Foundations of Development Policy
Examine the different facets of human development through modern empirical methods in economics while working with real data.
Course Information
Certificate Track
Learn for Free
About this Course
In this course, you will study the different facets of human development through the lens of theory and statistics in a way that is both analytical and practical. You will learn how to build and apply economic models relevant to concrete development contexts and how to design and conduct a randomized control trial to learn more about these topics. You will also have the chance to gain experience working with real data using software for statistical analysis.
The course is free to audit. Learners can take a proctored exam and earn a course certificate by paying a fee, which varies by ability to pay. Please see our FAQ articles for more information on the certificate and audit track features as well as more information on the pricing structure. Enroll in this course by selecting the "enroll now" button at the top of the page.
This course can be completed by itself or as part of the MITx MicroMasters program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy (DEDP), which provides a path toward the master’s in DEDP at MIT.
What you'll learn
The course will investigate the following topics:
- Poverty and undernutrition
- Nutrition and productivity
- Benefits of education and schooling decisions
- Gender and household bargaining power
- Insurance and dealing with risk
- Land, risk aversion, and property rights
- Credit market, constraints, and the classic microcredit model
- Behavioral barriers to saving
- Public finance, taxation, targeting, and transparency
- Political economy
- Measuring, modeling, and combatting corruption
Access the full syllabus here.
Prerequisites
Basic understanding of statistics and familiarity with microeconomics will be helpful for this course. There are no prerequisites, but you may find it helpful to take 14.100x (Microeconomics) and 14.310x (Data Analysis for Social Scientists) before this course
Course Readiness Check:
Our course readiness checks help you determine if you should review key concepts before starting the course.
Please use this link to access the course readiness check and answer key.
Meet your instructors
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee
Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics
Abhijit Banerjee is the winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. He was educated at the University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Harvard University. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at MIT. Banerjee is a past president of the Bureau for Research in the Economic Analysis of Development, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, and has been a Guggenheim Fellow and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. He is the recipient of many awards, including the inaugural Infosys Prize in 2009, and has been an honorary advisor to many organizations including the World Bank and the government of India.
