TEACHING COMPANION / NO ACCOUNT NEEDED
Why Here? The Prosperity Puzzle
Why are some countries rich and others poor?
Economic development, institutions & geography · 50–65 min
Learning goals
- Compare GDP per person with institutional and geographic measures while respecting uncertainty and sample limits.
- Use historical and health research to examine explanations while keeping populations, periods and outcomes distinct.
- Build a scoped hypothesis and possible mechanism, develop a credible rival, and propose evidence that could distinguish them.
- Defend a conditional action, consider political obstacles and well-being, and explain what changed or survived from an initial prediction.
For Class means Full.
Complete the required activity and its final report action before assignment printing or downloads. Core and Full length choices, where offered, belong to For Fun. Progress backups remain available at every stage.
Before the activity
No advance reading or economics background required. Country records, research summaries and definitions are supplied. For Class uses the Full route; For Fun offers Core or Full with optional writing.
Syllabus description
Start with your best explanation of prosperity. Compare twelve countries, keep the case that makes your idea uncomfortable, and test it against historical reversals and malaria research. Build a rival explanation and decide what evidence could change your mind. Students produce an evidence-based explanation with a country comparison, saved sample check, proposed pathway, rival and test.
Discussion prompts
- Which country made your starting explanation harder to defend, and why?
- What did your saved omission check change, and what could it never establish?
- Which proposed connection is best supported, most complicated or still unresolved?
- Could your explanation and its rival produce the same observation? What further evidence would help?
- Who might experience prosperity differently from the national average?
What to assess
Assess the claim and scope, an intermediate process, relevant numerical and research evidence, honest limits, a credible rival and meaningful next test, a conditional action with obstacles and distributional implications, and evidence-based reconsideration. Different substantive positions can be defensible. Software checks recorded components and minimum writing, not the quality of the argument.
Limitations
The twelve-country sample is purposive, not globally representative. GDP per person is an output average, not household income or equality. Country associations are not causal estimates. The historical and malaria records retain their own dates, populations and outcomes; neither yields a share of present-day national income gaps. Cover art is a conceptual invented landscape.
Credit & permissions
Created by Yoav Duman. Free educational use, sharing and hosted embedding; software rights reserved. Software, artwork, branding and third-party materials are separate; see the full reuse information.
Suggested citation: Yoav Duman, “Why Here? The Prosperity Puzzle: Teaching companion,” Possible States, https://possiblestates.com/teaching/why-here. Include your access date.
ASSESSMENT & SUBMISSION
Grade the explanation.
The interface has no opinion.
Set an endpoint, ask for the activity’s readable report, and use your existing LMS. Students can use Print / Save as PDF where a separate download is not offered. A progress backup is for restoring work, not grading it.
A suggested 10-point rubric
For each criterion: 0 = absent, 1 = partial, 2 = clear and supported. Adapt the weighting to your course; this is guidance, not automatic scoring.
- Concepts / 2
- Use the relevant political concept accurately.
- Evidence / 2
- Support a claim with a specific record or comparison.
- Mechanism / 2
- Explain how the rule or arrangement produces a consequence.
- Revision / 2
- Address a rival account or explain a change of mind.
- Limits / 2
- State what the model or evidence cannot establish.
Say this before they begin.
- Choose For class and follow the instructor’s endpoint.
- Save a progress backup before moving devices or changing website address.
- Open the readable report and check the required responses.
- Upload it to the course assignment. Check the LMS submission confirmation.
Switching from exploration keeps the current work, but skipped class responses may still need completing. A local report cannot establish authorship or make an activity tamper-proof.
Prepare an assignment to share.
Edit this text, then copy it into Canvas or your course website. These edits stay in this tab.
Syllabus description & discussion prompts
Syllabus description
Start with your best explanation of prosperity. Compare twelve countries, keep the case that makes your idea uncomfortable, and test it against historical reversals and malaria research. Build a rival explanation and decide what evidence could change your mind. Students produce an evidence-based explanation with a country comparison, saved sample check, proposed pathway, rival and test.
Questions for a discussion board or class debrief
- Which country made your starting explanation harder to defend, and why?
- What did your saved omission check change, and what could it never establish?
- Which proposed connection is best supported, most complicated or still unresolved?
- Could your explanation and its rival produce the same observation? What further evidence would help?
- Who might experience prosperity differently from the national average?