Economic Growth and Development: Second Edition
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| Anteprima |
This
textbook covers the full range of topics and issues normally included
in a course on economic growth and development. Both mainstream economic
perspectives as well as the multi-paradigmatic, inter-disciplinary, and
dynamic-evolutionary perspectives from heterodox economics are
detailed. Economic development is viewed in terms of the long-run
well-being of humanity, social stability, environmental sustainability,
and just distribution of economic gains, not simply as the growth of
GDP. Furthermore, this textbook explicitly recognizes the complexity of
economic development by linking economic activity to our broader social
and natural environments.
The textbook's unique feature is its
focus on the natural environment. Both the historical effects of
economic development on the environment and the environmental
constraints on future economic development are thoroughly discussed in
two chapters on environmental issues and policies. In fact, because
economic development is defined in terms of economic, social, and
environmental sustainability, the natural environment is included in
discussions throughout the book.
The textbook is
inter-disciplinary: knowledge from fields such as sociology, psychology,
political science, economic history, and ecology is called on to
enhance the economic analysis. A thorough historical account of the
development of the principal paradigms of economic development is also
included, and the important issues of institutional development and
cultural change merit their own chapters. Two chapters on technological
change holistically focus on production technologies as well as the
dynamic performance of entire economic, social, and ecological systems.
Also, the important relationship between economic development and
globalization is presented in three chapters on international trade,
international finance and investment, and immigration from both orthodox
and heterodox perspectives.
