 Hi, welcome to econ 366 economic development. This is your first video lecture in this lecture I'm going to introduce the course and introduce the main themes and of discussions under this course Now what is economic development? What are we going to talk about in this course now? Remember? It is a it is not it is a study of economic transformation of material living conditions of people in developing countries But it is not just a study of how to raise their incomes and this is a critical point I want you to understand at the very outset that Rising incomes is extremely important but is not the be all and end all of economic development because as you know incomes are a means to buy things like health care Education and goods and services that one has reason to value But income per se is not the end all go increasing incomes per se cannot be the goal of Development for instance, you can have a situation where people are very rich But there is but they don't have any food to eat because the agriculture in the region has failed and they have no Connections with the outside world and can trade and get food You can also think of a situation where people are extremely poor But the governments in those countries ensure that everybody has access to food Irrespective of their income and therefore you can decide which of these two societies would you consider more just or more equitable? so those are some of the questions that we talk about and that lens of Development is based not just on rising incomes But also on what that income can buy and how that income can be used to give people Reason to value the life that they lead So what are we going to be interested in this course? Obviously? We'll talk about income We'll also talk about you know the quality of life Maybe how many cars do you have or how many holidays do you take in a year? But more importantly questions like life expectancy, how long do people in a given country live? How how does that affect your well-being? Well, of course a longer life needs to a more product Is is an indication of better quality health care and better quality health care in turn? Increases the productivity in your society. Finally, how do how do people? How well or how badly are people educated in the in these societies? How easy is it for people to access education is education? Contingent on your income thereby creating a society where only the rich can afford education or Education is considered as an entitlement or a right whereby everybody Irrespective of their incomes is allowed to access education However, this course will also talk about aspects of inequality Does it only matter that how much you earn and whether that's sufficient to make ends meet for you? Or is it important that how much do you earn? Relative to your neighbor or relative to the average income in your country and then To discuss whether inequality is a good thing or a bad thing and finally we'll talk about not just Equality in incomes or eradication of poverty in the economic sphere, but also questions of political participation How is the country's political life organized? Does everyone has a stake in the economy or the decisions are taken by a small minority of people? But these have huge implications on what policies are undertaken and they are they're also critical in Deciding what trajectory of economic development a given country follows Now just to give you an idea of what South the pioneers in this field thought about Albert Hirschman who you may know it was a leading Figure in development economics. He says the subdiscipline of economic development has gained considerable lost and excitement Through an implicit idea that it would slay the dragon of backwardness Virtually by itself or at least its contribution to this task is central now obviously Hirschman is being You know is being a bit sarcastic here But the idea of why development economics comes into being and what it entails is very well captured by this By this phenomena by this phrase where he says that dragon of backwardness will be slain by development economics Now why can it not be done by economics by itself or any other social science? Because here's a discipline that brings all the findings from other social sciences specifically for the purpose of solving problems of economic backwardness and Well, how successful or unsuccessful it's been is a question that is that's an open question We can continue to debate about it Now this I think is a critical reason why one must study development economics because this paradox Underscores the phenomenon of development better than anything else So I'm quoting Amartya Sen one of Nobel laureate in economics and one of the leading figures and in development studies He says we live in a world of unprecedented Opulence of a kind that would have been even hard to imagine a century or two ago there have also been remarkable changes beyond the economic sphere and yet we also live in a world with Remarkable deprivation destitution and oppression There are many new problems as well as old ones including persistence of poverty and unfulfilled elementary needs occurrence of famines and widespread hunger violation of elementary political freedoms as well as of our basic liberties Extensive neglect of the interests and agency of women and Bursoning threats to our environment and to the sustainability of our economic and social lives Many of these deprivations can be observed in one form or the other in rich countries as well as the poor countries So basically the question is why is it that at a time when we live in a world of? Unprecedented opulence we still have Remarkable deprivation destitution and oppression and that paradox sort of explains the need why We need to go beyond the confines of traditional economic theory to find answers to these relevant questions of Income generation and income distribution which this course aims to do so what are the questions we ask? Basically questions around how can we reduce poverty? How can we provide people with jobs? How can we ensure that people live longer and healthier lives and how can we protect our environment and then there's some even bigger questions? Like why are North America Western Europe and Japan the richest regions in the world? How did East Asia which comprise of South Korea Taiwan Hong Kong in Singapore become so rich in such a short span of time? What is the role of trade for developing economies and how and what role does agriculture pay in economic development and finally? Stuff the major debates that have historically dominated the study of development economics Revolve around what is the role of history? Does your process of colonization? Does the process of institutions that were developed during colonization? Colonizations have an impact on economic development today or whether post-development economies can sort of shrug the yoke of colonization and start a new trajectory after independence The other big question we talk about is what is the role of the state and what is the role of the market? Who what are the limitations of the state and what are the limitations of the markets? who wins when the market decides allocation and who loses and You know what what are what are some of the implicit? Distributional assumptions that are important when we consider the role of the state or the market by which what I mean is Who gains? When the state allocates a basic service like education, right? Versus the same allocation of the same service through the markets now if the state Allocates education there may be a case to be made that Well education can be considered a public good or it can be considered a right for every citizen And therefore irrespective of people's income the state is obliged to provide them education on the other hand a private sector is Responsible for the provision of education then you know the private sector of the market Operates on the principle of profit and therefore only those who can afford a certain fee To make the sector profitable will be allowed access to education and those who cannot will be denied Education now what is what is the what is the outcome of this? Which of these outcomes is superior which is not is something that this course is going to be interested in talking about So these are some of the major debates the purpose of this video lecture is not to Describe the entire presentation of the class but to sort of highlight some of the basic and the salient features of this presentation I would really urge you to look through and carefully read the entire presentation posted posted posted for this week and a Lot of the questions that I've highlighted here will be answered or at least Be addressed in in the remaining of this presentation. So Thank you so much, and I really would request you to to go through the entire presentation in great detail