Arien Mack, Editor
Adolph Lowe
Hans Staudinger 1889–1980 [in memoriam]
Harvey Leibenstein
Issues in Development Economics: An Introduction
The article introduces us to Development Economics as an academic discipline that appeared after World War II. A case could be made for the position that when economists shifted their concern to development their chest of analytical tools was not specifically suited, for the most part, to that particular set of problems. In the first place, the tools available were mostly designed for static modes of analysis (price theory and Keynesian theory).
Irma Adelman
Economic Development and Political Change in Developing Countries
Analyzes the relationship among economic growth, income distribution, and political change in developing nations and discusses income distribution strategies and how to implement them without the use of coercion.
Philip W. Bell
Economic Theory and Development Economics: Where Do We Stand?
Development Economists have always been skeptical, if not downright critical, of the usefulness of traditional economic theory in solving the problems, as they see them, of less developed economics. Development economists have stressed, perhaps more than any other group, political and social theory and analysis must eventually get linked into the study of almost any economic phenomena.
Malcolm Gillis
The Role of State Enterprises in Economic Development
The article surveys the reasons for establishing government enterprises in developing nations, their economic impact, and their expanding role in the context of economic activity as a whole.
Erik Thorbecke
Agriculture and Economic Development
This essay is a short survey of the role of agriculture within the economy in developing nations. It focuses on several factors that have brought about a change in the perception of its role from a passive to an active and dynamic one.
Samuel S. Lieberman
Rural Development and Fertility Transition in South Asia: The Case for a Broad-based Strategy
This is a comparative essay on the Japanese mini model to agricultural strategy and demographic change in South Asia. There is a focus on circumstantial differences between the two areas and alternative approaches to a broad-based development in South Asia.
Abba P. Lerner
A Non-Monetarist View of the Nature of Stagflation and a Plan for Mobilizing the Market Mechanism to Cure It
An interview conducted with Professor Lerner at Florida State University on January 25, 1980 on the nature of stagflation and the current sort of inflation we are experiencing.
David Colander
Post-Keynesian Economics, Abba Lerner, and His Critics
In a recent article, Abba Lerner presented an interpretation of the development of Keynesian economics and a suggestion for a new approach to inflation. This essay considers some of the points of contention, arguing that, contrary to the claims of his critics, Lerner’s proposal for a market-based incomes policy is in no sense a departure from Keynes’ approach to economic problems.
Dmitri N. Shalin
Marxist Paradigm and Academic Freedom
An analytic evaluation of the compatibility of the Marxist paradigm in the context of Western academic freedom, outlining the state of academic freedom in the USSR, 1930–80, and information Western Marxists can obtain from the experiences of their East European colleagues.
William Augustus Banner
Distributive Justice and Welfare Claims
It is the argument of this essay that welfare claims—that is, the claims upon adequate goods and services at public expense—derive from the rights of the individual in a democratic society. There is a right to material comfort, which stands along with the right of free speech, the right of freedom of thought and religion, the right to vote, and the right to a fair trial. The right to welfare itself is simply the right to material comfort as exercised by persons in situations of economic helplessness.