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Analytical Development Economics

The Less Developed Economy Revisited

Kaushik Basu (The World Bank)

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English
MIT Press
24 January 2003
Virtually all industrialized nations have annual per capita incomes greater than $15,000; meanwhile, over three billion people, more than half the worlds population, live in countries with per capita incomes of less than $700. Development economics studies the economies of such countries and the problems they face, including poverty, chronic underemployment, low wages, rampant inflation, and oppressive international debt. In the past two decades, the international debt crisis, the rise of endogenous growth theory, and the tremendous success of some Asian economies have generated renewed interest in development economics, and the field has grown and changed dramatically.

Although Analytical Development Economics deals with theoretical development economics, it is closely grounded in reality. The author draws on a wide range of evidence, including some gathered by himself in the village of Nawadih in the state of Bihar, India, where-in huts and fields, and in front of the village tea stall-he talked with landlords, tenants, moneylenders, and landless laborers. The author presents theoretical results in such a way that those doing empirical work can go out and test the theories.

The book is a revision of Basu's The Less Developed Economy- A Critique of Contemporary Theory (Blackwell, 1984). The new edition, which has several new chapters and sections, incorporates recent theoretical advances in its comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of the subject. It is intended primarily as a textbook for a one-semester graduate course, but will also be of interest to researchers in economic development and to policymakers.
By:  
Imprint:   MIT Press
Country of Publication:   United States
Edition:   New edition
Dimensions:   Height: 229mm,  Width: 152mm,  Spine: 20mm
Weight:   522g
ISBN:   9780262523448
ISBN 10:   0262523442
Series:   Analytical Development Economics
Pages:   386
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Part 1 Preliminaries: introduction - the scenario, prospectus, economic rationality and norms, on weighing scales known to be biased, from analysis to prescription. Part 2 Macro perspectives: the vicious circle of poverty - the idea of the vicious circle, the vicious circle, industrialization and balanced growth, the o-ring theory of low productivity, manifestations of unemployment; growth and development - the Harrod-Domar legacy, the neoclassical model, endogenous growth, distribution and development, limitations; inflation and structural disequilibrium - employment policy and the inflation barrier, notes on Michal Kalechi, structural disequilibrium; foreign exchange and trade - some considerations - closed and open economies, foreign exchange constraints and growth - a two-gap model, aid and welfare - a paradoxical theorem, the terms of trade in the long run; international debt - the agenda, the background, sovereign risk and rationality, some standard models, loan pushing, debt forgiveness, buybacks and debt-equity swaps. Part 3 The dual economy: the structure of a dual economy - the Lewis model, critiques; migration - migration and urban unemployment, the Harris-Todaro model; policy issues, appendix - the monotonicity proposition; the rural-urban wage gap - the labour turnover model, extensions and critique, labour turnover and duopsony - a digression; unemployment and surplus labour - preliminary remarks, the wage-productivity model, surplus labour and the efficiency wage, surplus labour in the casual labour market, a comment on dualism, a collusive theory of unemployment. Part 4 The rural economy: stagnation in backward agriculture - a theory of stagnation, the debt trap - by chance or by design?, stagnation and tenurial laws, alternative explanations of stagnation, desiderata; tenancy and efficiency - forms of agricultural land tenure, share tenancy, screening and entrepreneurial ability, scale, productivity and tenancy; rural credit markets - the lender's risk hypothesis, monopolistic markets, market fragmentation, credit policy; interlinkage in rural markets - antecedents, potential risk and the emergence of interlinkage, partial equilibrium in an interlinked market, market equilibrium, the structure of wages and interest, the intertemporal earnings approach, response to exogenous changes, moral hazard and interlinkage, triadic interactions, appendix - the algebra of the intertemporal earnings approach. Part 5 Concluding remarks: the limits of economic analysis - on power, custom and social institutions, some comments on method, concluding remarks.

Kaushik Basu is C. Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University and former Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at the World Bank. He is the author of An Economist in the Real World (MIT Press).

Reviews for Analytical Development Economics: The Less Developed Economy Revisited

The appearance of a revised version of Basu's splendid book is greatly to be welcomed, particularly by those who believe that the economics of underdevelopment should not imply the underdevelopment of economics. This volume provides excellent material for a theoretically oriented course in development economics at an advanced undergraduate or graduate level. --Christopher Scott, London School of Economics and Political Science


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