Development Economics

The study of development in low-income countries is attracting more attention than ever before. Yet until now there has been no comprehensive text that incorporates the huge strides made in the subject over the past decade. Development Economics fills that gap in a clear, rigorous, and elegant fashion. Debraj Ray, an accomplished theorist in development economics. presents in this book a synthesis of recent and older literature in the field and raises important questions that will help set the agenda for future research. He discusses such vital subjects as theories of economic growth, economic inequality, poverty and undernutrition, population growth, trade policy, and the markets for land, labour, and credit. In this context diverse topics such as the new growth theory, moral hazard in land contracts, information-based theories of credit markets, and the macroeconomic implications of economic inequality are covered. This book takes the position that there is no single cause for economic progress, but that a combination of factors–among them the improvement of physical and human capital, the reduction of inequality, and institutions that enable the background flow of information essential to market performance–consistently favour development. Ray supports this argument with examples from around the world. Development Economics will be the definitive textbook in this subject for years to come. it will prove useful to researchers by showing intriguing connections among a wide variety of subjects that are rarely discussed together in the same book, and will also be an important resource for policy makers, who increasingly find themselves dealing with complex issues of growth, inequality, poverty, and social welfare.