Institutions and Development Strategies

Institutions and Development Strategies brings together the major contributions which Irma Adelman has made to our understanding of development strategies and the role of institutions in economic development. Featuring pioneering work on the quantitative analysis of institutions as well as a series of contributions on long-term development policy, this book includes original approaches to the measurement of institutional characteristics and novel statistical techniques.

Several papers address the conceptual issues posed by the quantification of qualitative aspects of development. Others use novel econometric approaches to explore how growth-promoting institutions change with development levels. Still others focus on modelling politics and microeconomic institutions. These papers provide empirical evidence for the recent resurgence of interest in institutional aspects of economic growth.

The section on development strategies presents simulation models comparing alternative development strategies. Written over the last 30 years, these papers represent the shifts in her thinking from advocacy of import substitution to export led growth, to income-distribution-oriented strategies and, finally, to agricultural development led industrialization.

This volume combines theoretical, statistical-descriptive, historical and modelling approaches to its discussion of these issues. With its companion volume, Dynamics and Income Distribution, these volumes of selected essays make a significant contribution by improving access to Irma Adelman’s pioneering work on the economics and policy of development.