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A Modern Guide to Uneven Economic Development
In contrast to neo-classical mainstream approaches to economics, this innovative Modern Guide addresses the complex reality of economic development as an inherently uneven process, exploring the ways of theorizing and empirically exploring the mechanisms with which the unevenness manifests itself. It covers a wide array of issues influencing wealth and poverty, technological innovation, ecology and sustainability, financialization, population, gender, and geography, considering the dynamics of cumulative causations created by the interplay between these factors.
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Critical Acclaim
Contributors
Contents
More Information
In contrast to neo-classical mainstream approaches to economics, this innovative Modern Guide addresses the complex reality of economic development as an inherently uneven process, exploring the ways of theorizing and empirically exploring the mechanisms with which the unevenness manifests itself.
Advancing experience-based theories in the debate of economic development, this Modern Guide provides a qualitative, holistic and nuanced understanding of economic inequality by uniquely combining explanations from a large number of academic fields. It covers a wide array of issues influencing wealth and poverty, technological innovation, ecology and sustainability, financialization, population, gender and geography, and considers the dynamics of cumulative causations created by the interplay between these factors. By looking at falling real wages, world income distribution, and refugees and migrants in poorer regions, it ultimately explains why wealth and poverty are so unevenly distributed globally.
The cutting-edge discussions in this Modern Guide will prove invaluable for students and scholars from a range of disciplines including economics and development studies. In today’s world of ‘single-issue management’, the alternative theories of mutual influence in this book will prove useful to policy makers working across a variety of economic fields.
Advancing experience-based theories in the debate of economic development, this Modern Guide provides a qualitative, holistic and nuanced understanding of economic inequality by uniquely combining explanations from a large number of academic fields. It covers a wide array of issues influencing wealth and poverty, technological innovation, ecology and sustainability, financialization, population, gender and geography, and considers the dynamics of cumulative causations created by the interplay between these factors. By looking at falling real wages, world income distribution, and refugees and migrants in poorer regions, it ultimately explains why wealth and poverty are so unevenly distributed globally.
The cutting-edge discussions in this Modern Guide will prove invaluable for students and scholars from a range of disciplines including economics and development studies. In today’s world of ‘single-issue management’, the alternative theories of mutual influence in this book will prove useful to policy makers working across a variety of economic fields.
Critical Acclaim
‘In contrast to neo-classical mainstream approaches to economics, this innovative Modern Guide addresses the complex reality of economic development as an inherently uneven process, exploring the ways of theorizing and empirically exploring the mechanisms with which the unevenness manifests itself. It covers a wide array of issues influencing wealth and poverty, technological innovation, ecology and sustainability, financialization, population, gender, and geography, considering the dynamics of cumulative causations created by the interplay between these factors.’
– Heterodox Economics Newsletter, Issue 331, August 2024
‘At the core of this edited book is the crucial place of imperialism in explaining uneven development. Erik Reinert is an outstanding development economist. In criticizing Eurocentric orthodox economics, which is expressed in mathematics, he, Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven, and the other authors reveal a notable knowledge of economics and the history of economic thought.’
– Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil
‘The boundless erudition of Erik Reinert animates this collection, augmented by the diverse expertise of many colleagues, and underpinned by their shared grasp of how and why the great voices of progressive political economy – List, Carey, Peshine Smith to name several – were stilled and forgotten as narrow dogmas came to rule the economic roost.’
– James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin, US
‘Uneven development is not an aberration: it’s been a central feature of capitalism through its history. This fascinating book provides many insights into this process: providing spatial and temporal analyses; identifying causes and consequences; linking with institutions and regulations; even showing how it can be associated with technological retrogression in some cases. Essential reading for anyone interested in economic development.’
– Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts Amherst, US
– Heterodox Economics Newsletter, Issue 331, August 2024
‘At the core of this edited book is the crucial place of imperialism in explaining uneven development. Erik Reinert is an outstanding development economist. In criticizing Eurocentric orthodox economics, which is expressed in mathematics, he, Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven, and the other authors reveal a notable knowledge of economics and the history of economic thought.’
– Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Brazil
‘The boundless erudition of Erik Reinert animates this collection, augmented by the diverse expertise of many colleagues, and underpinned by their shared grasp of how and why the great voices of progressive political economy – List, Carey, Peshine Smith to name several – were stilled and forgotten as narrow dogmas came to rule the economic roost.’
– James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin, US
‘Uneven development is not an aberration: it’s been a central feature of capitalism through its history. This fascinating book provides many insights into this process: providing spatial and temporal analyses; identifying causes and consequences; linking with institutions and regulations; even showing how it can be associated with technological retrogression in some cases. Essential reading for anyone interested in economic development.’
– Jayati Ghosh, University of Massachusetts Amherst, US
Contributors
Contributors include: Bruno Bonizzi, Salah Chafik, Monica Di Fiore, Sylvi B. Endresen, Alf Hornborg, Annina Kaltenbrunner, Jan Kregel, Marta Kuc-Czarnecka, Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven, Mariana Mazzucato, Magdalena Olczyk, Lyn Ossome, Carlota Perez, Vladimir Popov, Jeff Powell, Jerome Ravetz, Erik S. Reinert, Andrea Saltelli, Ting Xu, Xuan Zhao
Contents
Contents:
Introduction: uneven development ‒ addressing causes versus
treating symptoms 1
Erik S. Reinert and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
PART I NATURE-MADE VERSUS POLICY-MADE
SOURCES OF UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT
1 Uneven economic development: identifying the blind
spots of mainstream economics 19
Erik S. Reinert
2 Geography, uneven development and population density:
attempting a non-ethnocentric approach to development 46
Erik S. Reinert, Salah Chafik and Xuan Zhao
3 Redirecting growth: inclusive, sustainable and innovation-led 71
Mariana Mazzucato and Carlota Perez
PART II ASSUMPTIONS, ABSTRACTIONS AND
APPROACHES TO UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT
4 Altered states: Cartesian and Ricardian dreams 108
Erik S. Reinert, Monica Di Fiore, Andrea Saltelli and
Jerome R. Ravetz
5 Gender and uneven development 135
Lyn Ossome
6 Dependency theory: strengths, weaknesses, and its
relevance today 147
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
7 The need to centre imperialism in studies of uneven development 171
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
8 Imperialism: a note on the unequal treaties of modern
China and Japan 186
Xuan Zhao
PART III UNDERSTANDING MECHANISMS THAT
CREATE AND PREVENT INEQUALITY
9 Physiocracy, guillotines and antisemitism? Did economics
emulate the wrong Enlightenment? 200
Andrea Saltelli and Erik S. Reinert
10 Technological retrogression and persistent poverty 218
Sylvi B. Endresen
PART IV WHEN NATIONS AND SYSTEMS DECLINE
AND COLLAPSE
11 When nations collapse: a note on Jacob Bielfeld’s ‘On the
Decline of States’ (1760) 238
Erik S. Reinert
12 Free trade with the former COMECON countries as
unequal exchange 255
Marta Kuc-Czarnecka, Andrea Saltelli, Magdalena Olczyk
and Erik S. Reinert
13 Escaping the poverty trap in China: the co-evolution of
diversity in property and economic development 277
Ting Xu
14 Recent experiences of successful economic policies: the
case of Uzbekistan 304
Vladimir Popov
PART V FINANCE VERSUS THE REAL ECONOMY
15 Uneven development, financialised capitalism and subordination 332
Bruno Bonizzi, Annina Kaltenbrunner and Jeff Powell
16 Unequal growth and the single currency: the fiscal policy paradox 348
Jan Kregel
PART VI ECOLOGY
17 Identifying ecologically unequal exchange in the
world-system: implications for development 367
Alf Hornborg
Conclusion: what are the important lessons from history? 389
Erik S. Reinert and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
Index 406
Introduction: uneven development ‒ addressing causes versus
treating symptoms 1
Erik S. Reinert and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
PART I NATURE-MADE VERSUS POLICY-MADE
SOURCES OF UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT
1 Uneven economic development: identifying the blind
spots of mainstream economics 19
Erik S. Reinert
2 Geography, uneven development and population density:
attempting a non-ethnocentric approach to development 46
Erik S. Reinert, Salah Chafik and Xuan Zhao
3 Redirecting growth: inclusive, sustainable and innovation-led 71
Mariana Mazzucato and Carlota Perez
PART II ASSUMPTIONS, ABSTRACTIONS AND
APPROACHES TO UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT
4 Altered states: Cartesian and Ricardian dreams 108
Erik S. Reinert, Monica Di Fiore, Andrea Saltelli and
Jerome R. Ravetz
5 Gender and uneven development 135
Lyn Ossome
6 Dependency theory: strengths, weaknesses, and its
relevance today 147
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
7 The need to centre imperialism in studies of uneven development 171
Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
8 Imperialism: a note on the unequal treaties of modern
China and Japan 186
Xuan Zhao
PART III UNDERSTANDING MECHANISMS THAT
CREATE AND PREVENT INEQUALITY
9 Physiocracy, guillotines and antisemitism? Did economics
emulate the wrong Enlightenment? 200
Andrea Saltelli and Erik S. Reinert
10 Technological retrogression and persistent poverty 218
Sylvi B. Endresen
PART IV WHEN NATIONS AND SYSTEMS DECLINE
AND COLLAPSE
11 When nations collapse: a note on Jacob Bielfeld’s ‘On the
Decline of States’ (1760) 238
Erik S. Reinert
12 Free trade with the former COMECON countries as
unequal exchange 255
Marta Kuc-Czarnecka, Andrea Saltelli, Magdalena Olczyk
and Erik S. Reinert
13 Escaping the poverty trap in China: the co-evolution of
diversity in property and economic development 277
Ting Xu
14 Recent experiences of successful economic policies: the
case of Uzbekistan 304
Vladimir Popov
PART V FINANCE VERSUS THE REAL ECONOMY
15 Uneven development, financialised capitalism and subordination 332
Bruno Bonizzi, Annina Kaltenbrunner and Jeff Powell
16 Unequal growth and the single currency: the fiscal policy paradox 348
Jan Kregel
PART VI ECOLOGY
17 Identifying ecologically unequal exchange in the
world-system: implications for development 367
Alf Hornborg
Conclusion: what are the important lessons from history? 389
Erik S. Reinert and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven
Index 406
