Capital Fundamentalism Economic Development And Economic Growth

Should our research and policy advice be guided by a modern version of capital fundamentalism, in which capital and investment are viewed as the primary determinants of economic development and long- run growth? No. Capital accumulation seems to be part of the process of economic development, not its igniting source.

In this empirical analysis of the world economy during the past 20 years, two eminent economists put aside the rhetoric surrounding the neoliberal argument and examine what has actually taken place. The book will appeal to students and academics concerned with how globalisation affects poor countries.

This book makes the bold attempt at proposing a new general theory of economic development. The main premise is that economic institutions and policies must embody ‘economic discrimination’ if there is to be any chance of real economic development. By economic discrimination, the author means ‘treating differences differently’ by selecting and supporting economic entities and behaviour that contribute positively to the economy. The book identifies markets, government and corporations as the ‘holy trinity of economic development’, that is, the three most important institutions that must work together via economic discrimination to steer the economy towards real transformative progress. The book also warns against the current trend of economic egalitarianism or ‘not treating differences differently’ because it destroys economic incentives and results in an array of economic problems including growth stagnation.

This immensely readable book by Patrick François provides an original insight into the increasingly fashionable topic that is social capital. In a unique, original study, the author emphasises trustworthiness as a vital feature of social capital and argues that standard economic treatments of this phenomenon are inadequate. The book's richer evolutionary treatment of this is embedded in a neoclassical model and will prove to be essential reading for economic development scholars as well as those interested in development studies and economic thought in general.

Despite significant gains in promoting economic growth and living conditions (or "human progress") globally over the last twenty-five years, much of the developing world remains plagued by poverty and its attendant problems, including high rates of child mortality, illiteracy, environmental degradation, and war. In Growth and Empowerment, Nicholas Stern, Jean-Jacques Dethier, and F. Halsey Rogers propose a new strategy for development. Drawing on many years of work in development economics—in academia, in the field, and at international institutions such as the World Bank—the authors base their strategy on two interrelated approaches: building a climate that encourages investment and growth and at the same time empowering poor people to participate in that growth. This plan differs from other models for development, including the dogmatic approach of market fundamentalism popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Stern, Dethier, and Rogers see economic development as a dynamic process of continuous change in which entrepreneurship, innovation, flexibility, and mobility are crucial components and the idea of empowerment, as both a goal and a driver of development, is central. The book points to the unique opportunity today—after 50 years of successes and failures, and with a growing body of analytical work to draw on—to pursue new development strategies in both research and action.

One of the most influential studies ever written in the field of development economics, this book has, since first publication in 1957, bred a whole school of followers who are producing further works along the lines indicated by Baran. Concerned with the generation and use of economic surplus, it analyzes from this point of view both the advanced and the underdeveloped countries. A work in political economy rather than solely in economics, this book treats the economic transformation of society as one facet of a total social and political evolution.