Dani Rodrik (Harvard Kennedy School)
First-Year Seminar 73W (Fall Term) 4 credits Enrollment: Limited to 12
CANVAS SITE Monday, 12:45-2:45
NOTE: There will be a required trip to Lowell, MA to visit the Boott Cotton Mills Museum at no cost to the student.
Can we build a global economic order that promotes equity, poverty reduction, and climate sustainability, all at once? How do we alleviate the tensions between domestic equality and global equality? Can we restore the middle class in advanced countries while maintaining an open global economy? Can we achieve the climate transition without adverse effects on economic growth and poverty reduction in poor nations? We will explore these questions in the seminar and build towards practical policy solutions.
The seminar begins with an exploration of basis statistics on economic and environmental performance. Then we will spend some time on the historical evolution of the world economy, tracing policies, institutional arrangements, and outcomes from the Industrial Revolution to the present. We will next examine the backlash to neoliberalism and evolving forms of populism. We will scrutinize alternative strategies for rebuilding the middle class in the advanced economies, fostering rapid poverty reduction in the developing world, and achieving the green transition. Finally, we will turn to the implications of these strategies for the overall global economic system.