Standards, benchmarks, define modern life, but do they diminish the importance of diversity for progress? Arguably not, for diversity, or variety, is the essence of economic life in the sense of underlying choice; economic calculation gives numerical substance to how people make choices in their...

There is some scepticism about Korea as role model of development as the Korean model involved a considerable degree of state activism, unacceptable in today's global environment. This paper propose a capability-based view of the country's catch-up development, arguing that the real lesson from...

Territorial cooperation, taken as collaboration "beyond national boundaries", among administrative bodies and/or political actors, generally offers the ground for functional cooperation towards problem-solving and challenge-tackling, along with the exploitation of the local and regional...

This paper reviews the main methodological innovations in Asian Drama. It considers whether Myrdal's perspectives have been adopted by development analysts, and where fresh thinking is needed, particularly in the light of changes occurring in the half-century since he wrote Asian Drama. The...

Gunnar Myrdal published Asian Drama in 1968, a work which made important analytical contributions to our understanding of development but was deeply pessimistic about Asia's future prospects. Since then, contrary to Myrdal's expectations, Asia's development has been remarkable, although...

Nowadays the world is facing a serious problem related to climate change and its repercussion for human beings. At the same time, world societies are struggling with the consequences of the last economic crisis. These issues have not escaped the attention of the United Nations, and therefore in...

The evolution of the development doctrine over the last six decades is analysed in some detail in this paper. The development doctrine is defined as the body of knowledge consisting of four interrelated components: (1) the prevailing development objectives; (2) the conceptual state of the art...

Since before Adam Smith, economists have been concerned with development. However, they have seldom understood it or paid it enough mind. For example, the "sequence" economists, such as Marx in the 19th Century and Rostow in the 20th sought to force development everywhere into a rigid pattern....

Why are some countries so much richer than others? Development Accounting is a first-pass attempt at organizing the answer around two proximate determinants: factors of production and efficiency. It answers the question ‘how much of the cross-country income variance can be attributed to...

Bangladesh came into being following more than two decades of political struggle culminating in the war of independence in 1971. This struggle was inspired by a vision for a democratic, non-communal, prosperous, and equitable society. After 15 years of parliamentary democracy, it is reasonable...