Lecture 1 from the spring 2011 MIT undergraduate course, The Challenges of World Poverty. This lecture can be used as a resource both for supplementary learning by the general reader, as well as a teaching tool in formal class settings.
Teaching and Resources
This book grew, in part, out of years of teaching undergraduates and graduate students at MIT and elsewhere, and we hope that it can be used to support learning at various levels.
In the spring of 2011, we have been using the book for two courses: one, Challenges for World Poverty, an introductory course for students who do not have a background in economics. This course is a mix of lecture and discussion. Students read the book, as well as other papers, and they answer essay questions about the issues that they learn about. The second course, Foundations of Development Policies, is for advanced undergraduates and masters students.
In this section of the website, we provide the course materials from both. These materials include the lecture notes, assignments, and videos used throughout the course. We hope you will find this material useful as a supplementary resource to the book, and a way to enrich your learning experience.
Given that both courses are currently underway, this page will be regularly updated, so do check back often!
1.1 Lecture: Challenges of world poverty (1/2)
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1.1 Lecture: Foundations of Development Policy
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lecture 1 from the spring 2011 MIT masters course, Foundations of Development Policy.
1.2 Lecture: Challenges of world poverty (2/2)
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lecture 2 of the spring 2011 MIT undergraduate course, The Challenges of World Poverty. This lecture can be used as a resource both for supplementary learning by the general reader, as well as a teaching tool in formal class settings.
1.3 Lecture: Challenges of world poverty: Social experiments
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lecture 1 on social experiments from the spring 2011 MIT undergraduate course, The Challenges of World Poverty. This lecture can be used as a resource both for supplementary learning by the general reader, as well as a teaching tool in formal class settings.
Jeffrey Sachs / February 2, 2007 / MTV
An article (with links to the video documentary) of economist Jeffrey Sachs and actress Angelina Jolie's visit to one of the Earth Institute's Millennium Villages.
Challenges of World Poverty: A Sample Essay on Aid
John Boghossian / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A sample essay on aid written by John Boghossian an MIT Economics and Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student for the spring 2011 undergraduate class Challenges of World Poverty.
Challenges of world poverty: Essay Questions on Aid
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Introductory essay questions from the spring 2011 MIT undergraduate course, The Challenges of World Poverty
Foundations of Development Policy: Problem Set 1
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Problem set 1 from the spring 2011 MIT masters course, Foundations of Development Policy, to be accompanied by the World development report data.
Foundations of Development Policy: Problem Set 1 Data
Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo / Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Data from the World development report to accompany problem set 1 from the spring 2011 MIT masters course, Foundations of Development Policy.
Millennium Villages
The Millennium Villages initiative is conducted by the research and policy teams of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. From the website's FAQs: "Millennium Villages are designed to demonstrate how the eight Millennium Development Goals can be met in rural Africa within five to ten years through community-led development."
