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Some Recent Contributions to the Literature on Economic Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

A. F. Ewing
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Since the end of World War II there has been a marked change in at least the emphasis in economic writing. The history of economic theory seems to be studded with controversy; successive writers overthrow their predecessors, and the problem is not made easier by the tendency of the various schools each to claim to have discovered universal truths. In perspective, it is more sensible to see how each major writer or school has attempted to grapple with the problems of the day. What was said was generally illuminating but the principles drawn up were not necessarilly relevant, and were sometimes downright misleading, in relation to another period or another group of countries.1 Nevertheless, each writer how much Karl Marx owed to Adam Smith and Ricardo. At a very different time, J. M. Keynes deliberatelly attempted to demonstrate how misleading ffro the problems of the 'thirties in the developed western world was the system evolved in the preceding century. Although he was clearly right, it is not difficult to discern the extent to which he was a pupil of Alfred Marshall.

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Articles
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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , November 1966 , pp. 335 - 348
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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References

Page 335 note 1 The most illuminating account of the way in which economic theory has evolved in relation to the needs and problems of dominant countries and, within countries, of dominant classes, is still that of Dobb, M. H., Political Economy and Capitalism (London, 1937).Google Scholar

Page 336 note 1 This has recently been surveyed by Hahn, F. H. and Mathews, R. C. O., ‘The Theory of Economic Growth: a survey’, in The Economic Jourral (London), LXXXIV, 12 1964Google Scholar (which, it should be recalled, did not consider the development of backward countries).

Page 336 note 2 Among recent important textbooks are: Bruton, H. J., Principles of Development Economics (Englewood Cliffs, 1965);Google ScholarEnke, S., Economics for Development (London, 1964);Google ScholarGendarme, R., La Paunceté des nations (Paris, Cujas, 1963);Google ScholarHiggins, B., Economic Development (New York, 1959);Google ScholarKrause, W., Economic Development: the under-developed world and the American interest (California, 1961);Google ScholarMyint, H., The Economics of Developing Countries (London, 1964)Google Scholar. See also in this connexion a review by Resnick, I. N. of some recent textbooks in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), III, 2, 1965.Google ScholarCairncross, A. K., Factors in Economic Development (London, 1962),Google Scholar although not a textbook but a collection of essays, should also be cited here, since the treatment is remarkably fresh and lucid. Bruton, although ostensibly no more than a textbook, will be the subject of further references in this article, since the level of the critical synthesis presented is tantamount to an original contribution. Most of these works have extensive bibliographies; Gendarme's is particularly useful since it is not confined to Anglo-Saxon sources.

Page 336 note 3 Myrdal, G., An International Economy (London, 1956);Google ScholarEconomic Theory and Under-developed Regions (London, 1957).Google Scholar

Page 337 note 1 Balogh, T., Unequal Partners (Oxford, 1963),Google Scholar vol.I.

Page 337 note 2 See two United Nations publications: The Economic Development of Latin America and Its Principal Problems (New York, 1950)Google Scholar and Towards a Dynamic Development Policyfor Latin America (New York, 1963).Google Scholar

Page 337 note 3 Furtado, C., Development and Under-development (University of California, 03 1964).Google Scholar See also Seers, D., ‘A Theory of Inflation and Growth in Underdeveloped Economies Based on the Experience of Latin America’, Economic Growth Centre Paper No. 8 (Yale, 1962).Google Scholar

Page 337 note 4 The father of this approach was Friedrich List. As has been shown in an illuminating study by Clairmonte, F., Economic Liberalism and Under-development (Bombay, 1960)Google Scholar, List was an articulate and determined spokesman for the industrialisation of Germany and the United States, employing customs unions and deliberately fostering infant industries behind tariff walls. He showed that the doctrines of universal free trade, comparative advantage, and international specialisation were wholly advantageous for the already advanced United Kingdom, but precisely the reverse for the under-developed world.

Page 337 note 5 United Nations, Industrial Growth in Africa (New York, 1963),Google Scholar paras. 3 and 60.23

Page 338 note 1 Seers, D., ‘The Stages of Economic Development of a Primary Producer in the Middle of the Twentieth Century’, in The Economic Bulletin of Ghana (Legon), VII, 4, 1963.Google Scholar

Page 338 note 2 Lacroix, J. L., ‘Le Concept d'import substitution dans Ia théorie de développement économique, in Cahiers économiques et sociaux (Léopoldville), III, 2, 06 1965.Google Scholar

Page 338 note 3 Perroux, F., L'Economie desjeunes nations (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1962).Google Scholar

Page 338 note 4 See Industrial Growth in Africa (the first version of which was prepared in 1962), ch. 5, and a series of subsequent studies. Reference should also be made to Bézy, F., ‘Les Problèmes de l'industrialisation et l'intégration du Tiers Monde’ in Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique (Brussels), IV, 4.Google Scholar

Page 339 note 1 See Balassa, Bela, The Theory of Economic Integration (Illinois, 1961), Pt. III;Google ScholarDell, S., Trade Blocks and Common Markets (London, 1963), chs. VI and VII;Google ScholarWightman, D., Toward Economic Co-operation in Asia (Yale, 1963), pt. IV;Google ScholarWionczek, M. S., Latin American Free Trade Association (New York, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 339 note 2 Perroux, F., ‘Note sur la notion de “Poles de Croissances”’, in Economie appliquée (Paris), VIII, 1–2, 01–06 1955, Pp. 307–20.Google Scholar See also Bézy, F., Principes pour l'orientation du déueveloppement économique au Congo (Léopoldville) (Lovanium, 1959), pp. 23–30;Google ScholarLacroix, J. L., ‘Les Poles de développement industrielle au Congo’, in Cahiers économiques et sociaux (Lovanium), II, 2, 10 1964;Google Scholar and Singer, H. W., The Distribution of Gains from Investment and Trade (New York, 1950),Google Scholar reprinted in International Development: growth and change (New York, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 340 note 1 See Nurkse, R., Equilibrium and Growth in the World Economy (Harvard, 1961),Google Scholar Essay No. to; and Rosenstein-Rodan, P. N., ‘Notes on the Theory of the “Big Push”’, in Ellis, H. S. (ed.), Economic Development for Latin America (New York, 1961).Google Scholar

Page 340 note 2 Singer, H. W., Balanced Growth: theory and practice (1958),Google Scholar reprinted in International Development: growth and change.

Page 340 note 3 Hirschman, A. O., The Strategy of Economic Development (Yale, 1958).Google Scholar

Page 340 note 4 Hirschman, A. O., ‘Obstacles to Development: a classification and a quasi vanishing act’ in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago) XXIII, 4 pt. I, 07 1965.Google Scholar

Page 341 note 1 Bruton, op. cit. p. 352.

Page 341 note 2 United Nations, Measures for the Economic Development of Under-developed Countries (New York, 1951).Google Scholar An early monograph concerned with the problem of developing south-eastern Europe after the war (through increased emphasis on industrialisation and within a system of regional co-operation) set out a series of models which anticipate some of the subsequent work of the United Nations in this context. See Burchardt, F. A., The Industrialization of Backward Areas (Oxford, 1945).Google Scholar

Page 341 note 3 ‘U.N. Primer for Development’, reprinted in Frankel, S. H., The Economic Impact on Underdevelopei Societies (Oxford, 1953).Google Scholar

Page 342 note 1 de Bernis, G., ‘Industrie lourde et industrie légère’, in Industrialisation au Maghreb (Paris, Maspéro, 1963).Google Scholar See also Industrial Growth in Africa.

Page 343 note 1 Bairoch, P., Révolution industrielle et sous-développement (Paris, S.E.D.E.S., 1963).Google Scholar

Page 343 note 2 Dumont, R., Terres vivantes (Paris, Plon, 1961);Google ScholarL'Afrique noire estmalpartie (Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1962)Google Scholar translated by Ott, Phyllis Nauts as False Start in Africa (New York, 1966);Google ScholarDéveloppement agricole africaine (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 343 note 3 Boserup, E., The Conditions of Agricultural Growth (London, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 343 note 4 Sir Arthur Lewis states, ‘Some of us believe that the time is not far off when the underdeveloped countries will be net importers of primary products and net exporters of manufactures.’ This thesis is based on the probably real comparative advantage of temperate countries in agriculture. Lewis, A., ‘A Review of Economic Development’, in The American Economic Review (Menasha, Wisconsin), LV, 2, 05 1965.Google Scholar

Page 344 note 1 Rostow, W. W. (ed.), The Economics of Take-off into Sustained Growth (London, 1963).Google Scholar

Page 344 note 2 Fishlow, A., ‘Empty Economic Stages?’, in The Economic Journal, LXXV, 03 1965.Google Scholar

Page 344 note 3 Bruton, op. cit. pp. 340–3; and Wightman, D., ‘The Stages of Economic Growth,’ in II Politico (University of Pavia), XXVI, I, 1961.Google Scholar

Page 344 note 4 Gerschenkron, A., Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Harvard, 1962).Google Scholar

Page 345 note 1 Ligthart, G. and Abbai, B., ‘Economic Development in Africa: aims and possibilities’, in Robinson, E. A. G. (ed.), Economic Development for Africa South of the Sahara (London, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 345 note 2 Patel, S. J., ‘Economic Distance between Nations: the origin, management and outlook’, reprinted in Essays in Economic Transition (Bombay, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 345 note 3 U.N. Economic Commission for Europe, Long-term Trends and Problems of the European Steel Industry (Geneva, 1959).Google Scholar

Page 345 note 4 See, for example, Kaldor, N., ‘International Trade and Economic Development’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, II, 4, 1964.Google Scholar Kaldor uses U.N. data and stresses that his calculations are hypothetical, for illustrative purposes. The most up-to-date and authoritative United Nations estimates are to be found in Towards a New Trade Policy for Development, Report by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (E/Conf. 46/3, New York, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 346 note 1 Seers, D., ‘International Aid: the next steps’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, II, 4, 1964.Google Scholar

Page 346 note 2 Ohlin, G., Reappraisals of Foreign Aid Policies (Paris, O.E.C.D. Development Centre, 1964);Google Scholar and Singer, International Development: growth and change, chs. 3, 4, and 15.

Page 346 note 3 Patel, , Essays on Economic Transition, pp. 84 ff. and 109 ff.Google Scholar

Page 346 note 4 Clark, Paul, ‘Foreign Aid, Domestic Financing and the Development Plan’, in Problems of Foreign Aid: a conference report (Nairobi, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 347 note 1 Lewis, W. A., The Principles of Economic Planning (London, 1949),Google Scholar appendix ‘On Planning in Backward Countries’.

Page 347 note 2 Lewis, W. A., Development Planning: the essentials of economic policy (London, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 347 note 3 Singer, , International Development: growth and change, pt. 3,Google Scholar ch. 2.

Page 347 note 4 Bruton, op. cit.

Page 347 note 5 Amin, Samir, Trois Expériences de developpement: le Mali, la Guinée et le Ghana (Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1965).Google Scholar See also Green, R. H., ‘Four African Development Plans: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, III, 2, 1965.Google Scholar

Page 347 note 6 Clark, P., Development Planning in East Africa (Nairobi, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 347 note 7 Bettelheim, C., Planification et croissance accélérée (Paris, 1964);Google ScholarBaran, P. A., The Political Economy of Growth (New York, 1957).Google Scholar

Page 348 note 1 Recently more attention has been paid to the economic problems of education and training. The writer who has done most to stimulate an increasingly important literature is F. H. Harbison. See, for example, his High Level Manpower for Nigeria's Future (Lagos, 1966);Google Scholar his two books produced in conjunction with Myers, C. A., Education, Manpower and Economic Growth (New York, 1964),Google Scholar and Manpower and Education (New York, 1965),Google Scholar reviewed in an article by Rado, E. R., ‘Manpower, Education, and Economic Growth’ in The Journal of Modern African Studies, IV, 1, 1966;Google Scholar and Harbison's own article, ‘The African University and Human Resources Development’, ibid. no, III, I, 1965. See also the final report of the Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa held in Addis Abada in 1961 (UNESCO/ ED/181) and ‘The Development of Higher Education in Africa’, final report of a conference held in Tananarive in 1962 (UNESCO, 1963, ED. 62/D.20/A).