1997, The analysis of household surveys: A microeconometric approach to development policy, Johns Hopkins/World Bank. 7. Easterly, William, 2001,The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics, MIT Press: Cambridge MA. 8. Ray, Debraj, 1998, Development Economics, Princeton University Press. 9. Weil, David N., 2004, Economic Growth, Addison Wesley: Boston.