Question 1: How does Owen Barder define development? How does this extend Amartya Sen’s definition to include the idea of complexity?
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Question 2: Who was Thomas Thwaites and what was his “toaster project”? Was he successful? What is the significance of this example in the context of Barder’s talk about complexity and development?
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Question 3: Barder compared the economic growth of South Korea and Ghana between 1960 and 2010. Why was this example instructive as part of his talk? What did this comparison demonstrate when used as a basis to validate (or invalidate) economic models?
In 1960 both countries had similar average incomes, but in the 70’s Korea grew at a fast pace while Ghana’s average income barely changed. Showing development cannot be reduced to a statistic, but determining what caused the growth in Korea could lead to the replication of development. Amartya Sen would propose development relies on the development of freedoms, not economies.
Question 4: What was the Harrod-Domar model? What are the two fundamental variables in this model? Who was Walter Rostow and what the impact of his work on development? Was the Harrod-Domar model effective at predicting development outcomes?
The Harrod-Domar model is a method of determining economic growth. It relies on evaluating output by considering both factors of labor and capital. Was introduced shortly after World War II, and would be proven inaccurate. Walter Rostow extended the previous model by replacing labor with evaluations of income, growth, savings, and investment, but this was still unable to describe the complexity of economic growth. Unfortunately, this model was used to predict foreign aid, and reduced development to a dollar value which obfuscates human beings.
Question 5: What was the Robert Solow model and how did it address the limitations of the Harrod-Domar model? Was this model successful as predicting economic growth?
Robert Solow’s model addressed the limitations of previous work by introducing “technical change”. This allowed the model to fit current development data, but it failed to produce accurate predictions. A serious problem, because the inaccurate models were being used to determine foreign aid from institutions such as the World Bank. To address this the World Bank proposed the Washington Consensus.
Question 6: What was the Washington Consensus? How did it propose to improve upon models of economic growth?
The Washington Consensus was a list of measures to counter the potential of high corruption in developing nations, because corruption was thought to cause the difference between Solow’s model and measured results. Some examples of changes include introducing fiscal discipline, trade liberalisation, etc. A more free market did lead to development in poorer countries.
Question 7: What was the Ajaokuta Steel Works? How did it illustrate the transition from a focus on policies to institutions. How productive has the Nigerian steel works proven to be?
Question 8: Who was Haile Sellasie? What is the significance of Kapuscinski’s book the Emperor? How did Ethiopia exemplify the suppression of emergent systemic change? Do you agree with Barder’s interpretation?
Question 9: Who was Steve Jones? What did he do at Uni-Lever? Was he successful? How significant were his results?
Question 10: What is the significance of Schumpeter’s idea of creative destructive? How does it relate to firms and industries?
Question 11: Why does Barder recommend resisting engineering as a policy implication? Does he suggest a different approach? What did he mean by his use of the term, iso-morphic mimicry?
Question 12: What did Barder mean by “resist fatalism”? Who was Norman Borlaug and what is the green revolution?
How can data science hlep us to better understand human development? What role does complecity play in advancing this better understandt?