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Why History Is Important in Africa’s Economic Development Narrative Read chapter Read first chapter

2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

2. Economic Development: Facts, Theories and Evidence

Author : Matthew Kofi Ocran

Published in: Economic Development in the Twenty-first Century

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Ocran provides a comprehensive but succinct review of the evolution of economic thought regarding the notion of human progress, antecedent of the very idea of economic development in contemporary times. He sets the scene for the discussion on economic development by discussing the salient stylised facts about economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The discussion reviews Adam Smith, Karl Marx and other classical economists’ view on development. He follows up with the review of neoclassical growth theories: exogenous and endogenous variants. Ocran also discusses other mainstream and heterodox theories that purport to remedy the flaws inherent in the dominant neoclassical approach. He discusses the old and new institutional economics ideas and coordination failure. Ocran also examines variants of the dependency, modernisation and world-systems approaches. He ends the review by pointing out that none of the ideas thus far in itself provides a complete theory that offers a silver bullet for addressing meaningfully Africa’s development challenges.

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Metadata
Title
Economic Development: Facts, Theories and Evidence
Author
Matthew Kofi Ocran
Copyright Year
2019
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Book
Economic Development in the Twenty-first Century

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-10769-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-10770-3

Copyright Year: 2019

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10770-3_2