answer to discussions question of chapter 1 of Development economics

1. Why is economics central to an understanding of the problems of development?

I think because the development of a country depends upon economic factors and so you can only understand how a country is developing if you know about how the economic factors are and how the factors change. Many problems of development stem from a lack of money and economics is all about money so the two areas of development and economics are related. Problems of development are like not having enough money, which means too much poverty and high unemployment rates and these aspects of the problems are central issues in economics and so economics teaches us about problems in development and so we can better understand these problems principally by looking at economic factors that define the problems. Its mainly money at the centre of economic problems or a lack of money and so it is effected largely by how money is distributed among people and for what purposes money uses which are central issues in economics. I suppose you can’t understand unemployment as well as an economist understands unemployment because economists look at unemployment all the time and pay very close attention to it so economists are very good at understanding economic development problems for this reason and probably other reasons. Furthermore economics is a social science and is concerned with people and economic development problems also stem from people so these fields are related and understanding the one helps you better understand the other because you can build up a bigger picture.

3. What do you hope to gain from this course on development economics? I courage to gain more knowledge of the resources available from our Region, as well as the State, for improving our communities

through job growth. I also look forward to networking with local professionals who are working toward the same goal of promoting our Region. I am excited about this leadership program and appreciate the opportunity.

5. Why is an understanding of development crucial to policy formulation in developing nations? Do you think it is possible for a nation to agree on a rough definition of development and orient its strategies accordingly? The word "development" has a number of meanings. Depending on which meaning one adopts, there are a number of policy issues which could be adopted to achieve the goal. First, one must ask "development for whom." If a country only wishes to secure development for the wealthiest members of its society, then it may spend a great deal for nothing more than law enforcement and projects in politically connected parts of the country. If a state wants to gain broad based development, then you should pursue programs of public health, education, microfinance, etc. Is it possible for an entire nation to agree 100% on development? Nope. It's impossible to get an entire group to agree on anything political! That being said, it isn't that hard to get the leaders of a country to agree on a program.

6. Why is a strictly economic definition of development inadequate? What do you understand economic development to mean? Can you give hypothetical or real examples of situations in which a country may be developing economically but still be underdeveloped?

Economic development is overall improvement of living standards. Hence it is much more complex than economic growth which is basically increase in real GDP. Economic development would take health conditions, education, security, infrustracture etc into account. While increase in GDP may help achieve the means to these developments, it doesn't mean it will. For instance I'd say Turkey is economically doing well, there is definitely economic growth however there are many journalists arrested for being opposed to the government, there is high level of corruption evident from the recent events. So I'd say increase in GDP does not reflect the development.

7. How does the concept of “capabilities to function”  help us gain insight into development goals and achievements? Is money enough? Why or why not? I would like to explain this answer with an example. Suppose that a person has a bike and does not know how to drive it. its means his functions abilities are very low. Amartiya Sen wants to tell us that we should use the commodities by knowing all the functions related to it.As Amartya Sen said, "Economic growth cannot be sensibly treated as an end in itself. Development has to be more concerned with enhancing the lives we lead and the freedom we enjoy.and in the next question, money is really not enough. Freedom and self-esteem and equality to lead life and enjoy life and use the life in the best way is also a part of development.Money is enough only to enhance the freedom of choice but not the development. In development, your function abilities should be increases as much as possible.