Development as Freedom

Amartya Sen

Amartya SenAmartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until 2004 the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is also Senior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Earlier on he was Professor of Economics at Jadavpur University Calcutta, the Delhi School of Economics, and the London School of Economics, and Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University.

He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 largely for the work summarized in “Development as Freedom”

The “Received View” of famine causation

• Famines are commonly seen as caused primarily by a lack of available food.– Triggered by

The “Received View” of famine causation

• Famines are commonly seen as caused primarily by a lack of available food.– Triggered by Natural Disasters,

The “Received View” of famine causation

• Famines are commonly seen as caused primarily by a lack of available food.– Triggered by Natural Disasters, Droughts or other

Crop Failures,

The “Received View” of famine causation

• Famines are commonly seen as caused primarily by a lack of available food.– Triggered by Natural Disasters, Droughts or other

Crop Failures, Plant or Animal Diseases.

The “Received View” of famine causation

• Famines are commonly seen as caused primarily by a lack of available food.– Triggered by Natural Disasters, Droughts or other

Crop Failures, Plant or Animal Diseases. – The main risk factor is overpopulation.

Theme: Skepticism

• Skepticism isn’t doubt for the sake of doubt, it’s a systematic doubt that is motivated by the realization that if our basic assumptions are not correct, then what we base on those assumptions will not be correct either.

Bonus Theme: The Making of the Current World

• Many of the notions that we currently view as obvious had to be argued for.

• These arguments often came from philosophers, largely during the Modern Period.

Thomas Malthus

Much of the Received View of famine causation is called “Malthusian” after the influential writings of Malthus.

Malthus famously argued that the British Empire should simply let the Irish starve during the “Potato Famines”. Aside from ethnic prejudice, here’s why:

Malthusian Population Theory

• Populations increase exponentially (“geometrically” in Malthusian terms)

• This is represented by the curving green line

Malthusian Population Theory

• Farmable land increases “arithmetically”, only by adding new farmland.

• This is represented by the straight orange line.

Malthusian Population Theory

• When population exceeds the “carrying capacity” of the natural resources, people die.

• This is represented by the location where the population line crosses the farmland line.

Crookes’ Challenge

• In 1898, Sir William Crookes, a Chemist, identified fixed Nitrogen as the crucial resource without which the world could not make enough food for the projected population (and he was very likely correct). Here’s what changed everything:

Nitrogen

Atmospheric Nitrogen“Fixed” nitrogen (in the form of ammonia)

Fritz Haber and Karl Bosch

The Haber Bosch Process

Effect of the Haber Bosch Process

Theme: Solutions Create Problems

• Among the less-good by-products of the Haber-Bosch process are fossil fuel dependence, nitrate pollution, and lack of biodiversity.

Theme: There’s always more…

• Complexity in philosophy is fractal. Each piece of a complex idea is itself complex.

Back to Sen and Famine Causation

• Key Concepts: – Entitlements: The ability of an individual to

acquire ownership of food. “People suffer from hunger when they cannot establish their entitlement over an adequate amount of food.” (162)

Back to Sen and Famine Causation

• Key Concepts: – Entitlements: The ability of an individual to

acquire ownership of food. “People suffer from hunger when they cannot establish their entitlement over an adequate amount of food.” (162)

– Endowments: The resources people have at their command to acquire entitlements

Back to Sen and Famine Causation

• Key Concepts: – Entitlements: The ability of an individual to

acquire ownership of food. “People suffer from hunger when they cannot establish their entitlement over an adequate amount of food.” (162)

– Endowments: The resources people have at their command to acquire entitlements

– Exchange conditions: The ability to buy and sell goods and the relative prices of those goods

Bangladesh 1974:

• This was one of the worst famines of the later 20th century.

• This famine occurred during peak food availability. That is, more food was available, per capita, in 1974 Bangladesh than in any other year between 1971 and 1976.

Bangladesh 1974:

• This was one of the worst famines of the later 20th century.

• This famine occurred during peak food availability. That is, more food was available, per capita, in 1974 Bangladesh than in any other year between 1971 and 1976.

• Why famine then?

Irish “Potato Famines” of the 1840s

Irish “Potato Famines” of the 1840s

• Ireland has not yet recovered from the death and emigration sparked by the famines of the 1840s.

Irish “Potato Famines” of the 1840s

• Ireland has not yet recovered from the death and emigration sparked by the famines of the 1840s.

• Yet, Ireland exported food during these famines.

The real causes of Famines

• In Bengal, a series of floods disrupted the transportation of rice crops. As a result, the large number of people whose incomes depended on transporting the crop lost their ability to buy the crop, despite its availability. Hoarding and gouging made the problem worse.

• In Ireland, crop diseases caused everyone whose livelihood depended on the crops to lose the ability to buy food, despite its widespread availability in the British Empire.

Risk Factors for Famine

• Social and Political alienation

Risk Factors for Famine

• Social and Political alienation

• Poverty

Risk Factors for Famine

• Social and Political alienation

• Poverty• Economic Indiversity

Risk Factors for Famine

• Social and Political alienation

• Poverty• Economic Indiversity• Poor Institutional

Technologies

Preventing Famine

• Economic Development– Employment options and policies– More extensive trade of goods and services

Preventing Famine

• Economic Development– Employment options and policies– More extensive trade of goods and services

• Political Reform– Safety nets– Economic and political infrastructure

Preventing Famine

• Economic Development– Employment options and policies– More extensive trade of goods and services

• Political Reform– Safety nets– Economic and political infrastructure

• Democratization– Accountability and responsiveness of

governmental structures