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Trends in Development Economics and Their Relevance to Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Tony Killick
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Extract

Important changes have been occurring in the ill-defined area of study called development economics. The purpose of this article is to identify and describe what are judged to have been the most important changes in development economics during the last decade, and thereafter to evaluate their relevance to the circumstances of the economies of Africa.

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Articles
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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 367 - 386
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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References

page 368 note 1 See Killick, Tony, Development Economics in Action: a study of economic policies in Ghana (London, 1978),Google Scholar ch. 2, for a fuller statement, and documentation, of this argument. Some writers – e.g. in Lehmann, David (ed.), Development Theory: four critical studies (London, 1979)Google Scholar – offer a quite different interpretation from that presented here, viewing the 1950s and 1960s as dominated by what they see as a neo-classical orthodoxy that has since become discredited, although I do not believe that careful analysis supports such a contention.

page 369 note 1 Simon Kuznet's famous demolition of W. W. Rostow's theory of the stages of economic growth was influential in casting doubt on the validity of the big push and take-off ideas, as were Ian Little et al. in drawing attention to the limitations and dangers of a strategy of import-substituting industrialisation. See Rostow, W. W., The Stages of Economic Growth (Cambridge, 1960),Google ScholarKuznets, S., ‘Notes on the Take-Off’, in Rostow, W. W. (ed.), The Economics of Take-Off into Sustained Growth (London, 1963),Google Scholar and Little, I., Scitovsky, T., and Scott, M., Industry and Trade in Some Developing Countries: a comparative study (London, 1970);Google Scholar also Killick, Tony, ‘The Possibilities of Development Planning’, in Oxford Economic Papers, 07 1976, pp. 161–84,Google Scholar for a review of the literature on planning.

page 369 note 2 For a statement of this point of view, see Ranis, Gustav, ‘Development Theory at Three-Quarters Century’, in Nash, Manning (ed.), Essays on Economic Development and Cultural Change in Honor of Bert F. Hoselitz (Chicago, 1977).Google Scholar

page 370 note 1 Todaro, Michael P., Economics for a Developing World: an introduction to principles, problems and policies for development (London, 1977), p. 98.Google Scholar See Baster, Nancy (ed.), Measuring Development: the role and adequacy of development indicators (London, 1972),Google Scholar for a more extensive treatment of this topic, especially the essay entitled ‘What Are We Trying to Measure?’ by Dudley Seers, who adds a postscript to this in Lehmann (ed.), op. cit.

page 371 note 1 See Flammang, Robert A., ‘Economic Growth and Economic Development: counterparts or competitors?’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), 28, 1, 10 1979, pp. 47–61,Google Scholar for an interesting and multi-disciplinary exploration of the relationships between economic ‘growth’ and ‘development’, including the argument that these are different processes, complementary in the long-run albeit initially competitive.

page 371 note 2 The most influential statements of dependency theory include the following: Barran, Paul, The Political Economy of Growth (New York, 1957);Google ScholarFrank, André Gunder, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America (New York, 1967),Google Scholar and Latin America: underdevelopment or revolution? (New York, 1969);Google Scholardos Santos, T., ‘The Structure of Dependence’, in American Economic Review (Providence, R.I.), 60, 2, 05 1970;Google Scholar and Amin, Samir, Unequal Development (London, 1976).Google Scholar Valuable critical surveys are provided by Lall, Sanjaya, ‘Is “Dependence” a Useful Concept in Analysing Development?’ in World Development (Oxford), 3, 11–12, 11–12 1975,Google Scholar and Gabriel Palma, ‘Dependency: formal theory of underdevelopment or a methodology for the analysis of concrete situations of underdevelopment?’, in ibid. 6, 7–8, July–August 1978. Shaw, Timothy M. and Grieve, Malcolm J., ‘Dependence as an Approach to Understanding Continuing Inequalities in Africa’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb, Ill.), 13, 04 1979,Google Scholar survey the literature as it relates to Africa.

page 371 note 3 Baran, op. cit. p. 28.

page 372 note 1 Harris, Richard (ed), The Political Economy of Africa (New York, 1975), p. 18.Google Scholar

page 372 note 2 Cf. dos Santos, loc. cit.

page 372 note 3 Cf. Frank, op. cit.

page 373 note 1 Cf. Cardoso, F. H., ‘Dependency and Development in Latin America’, in New Left Review (London), 07–08 1972,Google Scholar and ‘Associated Dependent Development’, in Stepan, A. (ed.), Authoritarian Brazil (New Haven, 1973).Google Scholar

page 373 note 2 Cf. Harrris, op. cit.

page 373 note 3 Baran, op. cit.

page 373 note 4 An important example of this type of exploration of the influence of alternative development paths on distributional and other variables is provided by Chenery, Hollis, Structural Change and Development Policy (New York, 1979).Google Scholar

page 374 note 1 See Chenery, Hollis et al. (eds.), Redistribution with Growth (London, 1974),Google Scholar for an authoritative discussion of this strategy. Edwards, E. O. (ed.), Employment in Developing Countries (New York, 1974),Google Scholar and Jolly, Richard et al. (eds.), Third World Employment (London, 1973),Google Scholar also contain relevant materials.

page 374 note 2 Cf. Mansfield, Edwin, Economics of Technological Change (New York, 1968).Google Scholar

page 374 note 3 The work of Stewart, Frances, Technology and Underdevelopment (London, 1977),CrossRefGoogle Scholar has been particularly important in exploring the relationships between technology and development. See also Mansfield, op. cit. and Robinson, Austin (ed), Appropriate Technologies for Third World Development (London, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 375 note 1 For an influential statement of the basic-needs approach, see International Labour Office, Employment, Growth and Basic Needs (Geneva, 1976).Google Scholar

page 376 note 1 It is true that the initial statements of the ‘human capital’ theory date back to the early 1960s – see Schultz, T. W., ‘Investment in Human Capital’, in Amencan Economic Review, 51, 03 1961,Google Scholar and Becker, Gary, Human Capital a theoretical and empirical analysis (New York, 1964)Google Scholar – and this can hardly be described as recent. However, it was not until the 1970s that this theory became strongly influential in development economics.

page 376 note 2 See Todaro, Michael P., Internal Migration and Economic Development (Geneva, 1976),Google Scholar and Economics for a Developing World, ch. 14, for statements of this model.

page 376 note 3 Little et al. op. cit. and the associated series of country studies were particularly influential in this context and, more generally, in the reassertion of the important role of relative prices.

page 377 note 1 The volumes by Bhagwati, Jagdish, Anatomy and Consequences of Exchange Control Regimes (Cambridge, Mass., 1978),Google Scholar and Krueger, Anne O., Liberalisation Attempts and Consequences (Cambridge, Mass., 1978),Google Scholar and the country studies they draw upon, are still being digested, but seem likely to become highly influential in the future.

page 378 note 1 Source: various World Bank publications.

page 379 note 1 Simon Kuznets marshals evidence suggesting that on a graph measuring the degree of inequality on the vertical, and income per capita on the horizontal, the relationship between them is described by a curve with an inverted U-shape; see Economic Growth and Structure (London, 1965),Google Scholar and Modern Economic Growth: rate, structure and spread (New Haven, 1966).Google Scholar For more recent confirmation of this relationship, see Paukert, F., ‘Income Distributions at Different Levels of Development’, in International Labour Review (Geneva), 108, 2–3, 08–09 1973;Google ScholarAhluwalia, Montek S., ‘Inequality, Poverty and Development’, in Journal of Development Economics (Amsterdam), 12 1976;Google ScholarCromwell, Jerry, ‘The Size Distribution of Income: an international comparison’, in Review of Income and Wealth (New Haven), 23, 3, 09 1977;Google Scholar and Lydall, H., ‘Income Distribution During the Process of Development’, W.E.P. Working Paper, International Labour Office, Geneva, 1977.Google Scholar

page 380 note 1 Jeffrey G. Williamson, however, stresses the complexities involved in determining the extent of trade-offs; see ‘Inequality, Accumulation, and Technological Imbalance: a growth-equity conflict in American history?’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change, 27, 2, January 1979.

page 381 note 1 Two excellent studies by Shen, T. Y. come to strongly negative conclusions about the effectiveness of development planning, namely, ‘Sectoral Development Planning in Tropical Africa’, in Eastern Africa Economic Review (Nairobi), 06 1975,Google Scholar and ‘Macro Development Planning in Tropical Africa’, in Journal of Development Studies (London), 07 1977.Google Scholar

page 381 note 2 Lall, loc. cit. pp. 808–9.

page 382 note 1 Palma, loc. cit. pp. 911–12. It is worth stressing that both Lall and Palma are ideologically highly sympathetic reviewers of this body of writings. Thus, Lall, loc. cit. pp. 800–1, agrees with Marxian analyses of imperialism, and does not dispute the existence of deeply unsatisfactory relationships between the centre and the periphery; indeed, he argues that dependency theorists make the mistake of criticising capitalism ‘on its least vulnerable points’. Palma, loc. cit. p. 912, is concerned to advocate his own interpretaton of the theory, as providing a valuable methodology for the study of ‘concrete situations of dependency’.

page 382 note 2 See North-South: a programme for survival. The Report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues under the Chairmanship of Willy Brandt (London, 1980).Google Scholar

page 382 note 3 Palma, loc. cit. p. 905.

page 382 note 4 Shaw and Grieve, loc. cit. p. 233.

page 383 note 1 See Ahluwalia, loc. cit. for an empirical rejection of the hypothesis that there has been a general immiserisation of the poor, and Ranis, loc. cit. for examples of L.D.C.s with reducing inequalities. See also Ahluwalia, Montek S., Carter, Nicholas G., and Chenery, Hollis B., ‘Growth and Poverty in Developing Countries’, in Journal of Development Economics, 6, 3, 09 1979,CrossRefGoogle Scholar for evidence of declining proportions living in absolute poverty during 1960–1975.

page 383 note 2 See McGowan, Patrick J., ‘Economic Dependence and Economic Performance in Black Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 14, 1, 03 1976, pp. 24–40.Google ScholarKhalaf, Nadim G., ‘Country Size and Economic Growth and Development’, in Journal of Development Studies, 16, 1, 10 1979,CrossRefGoogle Scholar utilising data for 30 L.D.C.s, similarly found an absence of significant correlation between growth or development and trade dependence or export concentration.