Early Development Economics Debates Revisited

Alacevich, Michele

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL SECTOR;    AGRICULTURE;    BENEFICIARY;    CAPITAL FORMATION;    CLASSICAL ECONOMISTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4441
RP-ID  :  WPS4441

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Development economics in its early yearscreated the image of a fierce fight between advocates ofcontrasting theories or approaches- "balancedgrowth" vs. "unbalanced growth" or"program loans" vs. "project loans."This view has the merit to highlight such conflicts in greatdetail; yet it fails to take into account the reality ofdevelopment economics as it was practiced in the field. Thispaper reassesses these old conflicts by complementing thetraditional focus on theoretical debates with an emphasis onthe practice of development economics.A particularlyinteresting example is the debate between Albert Hirschman,one of the fathers of the "unbalanced growth"approach, and Lauchlin Currie, among the advocates of"balanced growth" on how to foster iron productionin Colombia in the 1950s. An analysis of the positions heldby these two economists shows that they were in fact muchless antithetical than is usually held and, indeed, were insome fundamental aspects surprisingly similar. Debates amongdevelopment economists during the 1950s thus must beexplained-at least partially-as the natural dynamics of anemerging discipline that took shape when different groupstried to achieve supremacy-orat least legitimacy-throughthe creation of mutually delegitimizing systemic theories.