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.

Development Economics has been identified as a homogeneous body of theory since the 1950s, concerned both with the study of development issues and with the shaping of more effective policies for less advanced economies. Development Economics in the Twenty-First Century brings together an international contributor team in order to explore the origins and evolution of development economics. This book highlights the different elements of ‘high development theory’ through a precise reconstruction of the different theoretical approaches that developed between the 1950s and the 1970s. These include the theory of balanced and unbalanced growth theory, the debate on international trade, the concept of dualism, dependency theory, structuralism and the analysis of poverty and institutions. The chapters highlight the relevance and usefulness of these analyses for the contemporary theoretical debate on development issues. Comparative perspectives are explored and analysed, including those of Keynes, Hirschman, Krugman and Stiglitz. The chapters situate development economics within current debates among economists and historians of economic thought, providing a platform for future research. This book is suitable for researchers and students with an interest in Development Economics, the History of Economic development and the Economics of Developing Countries.

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.

Why has an economy that has done so many things right failed to grow fast? Under-Rewarded Efforts traces Mexico’s disappointing growth to flawed microeconomic policies that have suppressed productivity growth and nullified the expected benefits of the country’s reform efforts. Fast growth will not occur doing more of the same or focusing on issues that may be key bottlenecks to productivity growth elsewhere, but not in Mexico. It will only result from inclusive institutions that effectively protect workers against risks, redistribute towards those in need, and simultaneously align entrepreneurs’ and workers’ incentives to raise productivity.

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.