Development as

Freedom
By: Amartya Sen
 Amartya Sen
 Born in West Bengal, India to Bangladeshi
parents
 Schooled in Calcutta and Cambridge –
economics & philosophy
 Best known for his work on causes for famine &
famine prevention
 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Studies
 “Mother Theresa of Economics”
Let’s Talk About Poverty

 What is poverty?

 What is wealth?

 Why are poor people poor?

 How do we change this?

 “How far would wealth go to get them

what they want?”
 It’s More than Money
 “Wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it
is merely useful and for the sake of something else.” –
Aristotle
 “The usefulness of wealth lies in what we want it to
do.”
 “Development has to be more concerned with
enhancing the lives we lead and the freedoms we
enjoy.”
 Development approach: “a process of expanding
substantive freedoms that people have”
 What is freedom?
 Availability of food, health care, sanitation, clean
water, gender equality, functional
education, employment, social security, political
liberty, & basic civil rights

 “Greater freedom enhances the ability of people to

help themselves and also to influence the world, and
these matters are central to the process of
development.”

 “Functionings”

 Capabilities
 Poverty as Capability
Deprivation
 What affects capability?

 Age, gender & social roles, location, epidemiological

atmosphere, etc.

 Either income deprivation or adversity in converting

income into functionings

 Relative deprivation vs. Absolute deprivation

 Mortality, Inequality, &
Relative Deprivation
 African Americans in the US have lower survival
rates, especially in old age, than much poorer
communities of Kerala, India and China.
 Development & Culture
 Is it better to be “rich & happy” or “impoverished and
traditional”?

 If the traditional way of life has to be sacrificed to

escape grinding poverty or miniscule longevity, the it is
the people directly involved who must have the
opportunity to participate in deciding what should be
chosen.”

 Conflict: value that people should be allowed to

decide freely which traditions to follow vs. established
traditions are always followed
 Economics of Freedom
Development
 From the beginning the study of economics was the
study of freedom expansion

 Economics has shifted more toward

utilities, income, & wealth

 Promotion of an open market

 The market mechanism opens the door for provision

of basic education, the presence of elementary
medical facilities, the availability of resources, and
much more.
 Famines & Other Crises
 “Hunger relates not only to food production and
agricultural expansion, but also to the functioning of
the entire economy…”

 Cause of famine: lack of ability to provide one’s own

food or lack of availability of food in a market setting

 Hunger limits labor assets and production possibilities

 Hunger and fear of hunger can destroy an economy

 Production, diversification, and growth

 Population, Food, &
Freedom
 Population control through public policy

 Empowering women reduces fertility rate

 Why reduce fertility rates?

 Economically and emotionally beneficial for young

women

 “The solution of the population problem calls for more

freedom, not less”
 The Importance of
Democracy
 Economic & political incentives

 “The process of preventing famines and other crises is

significantly helped by the use of instrumental
freedoms…”

 “An adequate approach of development cannot really

be so centered only on those in power…”
 Social Choice &
Individual Behavior
 We have to anticipate the unintended but predictable
consequences – at the end of the day human beings are self-
centered and want to serve themselves primarily

 The success of capitalism has to reach beyond self-

centeredness

 Avoid assumptions: high-minded and low-minded

sentimentality

 “Central to this approach is the idea of the public as an active

participant in change, ather than as a passive and docile
recipient of instructions or of dispensed assistance.”
 Individual Freedom as a
Social Commitment
 A variety of social institutions contribute to the process
of development by enhancing and sustaining
individual freedoms

 There is no “formula” for development

Freedom has a thousand
charms to show,
That slaves, howe’er
contented, never know.
- William Cowper