World hunger and the world economy and other essays in development economics

This book focuses on some of the major issues in development economics: the causes, both domestic and international, of world hunger; the roots of rural poverty in Asia and the policies necessary to improve the well-being of the peasantry; and the contribution to growth and reduced inequality in the countryside that can be made by cooperative, collective or communal tenure systems.

These general themes are illustrated by case studies based on the author's work in China and Ethiopia. The chapters on China contain an analysis of the radical and largely successful economic reforms that have transformed the agricultural sector and are in the process of transforming industry, and include a substantial study of development in Xinjiang, a remote and arid region in north-western China. The chapters on Ethiopia explain the background the famine and mass impoverishment there and present a strategy for self-reliant rural development centred on cooperation for accumulation.

Foreign aid is viewed with scepticism. It appears to have contributed little to growth and even less to diminishing inequality, poverty and hunger. Similarly, massive foreign borrowing by Africa and Latin America has led not to development but to a debt crisis and pressure for default.

These essays challenge many conventional ideas and present an alternative perspective on problems of development in the Third World.