Stages of development thinking and emerging challenges for development economics

Development thought has a long history behind it and through this book, the author, encapsules its evolution from classical to modern era. The book presents a survey of development thinking of eminent economists, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, T.R. Malthus, J.S. Mill, Joseph Schumpeter, J.M. Keynes, R. Nurkse, Raul Prebisch, Gunnar Myrdal, Anne 'O' Krueger, P Bauer, Bela Balassa, T.W. Schultz, Paul Streeten etc. while presenting the survey, the author analyses how in various stages from classical to postwar era, the economists have contributed to the welfare of mankind by innovating concepts and theories which responded to the needs of the epoch to which they belonged. The author also critically examines the growing gap between development experience and development thought and brings to focus the development debate of 1970's and 1980's which centers around the neoclassical resurgence in development thinking. The author then sees the ongoing development debate through the prism of the lessons of development experience which has to be addressed by economists in future. For further evolution of development thought and policy, the growing development gap among nations and the persistence of poverty pose serious challenges. The poor and deprived look forward to the intellectual and theoretical support that development economists can give in meeting these challenges. In closing chapters of the book, the author's perspective on a conceptual framework for tackling the problem of poverty emerges and that in author's view lays down the foundations for a new economics of poverty.