The Empirics of Development and Social Change
M 12:20-2:50.
P. Eloundou-Enyegue. Spring.

The purpose of this course is to review, critically discuss, and apply several analytical approaches for measuring and explaining societal change. It is designed to serve as a complement to theories of development and social change. It reviews how researchers can empirically examine the competing claims from contending theories. More broadly, the course examines the empirical record on global change in such development outcomes as inequality, education, food sufficiency, health, women’s status, and the reasons why these outcomes differ across societies and communities. In reviewing this empirical record, we draw from several methodological approaches, both quantitative and qualitative, including case studies, evaluative studies, cross-country or cross community analyses, historical analyses, analyses of individual and household survey data. The insights of weaknesses of these various approaches will be discussed.