Economic Development, Endogenous Growth, and Agriculture

This chapter reviews the literature upon which the subsequent analysis is based. We start in the first section by describing the different mechanisms of endogenous growth and then show in the second section where this new methodology is applied to questions of economic development. As a counterpoint to this new analysis of development, we present in the third section some older discussions about the role of agriculture in economic development which is largely neglected in the new work. These discussions originate in development economics rather than in growth theory. In the last section we show how the new ideas can be combined with the older insights and set the agenda for the subsequent chapters.