Commisioned by the World Bank, this book is a history and analysis of the efforts to assist less developed countries achieve a higher economic level. It also offers a new way of thinking about economic development.

The study of economic development is one of the newest, most exciting, and most challenging branches of the broader discipline of economics and political economy. Although one could claim that Adam Smith was the first "development economist," the systematic study of the problems and processes of economic development in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has emerged only over the past five decades. This biography of the subject of economic development will focus on the essential ideas in the evolution of development thought and policy over the subject's half-century of life. In concise form and...

With contributions from 35 leading economists, this forward-looking book explores the future of development economics against the background of the past half-century of development thought and practice. Outstanding representatives of the past two generations of development economists assess development thinking at the turn of the century and look to the unsettled questions confronting the next generation. The volume offers a thorough analysis of the broad range of issues involved in development economics, and it is especially timely in its critique of what is needed in development theory and...