Development economics is in many senses the most fundamental field within the discipline of economics, focused on understanding how resource allocation, human behaviour, institutional arrangements, and private and public policy jointly influence the evolution of the human condition. As the opening sentence of T.W. Schultz’s 1979 Nobel Prize lecture declared, ‘Most of the people in the world are poor, so if we knew the economics of being poor, we would know much of the economics that really matters.’
Development economics research ultimately explores why some countries, communities, and people are rich and others poor. Rapid economic growth is, in historical terms, a recent phenomenon confined to the past 300 years for less than one-quarter of the world’s population. Growing and seemingly persistent gaps in prosperity between rich and poor peoples - within and between countries - contributes to sociopolitical tensions, affects patterns of human pressure on the natural environment, and generally touches all facets of human existence. Understanding the process of economic development is thus central to most research in economics and the social sciences more broadly. Development economics nonetheless emerged as a distinct field of analytical, empirical, and institutional research only in the past half century or so, with especially rapid progress in the past generation.
Development Economics is a new Major Work from Routledge. Edited by a well-established scholar who has published broadly in the field, this four-volume collection provides a thorough review of the evolution of the field, covering development microeconomics, meso-level institutional phenomena associated with communities and markets, as well as development macroeconomics, in each case integrating theoretical and empirical research. Including a newly written and extensive introductory essay that summarizes the state of the field and the history of thought in development economics for those new to the area, the collection will be welcomed by academic researchers, policy practitioners, and students alike.
VOLUME 1: THE ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT
C. B. Barrett, ‘Development Economics: An Overview’ (editor’s new introductory essay).
Development, Poverty, and Welfare Dynamics
1. A. Sen (1988) ‘The Concept of Development’, in H. Chenery and T. N. Srinivasan (eds.), Handbook of Development Economics (Amsterdam: Elsevier), pp. 9–26.
2. J. Foster, J. Greer, and E. Thorbecke (1984) ‘A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures’, Econometrica 52(3): 761–6.
3. J. Y. Duclos, D. E. Sahn, and S. D. Younger (2006), ‘Robust Multidimensional Poverty Comparisons’, Economic Journal 116(514): 943–68.
4. P. N. Rosenstein–Rodan (1943), ‘Problems of Industrialisation of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe’, Economic Journal, 53(210/211): 202–11.
5. A. V. Banerjee and A. F. Newman (1993), ‘Occupational Choice and the Process of Development’, Journal of Political Economy, 101(2): 274–98.
6. P. Dasgupta (1997), ‘Nutritional Status, the Capacity for Work, and Poverty Traps’, Journal of Econometrics, 77(1): 5–37.
7. M. R. Carter and C. B. Barrett (2006), ‘The Economics of Poverty Traps and Persistent Poverty: An Asset-Based Approach’, Journal of Development Studies, 42(2): 178–99.
Technological Change and Market Participation
8. V. W. Ruttan (1997), ‘Induced Innovation, Evolutionary Theory and Path Dependence: Sources of Technical Change’, Economic Journal, 107(444): 1520–9.
9. G. Feder, R. E. Just, and D. Zilberman (1985), ‘Adoption of Agricultural Innovations in Developing Countries: A Survey’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 33(2): 255–98.
10. T. Besley and A. Case (1993), ‘Modeling Technology Adoption in Developing Countries’, American Economic Review, 83(2): 396–402.
11. N. Key, E. Sadoulet, and A. de Janvry (2000), ‘Transactions Costs and Agricultural Household Supply Response’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 82(2): 245–59.
Household and Intrahousehold Models
12. I. Singh, L. Squire, and John Strauss (1986). ‘The Basic Model: Theory, Empirical Results, and Policy Conclusions, Agricultural Household Models (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), pp. 17–47.
13. A. De Janvry, M. Fafchamps, and E. Sadoulet (1991), ‘Peasant Household Behavior with Missing Markets: Some Paradoxes Explained’, Economic Journal, 101(409): 1400–17.
14. L. Haddad and R. Kanbur (1990), ‘How Serious is the Neglect of Intrahousehold Inequality?’, Economic Journal, 100(402): 866–81.
15. M. M. Pitt, M. R. Rosenzweig, and M. N. Hassan (1990), ‘Productivity, Health, and Inequality in the Intrahousehold Distribution of Food in Low-Income Countries’, American Economic Review, 80(5): 1139–56.
16. C. Udry (1996), ‘Gender, Agricultural Production, and the Theory of the Household’, Journal of Political Economy, 104(5): 1010–46.
VOLUME 2: DEVELOPMENT MICROECONOMICS
Financial Services and Risk Management
17. J. Morduch (1995), ‘Income Smoothing and Consumption Smoothing’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(3): 103–14.
18. M. R. Rosenzweig and H. P. Binswanger (1993), ‘Wealth, Weather Risk and the Composition and Profitability of Agricultural Investments’, Economic Journal, 103(416): 56–78.
19. R. M. Townsend (1994), ‘Risk and Insurance in Village India’, Econometrica, 62(3): 539–91.
20. F. J. Zimmerman and M. R. Carter (2003), ‘Asset Smoothing, Consumption Smoothing and the Reproduction of Inequality under Risk and Subsistence Constraints’, Journal of Development Economics, 71(2): 233–60.
Investment in Human Capital: Nutrition, Health, and Education
21. J. R. Behrman and A. B. Deolalikar (1987), ‘Will Developing-Country Nutrition Improve with Income? A Case-Study for Rural South-India’, Journal of Political Economy, 95(3): 492–507.
22. S. Subramanian and A. Deaton (1996), ‘The Demand for Food and Calories’, Journal of Political Economy, 104(1): 133–62.
23. J. R. Behrman, A. D. Foster, and M. R. Rosenzweig (1997), ‘The Dynamics of Agricultural Production and the Calorie-Income Relationship: Evidence from Pakistan’, Journal of Econometrics, 77(1): 187–207.
24. P. Gertler and J. Gruber (2002), ‘Insuring Consumption Against Illness’, American Economic Review, 92(1): 51–70.
25. T. W. Schultz (1975), ‘Value of Ability to Deal with Disequilibria’, Journal of Economic Literature, 13(3): 827–46.
Labour Supply and Labour Markets
26. M. Eswaran and A. Kotwal (1985), ‘A Theory of Two-Tier Labor-Markets in Agrarian Economies’, American Economic Review, 75(1): 162–77.
27. H. G. Jacoby (1993), ‘Shadow Wages and Peasant Family Labor Supply: An Econometric Application to the Peruvian Sierra’, Review of Economic Studies, 60(4): 903–21.
28. A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig (1994), ‘A Test for Moral Hazard in the Labor-Market: Contractual Arrangements, Effort, and Health’, Review of Economics and Statistics, 76(2): 213–27.
Agrarian Contracts and Small Farmer Productivity
29. K. Basu (1983), ‘The Emergence of Isolation and Interlinkage in Rural Markets’, Oxford Economic Papers, 35(2): 262–80.
30. M. Eswaran and A. Kotwal (1985), ‘A Theory of Contractual Structure in Agriculture’, American Economic Review, 75(3): 352–67.
31. J. J. Laffont and M. S. Matoussi (1995), ‘Moral Hazard, Financial Constraints and Sharecropping in El Oulja’, Review of Economic Studies, 62(3): 381–99.
32. G. Feder (1985), ‘The Relation Between Farm Size and Farm Productivity: The Role of Family Labor, Supervision and Credit Constraints’, Journal of Development Economics, 18(2–3): 297–313.
33. S. M. Sherlund, C. B. Barrett, and A. A. Adesina (2002), ‘Smallholder Technical Efficiency: Controlling for Environmental Production Conditions’, Journal of Development Economics, 69(1): 85–101.
VOLUME 3: DEVELOPMENT MESOECONOMICS
Markets and Institutions
34. J. P. Platteau (2000), ‘Endogeneity in the Rise of Market Order’, Institutions, Social Norms and Economic Development (Harwood Academic Publishers), pp. 241–80.
35. M. Fafchamps and B. Minten (2001). ‘Property Rights in a Flea Market Economy’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 49(2): 229–67.
36. T. Besley (1995), ‘Property-Rights and Investment Incentives: Theory and Evidence from Ghana’, Journal of Political Economy, 103(5): 903–37.
37. M. R. Carter and P. Olinto (2003), ‘Getting Institutions “Right” for Whom? Credit Constraints and the Impact of Property Rights on the Quantity and Composition of Investment’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 85(1): 173–86.
Social Identity and Networks
38. K. Basu (1986), ‘One Kind of Power’, Oxford Economic Papers, 38(2): 259–82.
39. M. R. Rosenzweig and O. Stark (1989), ‘Consumption Smoothing, Migration, and Marriage: Evidence from Rural India’, Journal of Political Economy, 97(4): 905–26.
40. J. De Weerdt and S. Dercon (2006), ‘Risk-Sharing Networks and Insurance Against Illness’, Journal of Development Economics, 81(2): 337–56.
41. A. D. Foster and M. R. Rosenzweig (1995), ‘Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture’, Journal of Political Economy, 103(6): 1176–209.
42. T. Mogues and M. Carter (2005), ‘Social Capital and the Reproduction of Economic Inequality in Polarized Societies’, Journal of Economic Inequality, 3(3): 193–219.
43. K. Munshi (2003), ‘Networks in the Modern Economy: Mexican Migrants in the US Labor Market’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(2): 549–99.
Intersectoral Linkages
44. B. F. Johnston and J. W. Mellor (1961), ‘The Role of Agriculture in Economic-Development’, American Economic Review, 51(4): 566–93.
45. S. Haggblade, J. Hammer, and P. Hazell (1991), ‘Modeling Agricultural Growth Multipliers’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 73(2): 361–74.
46. R. E. B. Lucas and O. Stark (1985), ‘Motivations to Remit: Evidence from Botswana’, Journal of Political Economy, 93(5): 901–18.
VOLUME 4: DEVELOPMENT MACROECONOMICS
Endogenous Growth and Growth Empirics
47. R. E. Lucas (1993), ‘Making a Miracle’, Econometrica, 61(2): 251–72.
48. P. Romer (1993), ‘Idea Gaps and Object Gaps in Economic-Development’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 32(3): 543–73.
49. D. T. Quah (1996), ‘Twin Peaks: Growth and Convergence in Models of Distribution Dynamics’, Economic Journal, 106(437): 1045–55.
50. S. N. Durlauf and P. A. Johnson (1995), ‘Multiple Regimes and Cross-Country Growth Behavior’, Journal of Applied Econometrics, 10(4): 365–84.
Inequality and Growth
51. K. M. Murphy, A. Shleifer, and R. W. Vishny (1989), ‘Industrialization and the Big Push’, Journal of Political Economy, 97(5): 1003–26.
52. O. Galor and J. Zeira (1993), ‘Income Distribution and Macroeconomics’, Review of Economic Studies, 60(1): 35–52.
53. Alesina and D. Rodrik (1994), ‘Distributive Politics and Economic Growth’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 109(2): 465–90.
54. A.V. Banerjee and E. Duflo (2003), ‘Inequality and Growth: What Can the Data Say?’, Journal of Economic Growth, 8(3): 267–99.
Trade and Growth
55. P. Romer (1994), ‘New Goods, Old Theory, and the Welfare Costs of Trade Restrictions’, Journal of Development Economics, 43(1): 5–38.
56. S. Edwards (1998), ‘Openness, Productivity and Growth: What Do We Really Know?’, Economic Journal, 108(447): 383–98.
57. D. Dollar and A. Kraay (2004), ‘Trade, Growth, and Poverty’, Economic Journal, 114(493): F22–F49.
Political Economy of Development and Institutional History
58. A. O. Kreuger, M. Schiff, and A. Valdes (1988), ‘Agricultural Incentives in Developing-Countries: Measuring the Effect of Sectoral and Economy-Wide Policies’, World Bank Economic Review, 2(3): 255–71.
59. K. L. Sokoloff and S. L. Engerman (2000), ‘History Lessons: Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(3): 217–32.
60. P. Bardhan (2002), ‘Decentralization of Governance and Development’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 16(4): 185–205.
61. D. Acemoglu, S. Johnson, and J. A. Robinson (2001), ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation’, American Economic Review, 91(5): 1369–401, Dec. 2001.
Biography
Christopher B. Barrett is International Professor of Applied Economics and Management and Director of the African Food Security and Natural Resources Management Program at Cornell University, USA. He is editor of the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and an Associate Editor of the African Journal of Agricultural Economics, Environment and Development Economics, the Journal of African Economies, and World Development. He has published widely in development economics and his research has won several major awards. He authored an award-winning Routledge title in 2005 (Food Aid After Fifty Years) and has published edited volumes with Routledge, one in 2005 (The Social Economics of Poverty) and another forthcoming later in 2006 (Understanding and Reducing Persistent Poverty in Africa).
