Development economics
Encyclopedia
Development Economics is a branch of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...

 and structural change
Structural change
Structural change of an economy refers to a long-term widespread change of the fundamental structure, rather than microscale or short-term output and employment. For example, a subsistence economy is transformed into a manufacturing economy, or a regulated mixed economy is liberalized...

 but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example, through health and education and workplace conditions, whether through public or private channels.

Development economics involves the creation of theories and methods that aid in the determination of policies and practices and can be implemented at either the domestic or international level. This may involve restructuring market incentives or using mathematical methods like inter-temporal optimization
Optimization (mathematics)
In mathematics, computational science, or management science, mathematical optimization refers to the selection of a best element from some set of available alternatives....

 for project analysis, or it may involve a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods.

Unlike in many other fields of economics, approaches in development economics may incorporate social and political factors to devise particular plans. Also unlike many other fields of economics, there is "no consensus" on what students should know. Different approaches may consider the factors that contribute to economic convergence
Catch-up effect
The idea of convergence in economics is the hypothesis that poorer economies' per capita incomes will tend to grow at faster rates than richer economies. As a result, all economies should eventually converge in terms of per capita income...

 or non-convergence across households, regions, and countries.

Mercantilism

The earliest ancient Western theory of development economics was mercantilism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...

, which developed in the 17th century, paralleling the rise of the nation state. Earlier theories had given little attention to development. For example, Scholasticism
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...

 the dominant school of thought during medieval feudalism, emphasized reconciliation with Christian theology and ethics, rather than development. The 16th and 17th century School of Salamanca
School of Salamanca
The School of Salamanca is the renaissance of thought in diverse intellectual areas by Spanish and Portuguese theologians, rooted in the intellectual and pedagogical work of Francisco de Vitoria...

, credited as the earliest modern school of economics, likewise did not address development specifically.

Major European nations in the 17th and 18th century all adopted mercantilist ideals to varying degrees, the influence only ebbing with the 18th century development of physiocrats
Physiocrats
Physiocracy is an economic theory developed by the Physiocrats, a group of economists who believed that the wealth of nations was derived solely from the value of "land agriculture" or "land development." Their theories originated in France and were most popular during the second half of the 18th...

 in France and classical economics
Classical economics
Classical economics is widely regarded as the first modern school of economic thought. Its major developers include Adam Smith, Jean-Baptiste Say, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus and John Stuart Mill....

 in Britain. Mercantilism held that a nation's prosperity depended on its supply of capital, represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state. It emphasised the maintenance of a high positive trade balance (maximising exports and minimising imports) as a means of accumulating this bullion. To achieve a positive trade balance, protectionist measures such as tariffs and subsidies to home industries were advocated. Mercantilist development theory also advocated colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...

.

Theorists most associated with mercantilism include Philipp Wilhelm von Hornick, who in his Austria Over All, If She Only Will of 1684 gave the only comprehensive statement of mercantilist theory, emphasizing production and an export-led economy.
In France, mercantilist policy is most associated with 17th century finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

, whose policies proved influential in later American development.

Mercantilist ideas continue in the theories of economic nationalism
Economic nationalism
Economic nationalism is a term used to describe policies which emphasize domestic control of the economy, labor and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital. It opposes globalization in many cases, or at...

 and neomercantilism
Neomercantilism
Neomercantilism is a term used to describe a policy regime which encourages exports, discourages imports, controls capital movement and centralizes currency decisions in the hands of a central government...

.

Economic nationalism


Following mercantilism was the related theory of economic nationalism
Economic nationalism
Economic nationalism is a term used to describe policies which emphasize domestic control of the economy, labor and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital. It opposes globalization in many cases, or at...

, promulgated in the 19th century related to the development and industrialization of the United States and Germany, notably in the policies of the American System
American School (economics)
The American School, also known as "National System", represents three different yet related constructs in politics, policy and philosophy. It was the American policy for the 1860s to the 1940s, waxing and waning in actual degrees and details of implementation...

 in America and the Zollverein
Zollverein
thumb|upright=1.2|The German Zollverein 1834–1919blue = Prussia in 1834 grey= Included region until 1866yellow= Excluded after 1866red = Borders of the German Union of 1828 pink= Relevant others until 1834...

 (customs union) in Germany. A significant difference from mercantilism was the deemphasis on colonies, in favor of a focus on domestic production.

The names most associated with 19th century economic nationalism are the American Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was a Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury...

, the German-American Friedrich List
Friedrich List
Georg Friedrich List was a leading 19th century German economist who developed the "National System" or what some would call today the National System of Innovation...

, and the American Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...

. Hamilton's 1791 Report on Manufactures
Report on Manufactures
The Report on Manufactures is the third report, and magnum opus, of American Founding Father and 1st U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton...

,
his magnum opus, is the founding text of the American System, and drew from the mercantilist economies of Britain under Elizabeth I and France under Colbert. List's 1841 Das Nationale System der Politischen Ökonomie (translated into English as The National System of Political Economy), which emphasized stages of growth, proved influential in the US and Germany, and nationalist policies were pursued by politician Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...

, and later by Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

, under the influence of economist Henry Charles Carey
Henry Charles Carey
Henry Charles Carey , a leading 19th century economist of the American School of capitalism. He is now best known for the book The Harmony of Interests, to compare and contrast what he called the "British System" of laissez faire free trade capitalism with the "American System" of developmental...

.

Forms of economic nationalism and neomercantilism have also been key in Japan's development in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the more recent development of the Four Asian Tigers (Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore), and, most significantly, China.

Post-WWII theories

The origins of modern development economics are often traced to the need for, and likely problems with the industrialization of eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War II. The key authors are Paul Rosenstein-Rodan
Paul Rosenstein-Rodan
Paul Narcyz Rosenstein-Rodan was an Austrian economists of Polish-Jewish origin born in Kraków, who was trained in the Austrian tradition under Hans Mayer in Vienna...

, Kurt Mandelbaum
Kurt Mandelbaum
Kurt Mandelbaum was an economist well known for his pioneering contribution in the field of the economics of development.Kurt Mandelbaum was one of a group of emigre economists from Central Europe who played a large role in founding the discipline of development economics in the UK, during and...

, Ragnar Nurkse
Ragnar Nurkse
Ragnar Nurkse was an Estonian international economist and policy maker mainly in the fields of international finance and economic development.-Life:...

, and Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer
Hans Singer
Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer was a development economist best known for the Singer-Prebisch thesis, which states that the terms of trade move against producers of primary products. He is one of the primary figures of heterodox economics.-Biography:Singer was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1910...

. Only after the war did economists turn their concerns towards Asia, Africa and Latin America. At the heart of these studies, by authors such as Simon Kuznets
Simon Kuznets
Simon Smith Kuznets was a Russian American economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who won the 1971 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences "for his empirically founded interpretation of economic growth which has led to new and deepened insight into the economic and...

 and W. Arthur Lewis was an analysis of not only economic growth but also structural transformation.

Linear-stages-of-growth model

An early theory of development economics, the linear-stages-of-growth model was first formulated in the 1950s by W. W. Rostow
Walt Whitman Rostow
Walt Whitman Rostow was a United States economist and political theorist who served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to U.S. President Lyndon B...

 in The Stages of Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, following work of Marx and List. This theory modifies Marx's stages theory of development and focuses on the accelerated accumulation of capital, through the utilization of both domestic and international savings as a means of spurring investment, as the primary means of promoting economic growth and, thus, development. The linear-stages-of-growth model posits that there are a series of five consecutive stages of development which all countries must go through during the process of development. These stages are "the traditional society, the pre-conditions for take-off, the take-off, the drive to maturity, and the age of high mass-consumption" Simple versions of the Harrod–Domar model provide a mathematical illustration of the argument that improved capital investment leads to greater economic growth.

Such theories have been criticized for not recognizing that, while necessary, capital accumulation
Capital accumulation
The accumulation of capital refers to the gathering or amassing of objects of value; the increase in wealth through concentration; or the creation of wealth. Capital is money or a financial asset invested for the purpose of making more money...

 is not a sufficient condition for development. That is to say that this early and simplistic theory failed to account for political, social and institutional obstacles to development. Furthermore, this theory was developed in the early years of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 and was largely derived from the successes of the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...

. This has led to the major criticism that the theory assumes that the conditions found in developing countries are the same as those found in post-WWII Europe.

Structural-change theory

Structural-change theory deals with policies focused on changing the economic structures of developing countries from being composed primarily of subsistence agricultural practices to being a "more modern, more urbanized, and more industrially diverse manufacturing and service economy." There are two major forms of structural-change theory; W. Lewis' two-sector surplus model, which views agrarian societies as consisting of large amounts of surplus labor which can be utilized to spur the development of an urbanized industrial sector, and Hollis Chenery's patterns of development approach, which holds that different countries become wealthy via different trajectories. The pattern that a particular country will follow, in this framework, depends on its size and resources, and potentially other factors including its current income level and comparative advantages relative to other nations. Empirical analysis in this framework studies the "sequential process through which the economic, industrial and institutional structure of an underdeveloped economy is transformed over time to permit new industries to replace traditional agriculture as the engine of economic growth."

Structural-change approaches to development economics have faced criticism for their emphasis on urban development at the expense of rural development which can lead to a substantial rise in inequality between internal regions of a country. The two-sector surplus model, which was developed in the 1950s, has been further criticized for its underlying assumption that predominantly agrarian societies suffer from a surplus of labor. Actual empirical studies have shown that such labor surpluses are only seasonal and drawing such labor to urban areas can result in a collapse of the agricultural sector. The patterns of development approach has been criticized for lacking a theoretical framework.

International dependence theory

International dependence theories
Dependency theory
Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...

 gained prominence in the 1970s as a reaction to the failure of earlier theories to lead to widespread successes in international development
International development
International development or global development is a concept that lacks a universally accepted definition, but it is most used in a holistic and multi-disciplinary context of human development — the development of greater quality of life for humans...

. Unlike earlier theories, international dependence theories have their origins in developing countries and view obstacles to development as being primarily external in nature, rather than internal. These theories view developing countries as being economically and politically dependent on more powerful, developed countries which have an interest in maintaining their dominant position. There are three different, major formulations of international dependence theory; neocolonial dependence theory, the false-paradigm model and the dualistic-dependence model.
The first formulation of international dependence theory, neocolonial dependence theory has its origins in Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 and views the failure of many developing nations to undergo successful development as being the result of the historical development of the international capitalist system.

Neoclassical theory

First gaining prominence with the rise of several conservative governments in the developed world during the 1980s, neoclassical theories represent a radical shift away from International Dependence Theories. Neoclassical theories argue that governments should not intervene in the economy; in other words, these theories are claiming that an unobstructed free market is the best means of inducing rapid and successful development. Competitive free markets unrestrained by excessive government regulation are seen as being able to naturally ensure that the allocation of resources occurs with the greatest efficiency possible and the economic growth is raised and stabilized.

It is important to note that there are several different approaches within the realm of neoclassical theory, each with subtle, but important, differences in their views regarding the extent to which the market should be left unregulated. These different takes on neoclassical theory are the free market approach, public-choice theory, and the market-friendly approach. Of the three, both the free-market approach and public-choice theory contend that the market should be totally free, meaning that any intervention by the government is necessarily bad. Public-choice theory is arguably the more radical of the two with its view, closely associated with libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...

, that governments themselves are rarely good and therefore should be as minimal as possible.

Academic economists have given varied policy advice to governments of developing countries. See for example, Economy of Chile
Economy of Chile
The economy of Chile is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank, and is one of South America's most stable and prosperous nations, leading Latin American nations in human development, competitiveness, income per capita, globalization, economic freedom, and low perception of...

 (Arnold Harberger
Arnold Harberger
Arnold C. Harberger is a United States economist. Harberger's Triangle, widely used in welfare economics, is named after him.-Life:...

), Economic history of Taiwan
Economic history of Taiwan
The recordkeeping and development of the economic history of Taiwan started in the Age of Discovery. In the 17th century, the Europeans realized that Taiwan is located on the strategic cusp between the Far East and Southeast Asia. Two main European empires that competed to colonize it were the...

 (Sho-Chieh Tsiang
Sho-Chieh Tsiang
Sho-Chieh Tsiang is a Chinese-American economist. He was born in China but resided primarily in the United States from 1949 until his death. He also resided in Taiwan in 1948 and in the 1980s.-Biography:...

). Anne Krueger noted in 1996 that success and failure of policy recommendations worldwide had not consistently been incorporated into prevailing academic writings on trade and development.

The market-friendly approach, unlike the other two, is a more recent development and is often associated with the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

. This approach still advocates free markets but recognizes that there are many imperfections in the markets of many developing nations and thus argues that some government intervention is an effective means of fixing such imperfections

Topics of research

Development economics also includes topics such as Third world debt, and the functions of such organisations as the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

 and World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

. In fact, the majority of development economists are employed by, do consulting with, or receive funding from institutions like the IMF and the World Bank. Many such economists are interested in ways of promoting stable and sustainable growth in poor countries and areas, by promoting domestic self reliance and education in some of the lowest income countries in the world. Where economic issues merge with social and political ones, it is referred to as development studies
Development studies
Development studies is a multidisciplinary branch of social science which addresses issues of concern to developing countries. It has historically placed a particular focus on issues related to social and economic development, and its relevance may therefore extend to communities and regions...

.

Growth indicator controversy

Per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP per head) is used by many developmental economists as an approximation of general national well-being. However, these measures are criticized as not measuring economic growth well enough, especially in countries where there is much economic activity that is not part of measured financial transactions (such as housekeeping and self-homebuilding), or where funding is not available for accurate measurements to be made publicly available for other economists to use in their studies (including private and institutional fraud, in some countries).

Even though per-capita GDP as measured can make economic well-being appear smaller than it really is in some developing countries, the discrepancy could be still bigger in a developed country where people may perform outside of financial transactions an even higher-value service than housekeeping or homebuilding as gifts or in their own households, such as counseling, lifestyle coaching, a more valuable home décor service, and time management. Even free choice can be considered to add value to lifestyles without necessarily increasing the financial transaction amounts.

More recent theories of Human Development have begun to see beyond purely financial measures of development, for example with measures such as medical care available, education, equality, and political freedom. One measure used is the Genuine Progress Indicator
Genuine Progress Indicator
The genuine progress indicator is an alternative metric system which is an addition to the national system of accounts that has been suggested to replace, or supplement, gross domestic product as a metric of economic growth...

, which relates strongly to theories of distributive justice
Distributive justice
Distributive justice concerns what some consider to be socially just allocation of goods in a society. A society in which incidental inequalities in outcome do not arise would be considered a society guided by the principles of distributive justice...

. Actual knowledge about what creates growth is largely unproven; however recent advances in econometrics
Econometrics
Econometrics has been defined as "the application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic data" and described as the branch of economics "that aims to give empirical content to economic relations." More precisely, it is "the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on...

 and more accurate measurements in many countries is creating new knowledge by compensating for the effects of variables to determine probable causes out of merely correlational statistics.

Recent developments

The most prominent contemporary development economist is perhaps the Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen
Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...

.

Recent theories revolve around questions about what variables or inputs correlate or affect economic growth the most: elementary, secondary, or higher education, government policy stability, tariffs and subsidies, fair court systems, available infrastructure, availability of medical care, prenatal care and clean water, ease of entry and exit into trade, and equality of income distribution (for example, as indicated by the Gini coefficient
Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper "Variability and Mutability" ....

), and how to advise governments about macroeconomic policies, which include all policies that affect the economy.
Education enables countries to adapt the latest technology and creates an environment for new innovations.

The cause of limited growth and divergence in economic growth lies in the high rate of acceleration of technological change by a small number of developed countries. These countries' acceleration of technology was due to increased incentive structures for mass education which in turn created a framework for the population to create and adapt new innovations and methods. Furthermore, the content of their education was composed of secular schooling that resulted in higher productivity levels and modern economic growth.

Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute
Overseas Development Institute
The Overseas Development Institute is one of the leading independent think tanks on international development and humanitarian issues. Based in London, its mission is "to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement...

 also highlight the importance of using economic growth to improve the human condition, raising people out of poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...

. Despite research showing almost no relation between growth and the achievement of the goals 2 to 7 and statistics showing that during periods of growth poverty levels in some cases have actually risen (e.g. Uganda grew by 2.5% annually between 2000–2003, yet poverty levels rose by 3.8%), researchers at the ODI suggest growth is necessary, but that it must be equitable. This concept of inclusive growth is shared even by key world leaders such as Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...

, who emphasises that:
"Sustained and equitable growth based on dynamic structural economic change is necessary for making substantial progress in reducing poverty. It also enables faster progress towards the other Millennium Development Goals. While economic growth is necessary, it is not sufficient for progress on reducing poverty."

Researchers at the ODI thus emphasise the need to ensure social protection
Social protection
Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute For Social Development, is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people’s well being...

 is extended to allow universal access and that active policy measures are introduced to encourage the private sector to create new jobs as the economy grows (as opposed to jobless growth) and seek to employ people from disadvantaged groups.

Prominent development economists

  • Daron Acemoglu
    Daron Acemoglu
    Kamer Daron Acemoğlu is a Turkish-American economist of Armenian origin. He is currently the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and winner of the 2005 John Bates Clark Medal. He is among the in the world according to IDEAS/RePEc...

    , professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

    , and 2005 Clark Medal
    John Bates Clark Medal
    The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge"...

     winner.
  • Philippe Aghion
    Philippe Aghion
    Philippe Aghion is a French economist. He is Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University, having previously been Professor at University College London, an Official Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and an Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology .His main...

    , professor of economics at Harvard University
    Harvard University
    Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

    , co-authored textbook in economic growth, forwarded Schumpeterian growth
    Schumpeterian growth
    Schumpeterian growth is an economic theory named after the 20th century Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter. Unlike modern economic growth theories, his approach explains growth by innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.-Literature:...

    , and established creative destruction
    Creative destruction
    Creative destruction is a term originally derived from Marxist economic theory which refers to the linked processes of the accumulation and annihilation of wealth under capitalism. These processes were first described in The Communist Manifesto and were expanded in Marx's Grundrisse and "Volume...

     theories mathematically with Peter Howitt (economist)
    Peter Howitt (economist)
    Peter Wilkinson Howitt is a Canadian economist. He is the Lyn Crost Professor of Social Sciences at Brown University. Howitt is a Fellow of the Econometric Society since 1994 and a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada since 1992...

    .
  • Sabina Alkire, Head of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, University of Oxford.
  • Jagdish Bhagwati
    Jagdish Bhagwati
    Jagdish Natwarlal Bhagwati is an Indian-American economist and professor of economics and law at Columbia University. He is well known for his research in international trade and for his advocacy of free trade....

    , a frequent commentator on international trade and noted supporter of free trade
    Free trade
    Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

  • Pranab Bardhan
    Pranab Bardhan
    Pranab Kumar Bardhan is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley . Educated in Presidency College, Kolkata and Cambridge University, England, he had been on the faculty of MIT, Delhi School of Economics, and Indian Statistical Institute, before joining Berkeley...

    , professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley
    University of California, Berkeley
    The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

    , author of texts in both trade and development economics, and editor of the Journal of Development Economics
    Journal of Development Economics
    The Journal of Development Economics is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1974 and is considered the top field journal in development economics....

     from 1985-2003.
  • Peter Thomas Bauer
    Peter Thomas Bauer
    Peter Thomas Bauer, Baron Bauer was a developmental economist. Bauer is best remembered for his opposition to the widely-held notion that the most effective manner to help developing countries advance is through state-controlled foreign aid.- Life :Bauer was born as Péter Tamás Bauer in Budapest,...

    , professor of economics at the London School of Economics
    London School of Economics
    The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

    , author of Dissent on Development.
  • Abhijit Banerjee
    Abhijit Banerjee
    Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee is an Indian economist. He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

    , professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

    .
  • Kaushik Basu
    Kaushik Basu
    Kaushik Basu is an Indian economist who is currently the Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India and is also the C...

    , professor
    Professor
    A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

     of economics at Cornell University
    Cornell University
    Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

     and author of Analytical Development Economics.
  • David E. Bloom
    David E. Bloom
    David E. Bloom is an economist and demographer. He is currently the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography at Harvard University and director of its Program on the Global Demography of Aging. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences...

  • Ha-Joon Chang
    Ha-Joon Chang
    Ha-Joon Chang is one of the leading heterodox economists and institutional economists specialising in development economics...

    , author of Kicking Away the Ladder and Bad Samaritans; Rich Nations, Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World which use historical evidence to critique neoliberal development economics.
  • Paul Collier
    Paul Collier
    Paul Collier, CBE is a Professor of Economics, Director for the Centre for the Study of African Economies at The University of Oxford and Fellow of St Antony's College. From 1998 – 2003 he was the director of the Development Research Group of the World Bank.-Life:Collier is a specialist in...

    , author of The Bottom Billion which attempts to tie together a series of traps to explain the self-fulfilling nature of poverty at the lower end of the development scale.
  • Esther Duflo
    Esther Duflo
    Esther Duflo is a French economist, currently the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also co-founder and the Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab...

    , professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

    , 2009 MacArthur Fellow
    MacArthur Fellows Program
    The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...

    , 2010 Clark Medal
    John Bates Clark Medal
    The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge"...

     winner, advocate for field experiment
    Field experiment
    A field experiment applies the scientific method to experimentally examine an intervention in the real world rather than in the laboratory...

    s.
  • William Easterly
    William Easterly
    William Russell Easterly is an American economist, specializing in economic growth and foreign aid. He is a Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. He is also a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings...

    , author of The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics description and review and White Man's Burden: How the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (description and preview).
  • Celso Furtado
    Celso Furtado
    Celso Monteiro Furtado was an important Brazilian economist and one of the most distinguished intellectuals of his country during the 20th century. His work focuses on development and underdevelopment and on the persistence of poverty in peripheral countries throughout the world...

    , Brazilian structuralist
    Structuralist economics
    Structuralist economics originated with the work of the Economic Commission for Latin America and is primarily associated with its director Raul Prebisch and Brazilian economist Celso Furtado. Key to structuralist analysis is the idea that the structural features of developing economies need to be...

     economist.
  • Oded Galor
    Oded Galor
    -Work:Galor has made significant contributions to the study of income distribution and economic growth, the transition from stagnation to growth, and human evolution and economic development...

    , Israeli-American economist at Brown University
    Brown University
    Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

    ; editor-in-chief of the Journal of Economic Growth
    Journal of Economic Growth
    The Journal of Economic Growth is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering research in economic growth and dynamic macroeconomics. It was established in 1996 and is published by Springer Science+Business Media...

    , the principal journal in economic growth. Developer of the unified growth theory
    Unified growth theory
    Unified growth theory was developed to address the inability of endogenous growth theory to explain key empirical regularities in the growth processes of individual economies and the world economy as a whole. Endogenous growth theory was satisfied with accounting for empirical regularities in the...

    , the newest alternative to theories of endogenous growth.
  • Peter Howitt (economist)
    Peter Howitt (economist)
    Peter Wilkinson Howitt is a Canadian economist. He is the Lyn Crost Professor of Social Sciences at Brown University. Howitt is a Fellow of the Econometric Society since 1994 and a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada since 1992...

    , Canadian economist at Brown University
    Brown University
    Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

    ; past president of the Canadian Economics Association
    Canadian Economics Association
    The Canadian Economics Association is an academic association of Canadian economists. Formerly part of the Canadian Political Science Association, CEA was formed as a separate scientific society in 1967. It currently has over 1,500 members, two thirds of which reside in Canada...

    , introduced the concept of Schumpeterian growth
    Schumpeterian growth
    Schumpeterian growth is an economic theory named after the 20th century Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter. Unlike modern economic growth theories, his approach explains growth by innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.-Literature:...

     and established creative destruction
    Creative destruction
    Creative destruction is a term originally derived from Marxist economic theory which refers to the linked processes of the accumulation and annihilation of wealth under capitalism. These processes were first described in The Communist Manifesto and were expanded in Marx's Grundrisse and "Volume...

     theory mathematically with Philippe Aghion
    Philippe Aghion
    Philippe Aghion is a French economist. He is Robert C. Waggoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University, having previously been Professor at University College London, an Official Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and an Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology .His main...

    .
  • W. Arthur Lewis, with T. W. Schultz
    Theodore Schultz
    Theodore William Schultz was the 1979 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences....

    , winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     in Economics for work in development economics.
  • Justin Yifu Lin
    Justin Yifu Lin
    Justin Yifu Lin , born as Zhengyi Lin, on October 15, 1952, in Yilan, Taiwan, is a Chinese economist and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank.-Career and education:...

    , the current Chief Economist
    World Bank Chief Economist
    The World Bank Chief Economist provides intellectual leadership and direction to the Bank’s overall development strategy and economic research agenda, at global, regional and country levels...

     at the World Bank and has a prominent role in economic development policy
  • Raúl Prebisch
    Raúl Prebisch
    Raúl Prebisch was an Argentine economist known for his contribution to structuralist economics, in particular the Singer–Prebisch thesis that formed the basis of economic dependency theory. He is sometimes considered to be a neo-Marxist though this label is misleading...

    , founding Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
    United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
    The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....

     and influential dependency theorist
    Dependency theory
    Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...

  • Lant Pritchett
    Lant Pritchett
    -Biography:He was born in Utah in 1959 and raised in Boise, Idaho. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1983 with a B.S. in Economics, after serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Argentina...

    , professor at Harvard University
    Harvard University
    Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

    's Kennedy School of Government
    John F. Kennedy School of Government
    The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...

    , and has held several prominent research positions at the World Bank.
  • Dani Rodrik
    Dani Rodrik
    Dani Rodrik is a Turkish economist and Rafiq Hariri Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, teaching in the School's MPA/ID Program. He has published widely in the areas of international economics, economic development, and...

    , professor at Harvard University
    Harvard University
    Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

    's Kennedy School of Government
    John F. Kennedy School of Government
    The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University is a public policy and public administration school, and one of Harvard's graduate and professional schools...

    , has written extensively on globalization.
  • Walt Whitman Rostow
    Walt Whitman Rostow
    Walt Whitman Rostow was a United States economist and political theorist who served as Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to U.S. President Lyndon B...

    , modernization theorist, author of The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-communist Manifesto
  • Jeffrey Sachs
    Jeffrey Sachs
    Jeffrey David Sachs is an American economist and Director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. One of the youngest economics professors in the history of Harvard University, Sachs became known for his role as an adviser to Eastern European and developing country governments in the...

    , author of The End of Poverty
    The End of Poverty
    The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time is a 2005 book by American economist Jeffrey Sachs. It was a New York Times bestseller....

    : Economic Possibilities of Our Time
    (preview) and Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet
  • Amartya Sen
    Amartya Sen
    Amartya Sen, CH is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members...

    , Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     winner, author of Development as Freedom.
  • Hans Singer
    Hans Singer
    Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer was a development economist best known for the Singer-Prebisch thesis, which states that the terms of trade move against producers of primary products. He is one of the primary figures of heterodox economics.-Biography:Singer was born in Elberfeld, Germany in 1910...

    , who dealt with how unequal terms of trade disproportionately affect producers of primary products. His thesis, combined with the work of Raúl Prebisch, form the basis for dependency theory
    Dependency theory
    Dependency theory or dependencia theory is a body of social science theories predicated on the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped states to a "core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former...

  • Hernando de Soto Polar, proponent of property
    Property
    Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...

     rights in the developing world
    Developing country
    A developing country, also known as a less-developed country, is a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries...

    , author of The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
  • Frances Stewart
    Frances Stewart
    Frances Julia Stewart is Professor of Development Economics and Director of the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity , University of Oxford. A pre-eminent development economist, she was named one of fifty outstanding technological leaders for 2003 by Scientific American...

    , current president of the Human Development and Capability Association
    Human Development and Capability Association
    The Human Development and Capability Association was launched in September 2004 at the Fourth Capability Conference in Pavia, Italy. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen was the founding President and remained President until 2006 when Martha Nussbaum became President, succeeded by Frances Stewart in 2008...

    .
  • Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     winner and former chief economist at the World Bank.
  • Lance Taylor is the Arnhold Professor of International Cooperation and Development and Director of the Center for Economic Policy Analysis at the New School, NY. He has published widely in the areas of macroeconomics, development economics, and economic theory. His most recent book is Reconstructing Macroeconomics: Structuralist Proposals and Critiques of the Mainstream (Harvard University Press, 2003). In addition to these activities, he has been a visiting scholar or policy adviser in more than 25 countries, including Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Nicaragua, Cuba, Russia, Egypt, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Pakistan, India, and Thailand.
  • Erik Thorbecke
    Erik Thorbecke
    Erik Thorbecke is a distinguished development economist. He is a co-originator of the widely used Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measure and played a significant role in the development and popularization of Social Accounting Matrix. Currently, he is H. E...

    , a co-originator of Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measure who also played a significant role in the development and popularization of Social Accounting Matrix
    Social accounting matrix
    A Social Accounting Matrix represents flows of all economic transactions that take place within an economy . It is at the core, a matrix representation of the National Accounts for a given country, but can be extended to include non-national accounting flows, and created for whole regions or area...

    .
  • Robert M. Townsend
    Robert M. Townsend
    Robert M. Townsend is an American economist and professor, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to joining MIT, he was the Charles E...

    , professor at MIT known for his Thai Project, a model for many other applied and theoretical projects in economic development.
  • Mahbub ul Haq
    Mahbub ul Haq
    Mahbub ul Haq was an Pakistani economist who is known to be the pioneer of Human development theory and the founder of the Human Development Report...

    , creator of the Human Development Report
    Human Development Report
    The Human Development Report is an annual milestone publication by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme .-History:...

  • David N.Weil, American economist known for his economics growth textbook and his reinterpretation of Malthus.
  • Muhammed Yunus, Nobel Prize
    Nobel Prize
    The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

     winner and founder of the Grameen Bank
    Grameen Bank
    The Grameen Bank is a microfinance organization and community development bank started in Bangladesh that makes small loans to the impoverished without requiring collateral...


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK