2. Measuring Development - Readings

Updated Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Recommended Readings:

• Sen (1988), “The Concept of Development”
• Boettke and Subrick (2003), “Rule of Law, Development, and Human Capabilities”
• TED Talk: Hans Rosling on the Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen
• BBC: Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes
• TED Talk: Hans Rosling on the Magic Washing Machine

We will not have a discussion on these readings for this lesson. However, they may come up in future discussions and provide a good framework for understanding development going forward.

Amartya Sen’s “capabilities approach” to “development as freedom” is a good way to think about economic development beyond just GDP numbers. The reading summarizes his views that are famously expounded in a larger book (Development as Freedom).

Boettke and Subrick’s paper shows (with some modest econometrics) that capabilities are strongly affected by economic development, so GDP numbers remain a great tool.

I highly recommend you watch all of Hans Rosling’s videos. They are amazing.