Having studied the sources of economic growth and development and the barriers to them, we will discuss what policies (strategies) governments can use to encourage them today. You should have read the text chapter identified below in the homework section and watched the related videos. We will start class today with you working cooperatively with a partner to find a solution to the "Problem of the Day" and then there will be a lecture on our next topic. This page contains all the information you need for today's class: homework, the problem of the day, helpful resources (videos, podcasts, etc.) and an explanation of the activities we will do in class. Use the table of contents on the right to help you navigate.
Read Mankiw (Chapters 25 and 26).
Problem of the Day: You will work cooperatively with your partner to construct a response to the following prompt.
Describe the main barriers to economic development that countries may experience.
Using the Lorenz and Kuznets curves, evaluate the view that countries with more equal distribution of income and wealth are more likely to experience higher levels of development.
Lecture
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson wrote Why Nations Fail in which they argued that societies with more pluralistic ("inclusive") institutions are more likely to experience economic growth in the long-run than societies with non-inclusive ("extractive") institutions.
Related Readings