The Challenge of World Poverty

Lecture Notes

LEC #	Topics
Introduction
1	Introduction (PDF) Letter Exercise Students completed an in-class exercsie where they given one of two letters (below) asking for donations to Save the Children; one was a general letter, the other featured a girl named Rokia. They were then asked if they would donate money to the organization. At the end of class, they determined which letter was more effective in raising money.  General Letter (PDF) Rokia Letter (PDF)
2	What is a poverty trap? (PDF)
3	Social experiments: Why and how? (PDF - 2.7MB)
Food
4	The nature of famine (No slides available)
5	Is there a nutrition-based poverty trap? (PDF - 1.2MB)
6	The hidden traps (PDF)
Health
7	Delivering healthcare: A case study from India (No slides available)
8	Health: Low hanging fruit (PDF)
Education
9	Education: Setting the stage (PDF)
10	Is it possible to deliver quality education to the poor: The Pratham-JPAL Partnership (PDF)
11	Education: The man made trap (PDF)
Family
12	(Somewhat) un-orthodox findings on the family (PDF)
13	How do families decide? (PDF - 1.1MB)
14	Gender discrimination (PDF)
Risk and Insurance
15	Risk and insurance (PDF)
16	Insurance (PDF)
Credit
17	The (not so simple) economics of lending to the poor (PDF)
18	The (not so simple) economics of lending to the poor (cont.) (Slides unavailable)
Savings
19	The promise and perils of microfinance (PDF)
20	Savings (PDF)
21	Savings 2 (PDF)
Entrepreneurship
22	Entrepreneurs and workers (PDF)
23	Entrepreneurs and workers (cont.) (Slides unavailable)
Political Economy
24	Policies, politics: Can evidence play a role in the fight against poverty? (PDF)
25	Policies, politics: Can evidence play a role in the fight against poverty? (PDF - 1.3MB) (cont.)
26	Five thoughts in place of a sweeping conclusion (PDF)