This is the editorial introduction to the HOPE conference volume on the history of development economics. The disciplinary field of development economics has been surrounded by controversies since its inception in the postwar period. Although growth economics and development economics were born around the same time span, they evolved in different ways. Full histories of development economics started to appear in the 1980s, produced mostly by development economists and reflecting their experiences. This has changed in the last two decades or so, as historians of thought have contributed to reinterpret the evolution and divisions within development economics. The HOPE 2017 conference brought together for the first time development economists and historians of thought. The articles collected here reflect the tension between theory and practice and highlight the nexus between the development of specific techniques and approaches and the implementation of policies.
history of development economics, historians of thought, development economists, theory and practice
The text of this article is only available as a PDF.
References
Adamowsky, Ezequiel.
2010
. “Before Development Economics: Western Political Economy, the ‘Russian Case,’ and the First Perceptions of Economic Backwardness (from the 1760s until Mid-Nineteenth Century)
.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought
32
:349
–76
.Adelman, Irma.
1974
. “On the State of Development Economics
.” Journal of Development Economics
1
(1
): 3
–5
.Adelman, Jeremy.
2013
. Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman
. Princeton, N.J.
: Princeton University Press
.Alacevich, Michele.
2009
. The Political Economy of the World Bank: The Early Years
. Stanford, Calif.
: Stanford University Press
.Alacevich, Michele.
2017
. “Theory and Practice in Development Economics
.” In The Age of the Applied Economist: The Transformation of Economics since the 1970s
, edited by Backhouse, Roger E.; Cherrier, Béatrice. History of Political Economy
49
(supplement
): 264
–91
.Arndt, Heinz W.
1987
. Economic Development: The History of an Idea
. Chicago
: University of Chicago Press
.Ascher, William.
1996
. “The Evolution of Postwar Doctrines in Development Economics
.” In The Post-1945 Internationalization of Economics
, edited by Coats, A. W. History of Political Economy
28
(supplement
): 312
–36
.Banerjee, A. V.; Duflo, Esther.
2009
. “The Experimental Approach to Development Economics
.” Annual Review of Economics
1
:151
–78
.Barber, William J.
2008
. Gunnar Myrdal: An Intellectual Biography
. Basingstoke, U.K.
: Palgrave Macmillan
.Bardhan, Pranab; Udry, Christopher, eds.
2000
. Empirical Microeconomics. Vol. 2 of Readings in Development Microeconomics
. Cambridge, Mass.
: MIT Press
.Boettke, Peter; Horwitz, Steven.
2005
. “The Limits of Economic Expertise: Prophets, Engineers, and the State in the History of Development Economics
.” In The Role of Government in the History of Economic Thought
, edited by Medema, Steven G.; Boettke, Peter. History of Political Economy
37
(supplement
): 10
–39
.Boianovsky, Mauro.
2013a
. “Humboldt and the Economists on Natural Resources, Institutions, and Underdevelopment (1752 to 1859)
.” European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
20
:58
–88
.Boianovsky, Mauro.
2013b
. “Friedrich List and the Economic Fate of Tropical Countries
.” History of Political Economy
45
:647
–91
.Boianovsky, Mauro.
2018
. “Beyond Capital Fundamentalism: Harrod, Domar, and the History of Development Economics
.” Cambridge Journal of Economics
42
:477
–504
.Dawidoff, Nicholas.
2002
. The Fly Swatter: How My Grandfather Made His Way in the World
. New York
: Pantheon
.Dosman, Edgar J.
2008
. The Life and Times of Raúl Prebisch, 1901–1986
. Montreal
: McGill-Queen’s University Press
.Ekbladh, David.
2010
. The Great American Mission: Modernization and the Construction of an American World Order
. Princeton, N.J.
: Princeton University Press
.Hirschman, Albert O.
1958
. The Strategy of Economic Development
. New Haven, Conn.
: Yale University Press
.Hirschman, Albert O.
1981
. “The Rise and Decline of Development Economics
.” In Essays in Trespassing: Economics to Politics and Beyond
, 45
–110
. Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press
.Hirschman, Albert O. (
1994
) 1998
. “Trespassing: Places and Ideas in the Course of a Life
.” In Crossing Boundaries: Selected Writings
. New York
: Zone Books
.Ingham, Barbara; Mosley, Paul.
2013
. Sir Arthur Lewis: A Biography
. Basingstoke, UK
: Palgrave Macmillan
.Lewis, W. Arthur.
1984
. “The State of Development Theory
.” American Economic Review
74
(1
): 1
–10
.Little, Ian M. D.
1982
. Economic Development: Theory, Policy, and International Relations
. New York
: Basic Books
.Maul, Daniel.
2012
. Human Rights, Development, and Decolonization: The International Labour Organization, 1940–70
. Basingstoke, UK
: Palgrave Macmillan
.Meier, Gerald M.
2005
. Biography of a Subject: An Evolution of Development Economics
. Oxford
: Oxford University Press
.Meier, Gerald M., ed.
1987
. Pioneers in Development
. 2nd series. New York
: Oxford University Press
.Meier, Gerald M.; Seers, Dudley, eds.
1984
. Pioneers in Development
. New York
: Oxford University Press
.Murphy, Craig N.
2006
. The United Nations Development Programme: A Better Way?
New York
: Cambridge University Press
.Myrdal, Gunnar.
1968
. Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations
. 3 vols
. New York
: Twentieth Century Fund
.Oman, Charles P.; Wignaraja, Ganeshan.
1991
. The Postwar Evolution of Development Thinking
. Basingstoke, U.K.
: Palgrave Macmillan
.Perraton, Jonathan.
2007
. “Evaluating Marxian Contributions to Development Economics
.” Journal of Economic Methodology
14
:27
–46
.Ricardo, David. (
1821
) 1951
. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
. Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press
.Rist, Gilbert.
2014
. The History of Development: From Western Origins to Global Faith
. Translated by Camiller, P. London
: Zed Books
.Rosenstein-Rodan, Paul N.
1943
. “Problems of Industrialisation of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe
.” Economic Journal
53
(210/211
): 202
–11
.Seers, Dudley.
1963
. “The Limitations of the Special Case
.” Bulletin of the Oxford Institute of Economics and Statistics
25
(2
): 77
–98
.Seers, Dudley.
1979
. “The Birth, Life and Death of Development Economics
.” Development and Change
10
:707
–19
.Serra, Gerardo.
Forthcoming
. Marching with the Times: Economics, Statistics, and Political Imagination in Ghana, 1948–1966
. Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press
.Shaw, D. John.
2002
. Sir Hans Singer: The Life and Work of a Development Economist
. Basingstoke, U.K.
: Palgrave Macmillan
.Stigler, George J.
1960
. “The Influence of Events and Policies on Economic Theory
.” American Economic Review
50
:36
–45
.Streeten, Paul P.
1983
. “Development Dichotomies
.” World Development
11
(10
): 875
–89
.Thirlwall, Anthony P.
(1984) 1995
. “In Praise of Development Economics
.” In The Economics of Growth and Development: Selected Essays of A. P. Thirlwall
, 1
–12
. Aldershot, U.K.
: Edward Elgar
.Tignor, Robert L.
2005
. W. Arthur Lewis and the Birth of Development Economics
. Princeton, N.J.
: Princeton University Press
.Toye, John; Toye, Richard.
2004
. The UN and Global Political Economy: Trade, Finance, and Development
. Bloomington
: Indiana University Press
.Copyright © 2018 Duke University Press
2018
This content is made freely available by the publisher. It may not be redistributed or altered. All rights reserved.
Issue Section:
Introduction
