Development Economics

Abstract

Provides a comprehensive, systematic treatise on development economics, combining classical political economy, modern institutional theory, and current development issues. It addresses one basic question: Why has a small set of countries achieved a high level of affluence while the majority remains poor and stagnant? The treatment is global, although the organizational principle is the East Asian development experience. Quantitative characteristics of Third World development in terms of population growth, natural resource depletion, capital accumulation, and technological change are outlined; but the central approach is comparative institutional analysis aimed at identifying the institutional constraints on the economic progress of low‐income economies and the ways to lift them.