Poverty Reduction and Social Policies in Developing Countries
90-702
Units: 6
Description
Poverty and inequality are not just socioeconomic problems, but critical political and policy problems and these problems do not have easy solutions. This class attempts to tackle some of these complex problems by looking at poverty, inequality and the social and economic policies designed to ameliorate these problems in the selected Asian and Latin American countries.
The focus here will be on the role that governments play in the generation of policy responses to poverty and inequality in the form of job creation and non-traditional social policies such as Conditional Cash Transfers, which originated in Mexico and are widely applied in many Middle- Income countries, Microfinancing, which is widely popular throughout Africa and South Asia and Universal Basic Income, which has been selectively applied in a number of places. Lastly, the course will examine behavioral approaches with a focus on nutrition, health, and education.
The class is structured around lectures, class discussions and student presentations.