This course critically examines fundamental concepts and theories of economic development, and traces how policy thinking about the development process has evolved over time. Changing global economic trends and new findings from extensive empirical research over the past two decades have posed several new challenges to our understanding of how regions develop, change, and grow. We will use directed readings, policy debates, and case materials to examine how our current thinking about key development problems—such as economic growth, employment, competitiveness, industrial upgrading, skill formation, the organization of work, and institutional arrangements that sustain innovative development processes—has changed in light of the new global challenges.