Development Economics Theory Practice And Prospects

This second edition of Development Economics: Theory and Practice continues to provide students and practitioners with the perspectives and tools they need to think analytically and critically about the current major economic development issues in the world. Alain de Janvry and Elisabeth Sadoulet identify seven key dimensions of development—growth, poverty, vulnerability, inequality, basic needs, sustainability, and quality of life—and use them to structure the contents of the text. The book gives a historical perspective on the evolution of thought in development. It uses theory and empirical analysis to present readers with a full picture of how development works, how its successes and failures can be assessed, and how alternatives can be introduced. The authors demonstrate how diagnostics, design of programs and policies, and impact evaluation can be used to seek new solutions to the suffering and violence caused by development failures. In the second edition, more attention has been given to ongoing developments, such as: pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals continuously rising global and national inequality health as a domestic and international public good cash transfers for social protection carbon trading for sustainability This text is fully engaged with the most cutting-edge research in the field and equips readers with analytical tools for impact evaluation of development programs and policies, illustrated with numerous examples. It is underpinned throughout by a wealth of student-friendly features, including case studies, quantitative problem sets, end-of-chapter questions, and extensive references. Excel and Stata exercises are available as digital supplements for students and instructors. This unique text is ideal for those taking courses in development economics, economic growth, and development policy, and will provide an excellent foundation for those wishing to pursue careers in development.

The effective use of development economic theories in practice is limited, the authors contend, by the lack of explicit criterion for judging their scientific content. The directional progress of critical research and teaching is also constrained by this deficiency. This study advances a meta-theory designed to assist in evaluating the scientific validity of theories in economic development and how these theories can be improved to assist social practice. Using this model, the study then examines existing theories, dividing them into explanatory and prescriptive theories. The explanatory theories include the stage-based theories of Marx, Schumpeter, and Rostow, and factor-based theories, including capital-based, human-capital-based, and technology-based theories. The prescriptive theories include explanatory-theory-based prescriptions, interventionist prescriptive theories, and theories of economic planning. In conclusion, the authors contend that modern analysis of development economics is plagued with logical ills, misleading notions, and a weak theoretical structure that lacks scientific appeal. Most of the theories, except for those of Marx and Schumpeter, neglect an analysis of the mechanism of change.

Following the 2007–2009 financial and economic crises, there has been an unprecedented demand among economics students for an alternative approach, which offers a historical, institutional and multidisciplinary treatment of the discipline. Economic development lends itself ideally to meet this demand, yet most undergraduate textbooks do not reflect this. This book will fill this gap, presenting all the core material needed to teach development economics in a one semester course, while also addressing the need for a new economics and offering flexibility to instructors. Rather than taking the typical approach of organizing by topic, the book uses theories and debates to guide its structure. This will allow students to see different perspectives on key development questions, and therefore to understand more fully the contested nature of many key areas of development economics. The book can be used as a standalone textbook on development economics, or to accompany a more traditional text.

Important parts of development practice, especially in key institutions such as the World Bank, are dominated by economists. In contrast, Development Studies is largely based upon multidisciplinary work in which anthropologists, human geographers, sociologists, and others play important roles. Hence, a tension has arisen between the claims made by Development Economics to be a scientific, measurable discipline prone to wide usage of mathematical modelling, and the more discursive, practice based approach favoured by Development Studies. The aim of this book is to show how the two disciplines have interacted, as well as how they differ. This is crucial in forming an understanding of development work, and to thinking about why policy recommendations can often lead to severe and continuing problems in developing countries. This book introduces Development Economics to those coming from two different but linked perspectives; economists and students of development who are not economists. In both explaining and critiquing Development Economics, the book is able to suggest the implications of these findings for Development Studies, and more broadly, for development policy and its outcomes.

Development Economics: Theory, Empirical Research, and Policy Analysis by Julie Schaffner teaches students to think about development in a way that is disciplined by economic theory, informed by cutting-edge empirical research, and connected in a practical way to contemporary development efforts. It lays out a framework for the study of developing economies that is built on microeconomic foundations and that highlights the importance in development studies of transaction and transportation costs, risk, information problems, institutional rules and norms, and insights from behavioral economics. It then presents a systematic approach to policy analysis and applies the approach to policies from around the world, in the areas of targeted transfers, workfare, agricultural markets, infrastructure, education, agricultural technology, microfinance, and health.

This Handbook responds to the needs and aspirations of current and future generations of development economists by providing critical reference material alongside or in relation to mainstream propositions. Despite the potential of globalisation in accelerating growth and development in low and middle-income countries through the spread of technology, knowledge and information, its current practice in many parts of the world has led to processes that are socially, economically and politically and ecologically unsustainable. It is critical for development economists to engage with the pivotal question of how to change the nature and course of globalisation to make it work for inclusive and sustainable development. Applying a critical and pluralistic approach, the chapters in this Handbook examine economics of development paths under globalisation, focusing on sustainable development in social, environmental, institutional and political economy dimensions. It aims at advancing the frontier of development economics in these key aspects and generating more refined policy perspectives. It is critically reflective in examining effects of globalisation on development paths to date, and in terms of methodological and analytical approaches, as well as forward-thinking in policy perspectives with a view to laying a foundation for sustainable development.

Written by authors with years of academic, regional, and city planning experience, the classic Planning Local Economic Development has laid the foundation for practitioners and academics working in planning and policy development for generations. With deeper coverage of sustainability and resiliency, the new Sixth Edition explores the theories of local economic development while addressing the issues and opportunities faced by cities, towns, and local entities in crafting their economic destinies within the global economy. Nancey Green Leigh and Edward J. Blakely provide a thoroughly up-to-date exploration of planning processes, analytical techniques and data, and locality, business, and human resource development, as well as advanced technology and sustainable economic development strategies.