Understanding Economic Development: A Global Transition from Poverty to Prosperity?

✍ Scribed by Colin White

• Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 413
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This fascinating book considers one of the most important problems in economics - the inception of modern economic development. It distils the conclusions of a vast literature, drawing from economics, economic history and business and management. It also explores the concepts of economic theory, showing their limitations and highlighting alternative approaches.

✦ Table of Contents

Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 8
PART I Introduction: theory and history......Page 12
1. The role of theory and history in explaining modern economic development......Page 14
2. The conventional wisdom of the economist......Page 34
3. The optimist’s view: convergence......Page 52
4. Introducing real time with a narrative......Page 70
PART II Ultimate causes: a fixed or malleable context......Page 100
5. Resources as a stimulant or constraint: the role of geography......Page 102
6. Geography and beyond: the importance of risk environments......Page 124
7. Human capital: education, health and aptitude......Page 146
8. The institutional setting: government, market and civil society......Page 167
PART III The driving forces......Page 194
9. Innovation as a prime mover......Page 196
10. Government provides the context: motivation and policies......Page 224
PART IV Devising appropriate narratives......Page 252
11. Release from the Malthusian trap......Page 254
12. Continuity and discontinuity: the meaning of the Industrial Revolution......Page 277
13. The rise and fall of the Soviet Union: the failed experiment......Page 305
PART V Conclusions......Page 334
14. Causes and complexity......Page 336
Notes......Page 352
Bibliography......Page 373
Index......Page 400