Whither Development Economics?

Symposium on

This roundtable discussion at the end of the conference sought to highlight the panelist's views on the roles of the state and the private sector in development. The panelists were Amartya Sen, professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University; Nicholas Stern, professor of economics at the London School of Economics; Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Stanford University; and Stanley Fischer (moderator), vice president, development economics and chief economist at the World Bank.

Development and ChangeVolume 10, Issue 4 p. 577-584 A Generation Later: Kurt Mandelbaum's The Industrialisation of Backward Areas Revisited Hans Singer, Hans Singer Hans Singer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sussex; Professorial Fellow Emeritus of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex; Fellow of the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague; President of the UK Chapter of the Society for International Development. During 22 years of service in the United Nations he acted as economic adviser to various governments, and directed the setting-up of the African Development Bank, the World Food Programme, the UN Special Fund. He also headed numerous UN missions. He is the author of many UN reports, books and articles on development economics, his most recent books including: The Strategy of International Development (Macmillan 1975), Rich and Poor Countries (Allen & Unwin 1977, 1979), Technologies for Basic Needs (ILO, Geneva 1977).Search for more papers by this author Hans Singer, Hans Singer Hans Singer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Sussex; Professorial Fellow Emeritus of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex; Fellow of the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague; President of the UK Chapter of the Society for International Development. During 22 years of service in the United Nations he acted as economic adviser to various governments, and directed the setting-up of the African Development Bank, the World Food Programme, the UN Special Fund. He also headed numerous UN missions. He is the author of many UN reports, books and articles on development economics, his most recent books including: The Strategy of International Development (Macmillan 1975), Rich and Poor Countries (Allen & Unwin 1977, 1979), Technologies for Basic Needs (ILO, Geneva 1977).Search for more papers by this author First published: October 1979 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1979.tb00053.xCitations: 4 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume10, Issue4October 1979Pages 577-584 RelatedInformation

Authors of leading U.S. textbooks in development economics are criticised for their inaccurate and insufficient socio‐political analysis, ethnocentric approach to U.S. international involvement, lack of consideration of dominance and subordination within the international economic system (together with an under‐emphasis on the costs of foreign trade, aid and investment in LDCs), fallacious concept of ‘traditional’ society and economy, and inadequate perspective on Marxism. These flaws in the orthodox conception of the political economy of development are partially responsible for much of the difficulty that U.S. economists have encountered in trying to adapt successfully to the problems of low‐income countries.

The part played by economists in the Second World War has been little studied but was of an importance not appreciated by the public then or since. Equally, wartime experience had an influence on the development of economics as a discipline that has been given little attention. It was in the Second World War that economists in any number entered government service, discovered government, exercised a major influence on policy and left behind an expanding demand for economic advice from professional economists. This article seeks to provide a sketch of some of their activities.

Part 1 The international framework: the evolution of an interdependent world - world production and trade in the 19th century, the world economy in the 20th century, economic cycles and their impact international trade and economic growth - international trade theory and the Third World, price behaviour of primary products, terms of trade capital constraints on Third World development - capital flows into Latin america since World War II, capital flows and the Third World. Part 2 Perspectives on industrial growth in the Third World: theories of industrialism and the role of government - the Rostow model, the Gerschenkron model, the Parsonian approach, relevence for Third World industrialization, the role of government trade policy and industrialization - trade strategies and industrial growth, trade liberalism in Chile 1973-87, implications of the Chilean model global shift? product life cycles and protectionism technological change - economies of scale, import substitution, export promotion, import substitution, export promotion and technological change the multinational corporation and Third World industrialization - changing nature and spatial influence of multinational corporations, some theoretical perspectives. Part 3 Case study: The global case industry and the Third World - past transformations in the world car industry, the fourth transformation?, the Third World car industry - strategies for growth, technological divergence - Third World as marginal producer. Part 4 Continental perspectives: Latin America - the heritage of inward-oriented industrialization - the origins and nature of inward orientation, towards a new phase of outward orientation?, inward orientation and spatial concentration East Asia - the heritage of outward orientation - the Japanese case study, prospects for further generations of industrializing countries in East Asia Third World industrialization in an international framework - the case for outward orientation, the future for industry in the Third World, the Pacific rim-focus of manufacturing growth into the 21st century.

The penetration of information and communication technologies (further - ICT) into all sectors of the economy and the sphere of vital activity of the population is a key factor of scientific, technical and economic progress in the context of globalization. Opportunities and difficulties of the countries of the world in the transition to a post-industrial economy reflect international ratings. They characterize the unevenness of innovative development and the use of innovations and information technologies. For the analysis of Russia's positions in the world innovation economy, several international ratings of innovative development have been selected (The Global Innovation Index, The Networking Readiness Index, and The Global Competitiveness Index). The analysis showed not only the representativeness of the international innovation ratings chosen for the analysis, but also the high correlation between the indices of the world indices in international innovation ratings and individual indicators of their economic development. The importance of policies in the use of ICT and the digital economy for structural changes in the economy is noted. Russia is inferior to the world's leading leaders in terms of innovation activity and economic development. In the light of the economic sanctions of the economically developed countries of the West against Russia, this gap may even increase. Assessing Russia's position in international innovation development ratings, including R & D spending, has highlighted the need to take into account global trends and challenges, and has offered recommendations for improving the situation in this area. The recommendations will facilitate Russia's early transition to a socially-oriented innovative type of economic development. The main direction is the development of the national innovation system and the inclusion of Russia in the global innovation space. The purpose of this research is to characterize Russia's position in international innovation ratings, highlight Russia's problems in research and innovation. Based on the analysis of the current situation, to propose recommendations on the activation of Russia's involvement in the process of internationalization in the field of research and innovation. Results and practical importance are to issue recommendations for improving the activation of Russia's involvement in the process of internationalization in the field of research and innovation. It is necessary to adjust the direction of further development.

Fonna Forman-Barzilai: Amartya Sen is ThomasW. Lamont University Professor and Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University, and a Fellow and former Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. Best known for his work on social choice theory and development economics, his work over 50 years has spanned a great variety of subjects in economics and philosophy, including welfare economics, public health, gender studies, moral and political philosophy, and the economics of peace and war. He’s one of those rare intellectuals whose work has impacted both academic culture and practical life, pushing the boundaries of academic discourse in paradigm-shattering ways while bettering the condition of human life on the ground.

Potential pension fund losses should not deter high-income countries from bold climate action

This lecture on some problems araising from the international economic relations of developing countries, delivered in a developing country aims at giving a concise compendium of the principal propositions and findings of recent international trade theory. Particular emphasis is lied on the importance of pulling together commercial policy, foreign exchange policy and fiscal policy (internal taxes and subsidies) in a comprehensive scheme which was qualified by HarryH. Bell, Research Director of the UNCTAD, as a ‘unified theory of protection’. In fact, the author, who is working in the praxis of international monetary and financial questions but likes personally to make ‘excursions’ to international trade theory and public finance, felt compelled to break down the artificial compartmentalization between the various sub-disciplines of political economy. A first attempt of this kind necessarily cannot go down into all details and necessarily rests to be completed. On this conceptual background the paper deals with the influence of inflation on development, fixed versus floating rates, tariff arguments, the attempt to construct a scientific tariff, the costs of selfsufficiency, the combined net effective rate of protection, quantitative restrictions and monetary trade biasing, the question whether import restriction or export promotion, invisibles in a unified theory of protection, capital movements and multiple exchange rates, the influence of the taxation system on relative prices and exchanges and last but not least the skeleton of a typical reform program. Admittedly, in praxis there will be as long difficulties concerning the application of the projected scientific system of protection as long as no one seems to have elaborated a satisfying empirical method in which tariffs, exchange rates and fiscal instruments are all expressed in terms of comparable units on a comparable scale. But does this matter? Praxis will follow theory.

A number of recent empirical investigations have concluded that economic variables account for a statistically significant share of cross-sectional variation in aggregate and individual fertility. Though the models underlying these studies differ in terms of analytical complexion and econometric complexity, their empirical findings are nonetheless similar.' Theories of household behavior derived from generally accepted economic tenets alone, however, do not yield many refutable propositions with regard to fertility, unless additional constraints are imposed. The choice of a formulation to the economic theory of fertility may therefore have to rely more heavily on the weight of empirical evidence as to how this decision-making process is constrained than other fields of applied economics, where joint production is less essential and consumption and production are more readily dis-

A NEW PARADIGM FOR LED? Local Economic Development (LED) is a discipline still coming into its own, with competing strands of argumentation still generating conflict. At the root of the conflict is debate over whether traditional types of local strategies a) are working, and b) are generating ‘pro-poor’ economic development, or simply more ‘uneven development’. The latter term refers to a structured, systematic mode of capital accumulation at one pole, and the ‘development of underdevelopment’ at another. Although it was once associated with ‘dependency theory’, it is a far more subtle conceptual approach to understanding ingrained poverty and inequality (Bond, 1998, 1999, 2000a, 2000b). The past two decades have, after all, witnessed extraordinary pressure on local authorities, especially formal municipalities, to become more entrepreneurial. These pressures have accompanied the overall slow-down in growth in the international economy that began during the late 1970s, and reflect shifting power relations. In short, urban entrepreneurialism became a feature of virtually all LED strategies as competition for investment intensified. The term ‘smokestack chasing’ emerged to characterise the most ambitious attempts to ‘place-market’ a given municipality. The tide has probably turned on this epoch, which was called the period of the ‘Washington Consensus’ because it entailed rigid nation-state adherence to ‘neoliberal’ (free-market) dictates, often enforced by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the discipline of international financial markets. These included:  government budget cuts, increases in user-fees for public services and privatisation of state enterprises;  the lifting of price controls, subsidies and any other distortions of market forces;  liberalisation of currency controls and currency devaluation;  higher interest rates and deregulation of local finance;  removal of import barriers (trade tariffs and quotas); and  an emphasis on promotion of exports, above all other economic priorities.

This study has been motivated by the World Bank's Worm Development Report 1987. That report gave virtually unqualified support for outward orientation rather than inward orientation or import substitution, as if it could be recommended for all conditions and for all types of countries. The claim for the alleged superiority of exportpromoting development strategies as recommended by the World Bank and other export enthusiasts is based less on theoretical analysis than on empirical evidence from extensive crosscountry studies, especially those of Balassa [Journal of Development Economics, May/June 1985, pp. 23-35]. These studies all have indicated that less developed countries (LDCs) with higher export growth have tended to experience higher rates of economic growth, Support for export promotion policies is not universal, however. This study seeks to determine to what extent Latin American and African LDCs have benefitted from their exports during the period 1960-81. From the export-augmented aggregate production function for an open economy, Q = F [L, K, X] where Q is real output, L and K represent labor and capital inputs, and X stands for exports, the following sources of output growth can be derived:

In recent presentations at HRD conferences in Europe and Asia, various papers have identified ‘Globalization and HRD’ as a growing area of intellectual inquiry. Our paper contributes to these theoretical explorations by attempting to map out the terrain of IHRD theory and activity. Drawing on international HRM (IHRM), development economics and development sociology writings we propose that international HRD in the global arena can be categorized under three headings: ‘global HRD’, ‘comparative HRD’ and ‘national HRD’. We present a development model as a way of analysing HRD. It is argued that this model can be viewed as a heuristic device that may be used to break down the components of IHRD and, in doing so, contributes to IHRD theory formulation and a greater understanding of HRD organization policy and practice within an international context. Our theoretical discussion stresses the broader social development orientations of education and HRD.

Even though for decades, development economists and policymakers assumed economies were ‘national’, food and agriculture has always been and continues to be central to international trade law and policy. As the conceptualisations of food and agriculture in the international development discourse are driven by preferences, power, and politics, multilateral institutions continue to grapple with balancing the competing positions of their members. This chapter is dedicated to food and agricultural policy vis-à-vis international trade, food sovereignty, and intellectual property rights (IPRs) for plants. It discusses the historical contexts and lawmaking trajectories of trade, food sovereignty, and IPRs for plants. In adopting historical and contextual analytical frames, the chapter unpacks pertinent debates that reveal the complexities and divergences between and within Global North and Global South positions and approaches to food and agriculture. Ultimately, beyond employing examples from food and agriculture to uncover key asymmetries in the international development discourse, the chapter proffers contemporary considerations for the future.