In June 2017, I gave this presentation on economic development to a group of middle schoolers.

1. Economic Development
David Evans
June 21, 2017

2. Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

3. Butoyi family
Burundi
5 people at
$27/month
[8 school lunches]
Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

4. Callo Ocoro
family
Colombia
6 people at
$163/month
[50 school lunches]
Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

5. Gada family
India
3 people at
$466/month
[143 school lunches]
Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

6. Sdambulyak
family
Ukraine
5 people at
$10,090/month
[3,104 school lunches]
Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

7. How many extremely poor people are in the world?
($1.90 per day)
A. 40 million
B. 400 million
C. 700 million
D. 1.5 billion
Source: Cruz et al. 2015

8. How many extremely poor people are in the world?
($1.90 per day)
A. 40 million
B. 400 million
C. 700 million
D. 1.5 billion
Source: Cruz et al. 2015

10. Is life getting better or worse over time?
Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

11. Source: Free materials from www.gapminder.org

12. Where is life toughest?

13. Development economics
• Macro: Why are some countries rich and others
poor
• Micro: How can poor families get out of poverty?

14. Economicgrowth

15. • Produce things to trade
• Produce those things more efficiently
• “Institutions”
• Easy to produce things
• Peace
• Human capital: Better education and health
What makes countries grow?

16. Economicgrowth

17. The World Bank’s goal
• Encourage growth
• End extreme poverty

18. Education matters!
Source: Hanushek et al. 2008

19. Source: Early Grade Reading Barometer

20. What do I do?
• Help governments figure out if an anti-poverty
program works
• Will giving out cash help people invest in their
children in Tanzania?
• Will providing textbooks improve learning in Sierra
Leone?
• How can we make health better in rural Nigeria?

21. How do you get there?
Economics
Middle school
High school
College
Master’s Degree
PhD in Economics
Who else works in
development?
Engineers
Doctors
Business experts
Educators
Lawyers
…