Economic Development is the leading textbook in this field, providing a complete and balanced introduction to the requisite theory, the driving policy issues, and the latest research. Todaro and Smith take a policy-oriented approach, presenting economic theory in the context of critical policy debates and country-specific case studies so students see how theory relates to the problems and prospects of developing countries.

Table of Contents

I. Principles and Concepts 1. Economics, Institutions, and Development: A Global Perspective How the Other Half Live Economics and Development Studies Economies as Social Systems: The Need to Go Beyond Simple Economics What Do We Mean by Development? 2. Comparative Economic Development Defining the Developing World Measuring Development for Quantitative Comparison across Countries Some Basic Indicators of Development Characteristics of the Developing World: Diversity within Commonality How Low-Income Countries Today Differ from Developed Countries in Their Earlier Stages Are Living Standards of Developing and Developed Nations Converging? Long-Run Causes of Comparative Development 3. Classic Theories of Economic Growth and Development Classic Theories of Economic Development: Four Approaches Development as Growth and the Linear-Stages Theories Structural-Change Models The International-Dependence Revolution The Neoclassical Counterrevolution: Market Fundamentalism Classic Theories of Development: Reconciling Differences 4. Contemporary Models of Development and Underdevelopment Underdevelopment as a Coordination Failure Multiple Equilibria: A Diagrammatic Approach Starting Economic Development: The Big Push Further Problems of Multiple Equilibria Kremer's O-Ring Theory of Economic Development The Hausmann-Rodrik-Velasco Growth Diagnostics Framework II. Problems and Policies: Domestic 5. Poverty, Inequality, and Development Measuring Inequality and Poverty Poverty, Inequality, and Social Welfare Absolute Poverty: Extent and Magnitude Economic Characteristics of Poverty Groups The Range of Policy Options: Some Basic Considerations Summary and Conclusions: The Need for a Package of Policies 6. Population Growth and Economic Development: Causes, Consequences, and Controversies The Basic Issue: Population Growth and the Quality of Life A Review of Numbers: Population Growth--Past, Present, and Future The Demographic Transition The Causes of High Fertility in Developing Countries: The Malthusian and Household Models The Consequences of High Fertility: Some Conflicting Opinions Goals and Objectives: Toward a Consensus Some Policy Approaches 7. Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration: Theory and Policy The Migration and Urbanization Dilemma The Role of Cities The Urban Giantism Problem The Urban Informal Sector Urban Unemployment Migration and Development Toward an Economic Theory of Rural-Urban Migration Summary and Conclusions: The Shape of a Comprehensive Migration and Employment Strategy 8. Human Capital: Education and Health in Economic Development The Central Roles of Education and Health Education and Health as Joint Investments for Development Improving Health and Education: Why Increasing Income Is Not Sufficient Investing in Education and Health: The Human Capital Approach Child Labor The Gender Gap: Women and Education Educational Systems and Development Health Systems and Development 9. Agricultural Transformation and Rural Development The Imperative of Agricultural Progress and Rural Development Agricultural Growth: Past Progress and Current Challenges The Structure of Agrarian Systems in the Developing World The Important Role of Women The Economics of Agricultural Development: Transition from Peasant Subsistence to Specialized Commercial Farming Toward a Strategy of Agricultural and Rural Development: Some Main Requirements 10. The Environment and Development Economics and the Environment Environment and Development: The Basic Issues The Scope of Environmental Degradation: An Overview Rural Development and the Environment: A Tale of Two Villages Global Warming and Climate Change Traditional Economic Models of the Environment Urban Development and the Environment The Need for Policy Reform The Local and Global Costs of Rain Forest Destruction and Greenhouse Gases Policy Options in Developing and Developed Countries 11. Development Policymaking and the Roles of Market, State, and Civil Society The Planning Mystique The Nature of Development Planning The Rationale for Development Planning The Planning Process: Some Basic Models Aggregate Growth Models: Projecting Macro Variables Multisector and Sectoral Projections Project Appraisal and Social Cost-Benefit Analysis Problems of Plan Implementation and Plan Failure Government Failure and the Resurgent Preference for Markets over Planning The Market Economy The "Washington Consensus" on the State in Development and Its Limitations Development Political Economy: Theories of Policy Formulation and Reform Trends in Governance and Reform Development Policy and the State: Concluding Observations III. Problems and Policies: International and Macro 12. International Trade Theory and Development Strategy Globalization: An Introduction International Trade and Finance: Some Key Issues Five Basic Questions about Trade and Development The Terms of Trade and the Prebisch-Singer Thesis The Traditional Theory of International Trade The Critique of Traditional Free-Trade Theory in the Context of Developing-Country Experience Some Conclusions on Trade Theory and Economic Development Strategy Traditional Trade Strategies for Development: Export Promotion versus Import Substitution Trade Optimists and Trade Pessimists: Summarizing the Traditional Debate The Industrialization Strategy Approach to Export Policy Reconciling the Arguments: The Data and the Consensus South-South Trade and Economic Integration: Looking Outward and Inward Trade Policies of Developed Countries: The Need for Reform 13. Balance of Payments, Developing-Country Debt, and the Macroeconomic Stabilization Controversy The Balance of Payments Account Financing and Reducing Payments Deficits The Debt Crisis of the 1980s Attempts at Alleviation: Macroeconomic Instability, IMF Stabilization Policies, and Their Critics "Odius Debt" and its Prevention Resolution and Continued Vulnerabilities 14. Foreign Finance, Investment, and Aid: Controversies and Opportunities The International Flow of Financial Resources Private Foreign Direct Investment and the Multinational Corporation Private Portfolio Investment: Boon or Bane for LDCs? The Role and Growth of Remittances Foreign Aid: The Development Assistance Debate 15. Finance and Fiscal Policy for Development The Role of the Financial System The Road to Macroeconomic Stability Microfinance Institutions Reforming Financial Systems Fiscal Policy for Development Public Administration: The Scarcest Resource State-Owned Enterprises Military Expenditures and Economic Development 16. Some Critical Issues for the Twenty-First Century Global Interdependence and the Growth of Developing-World Markets The Global Environment and the Developing World The Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa Globalization and International Financial Reform Concluding Remarks

Author Biography

Michael P. Todaro was Professor of Economics at New York University for eighteen years and Senior Associate at the Population Council for thirty years. He lived and taught in Africa for six years. He appears in Who's Who in Economics and Economists of the Twentieth Century. He is also the author of eight books and more than fifty professional articles. In a special February 2011 centenary edition, the American Economic Review selected Todaro's article "Migration, Unemployment and Development: A 2-Sector Analysis" (with J. Harriss) as one of the twenty most important articles published by that journal during the first hundred years of its existence. Stephen C. Smith is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. He received his PhD in economics from Cornell University. Smith is author of Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works, co-editor of NGOs and the Millennium Development Goals: Citizen Action to Reduce Poverty, and author or coauthor of some three dozen journal articles