astronomy

Harvard Institute for International Development

Harvard Institute for International Development is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harvard Institute for International Development rather than just read about it. In short: The Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) was a think tank dedicated to helping nations join the global economy, operating between 1974 and 2000. It was a center within Harvard University, United States.

Key takeaways

Harvard Institute for International Development belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harvard Institute for International Development to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harvard Institute for International Development from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) was a think tank dedicated to helping nations join the global economy, operating between 1974 and 2000. It was a center within Harvard University, United States.

Foundation and leadership The Harvard Institute for International Development originated when Harvard University's Center for International Affairs (CFIA) tried to move away from a controversial role in giving advice on topics such as arms control, foreign aid and development. The CFIA preferred a more academic role of teaching and research. The Ford Foundation and other organizations involved in aid-giving still wanted Harvard to provide hands-on training for their staff. In 1962 the Development Advisory Service was established for this purpose, associated with the CFIA but independent. It was renamed the HIID in 1974. In 1980 the economist Arnold Harberger of the Harvard University was selected as head of the institute. The announcement met with protests from students and staff since Harberger had previously advised the Augusto Pinochet military regime in Chile. He withdrew and Dwight Perkins, an economist and specialist in China, took the job. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economist Jeffrey Sachs became head of the institute.

Development programs The HIID became the umbrella organization for overseas aid and development programs led by the university but funded by the government or foundations. The HIID coordinated development assistance, training, and research on Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The Institute helped developing nations to achieve economic growth and improve their people's welfare. The institute provided staff for various development projects. For example, in the late 1970s David Korten headed a project funded by the Ford Foundation to assist in organization and management of national family-planning programs. In 1991 the HIID launched a program called WorldTeach that sent college student and graduates to schools in developing countries for a one-year assignment. Countries that had requested volunteers were Costa Rica, Ecuador, Namibia, South Africa, Poland, Thailand and China.

Research

The HIID undertook many research projects related to international development. For example, in the early 1980s, the HIID undertook a study of several of Indonesia's national development programs, including grants for village development, schools, family planning and rice yield improvement programs. The programs had been running for some time, but the study uncovered a number of anomalies that were affecting their efficiency. The HIID collaborated with the Women In Development office of USAID in developing the Harvard Analytical Framework, also called the Gender Roles Framework, one of the earliest frameworks for understanding differences between men and women in their participation in the economy. This has great importance in helping policy makers understand the economic case for allocating resources to women as well as men. The framework was described in 1984. In 1987, the International Tropical Timber Organization commissioned HIID to prepare a review of current knowledge of multiple-use management of tropical hardwood forests. Of interest was the potential for non-timber products and services that could assist in sustaining the forests. HIID completed the study in 1988 and issued updated versions in 1990 and 1992. Research published in 1989 described the effects of price controls in emerging economies in creating parallel or black markets. As Ukraine started the transition towards a market economy in the early 1990s, the HIID supported a survey on barter in transition economies. In 1993, the HIID managed an education sector assessment in El Salvador under contract from USAID, the purpose being to obtain reliable information for use in setting a national educational policy. The HIID and the Geneva-based World Economic Forum jointly produced the 1997 Global Competitiveness Report based on a late-1996 survey of 2,827 firms in 53 countries. Among other questions, respondents were asked to say how often they saw evidence of corruption, and the answers were used to rank each country. In mid-1998 the World Economic Forum and HIID assembled a team of experts to determine the causes of the Asian financial crisis and the mechanisms of the crisis, to determine methods of reducing the probability of similar crises in the future and to identify policy changes that would help the affected countries resume growth. In the late 1990s, USAID sponsored the Equity and Growth through Economic Research (EAGER) project, with the HIID commissioning work in eleven African countries. Both public strategies for growth and trade regimes for growth had both been intensively studied in the past, but resulting reforms had met little success. The focus of the EAGER research was to understand why programs had not been sustained, and what could be done to change that. The above are just examples of the many research projects undertaken by the Institute.

Russian aid controversy

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Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harvard Institute for International Development

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harvard Institute for International Development claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harvard Institute for International Development before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harvard Institute for International Development ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harvard Institute for International Development

In research: Harvard Institute for International Development appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harvard Institute for International Development in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harvard Institute for International Development is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1974 establishments in Massachusetts, 2000 disestablishments in Massachusetts, Former research institutes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harvard Institute for International Development outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harvard Institute for International Development in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harvard Institute for International Development means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harvard Institute for International Development out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harvard Institute for International Development in simple terms?

Why does Harvard Institute for International Development matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harvard Institute for International Development?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harvard Institute for International Development.