Development

15 lessons in this hub.

Learn why developing-country debt crises recur, how HIPC and other relief works, and the new dangers in today's debt landscape.

Learn the four-stage model of population change, the demographic dividend, and what aging means for economies worldwide.

Learn the field devoted to understanding why some countries prosper while others stagnate — and what can be done about it.

Examine the debates over foreign aid — its forms, the macro evidence, micro successes, and how aid is changing.

Learn to compute and interpret the Gini coefficient — the world's most-used inequality statistic — and understand its strengths and limits.

Learn how the HDI combines health, education, and income into the most famous alternative to GDP — and what it reveals.

Learn how economists measure inequality — Gini, income shares, wealth gaps — and what drives it within and between countries.

Understand the vast informal sector — street vendors, unregistered firms — why it persists, and whether formalization helps.

Learn how microcredit works — group lending, the Grameen story — and what rigorous evidence says about its real impact.

Learn how the MDGs focused global development effort (2000–2015), what they achieved, and the lessons for the SDGs.

Learn how economists define and measure poverty, why it persists, and what the evidence says actually reduces it.

Learn how the $800B+ migrants send home works — its development impact, costs, and why it beats aid in many ways.

Learn the economics behind the 17 SDGs — financing the trillions needed, trade-offs between goals, and how progress is measured.

Learn the economics of sustainability — externalities, the SDGs, green growth debates, and how to value the future.

Learn why people flood into cities, how agglomeration drives productivity, and the challenges of slums, congestion, and urban policy.