When the History of Ideas Meets Theory: Arthur Lewis and the Classical Economists on Development

This article examines how Arthur Lewis adopted and adapted classical concepts in his approach to development. The Lewis 1954 model is set in the context of other growth and development models put forward at the time by Roy Harrod, Evsey Domar, Trevor Swan, Nicholas Kaldor, Robert Solow, Ragnar Nurkse, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, and Hla Myint. The heuristic role of the history of economic thought in Lewis’s works is discussed, as well as the influence of his London School of Economics background.