We create a framework for understanding the role of hope and aspirations in economic development and give preliminary experimental results from a field project in Oaxaca, Mexico carried out in this framework. We review the literature on hope from philosophy, theology, psychology, and its relationship to emerging work on aspirations in development economics. We create an economic model of hope based on recent psychology literature that understands hope as a function of aspirations, agency, and pathways. Our model illustrates the role hope can play in the realization of positive effects from development interventions and how these effects emerge from interactions with the three constituent elements of hope.