Economic development, principles, problems and policies

As ordinarily conceived, a textbook is mainly concerned with presenting "received doctrine"; it only hints at the controversies raging on the frontiers of knowledge. It is also expected to be understandable to students and intelligent laymen without previous training in the field.

At this point in the history of economic thought, no such text book can be written on economic development. Compared to fields like general economic theory, money and banking, public finance, international trade, or even economic fluctuations, the range of agreement on economic development is extremely narrow. In the case of the underdeveloped areas, economists are particularly aware of deficient knowledge. Is the problem of poverty and stagnation in those countries essentially economic, or is it basically technological, psychological, sociological, or political? No one is altogether sure.

Since World War II, however, economic development has be come a major consideration of policy, whatever the state of economic theory concerning it. People in advanced countries have been more insistent than ever before that national incomes should rise steadily, and the development of underdeveloped countries has been a matter of world-wide concern. The pressure to discover effective means of launching economic growth is compelling economists to reconsider their concepts of the scope and method of economics. Economists are being forced into a whole galaxy of peripheral fields in which they are somewhat unsure of their footing. Not since the crash of 1929 have professional economists faced more urgent demand for answers to pressing policy ques tions; and not since the crash have they been so inadequately equipped to answer the questions put to them.