Development Economics

Chapter 1: Generalities on Development

Development Economics Educational Team 1

Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management - FSEG

September 23, 2020

 Introduction

Development: a complex and multidimensional phenomenon

→ Transversal concept;

→ Need to define its notion in relation to each

discipline.

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 1.1 Notion of development

Development is linked to several factors: well-being of

populations, quality of life, demographic growth, training
of human capital, the natural environment, etc.
→ Impossible to measure development using only
taux de croissance économique : exceeding GDPas
measurement of development.

→ Today, we know that we cannot rely on GDP.

as a unique measure of well-being.
Other multidimensional indicators are needed:HDI

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 The quality of life is measured through several dimensions:
→ The direct satisfaction of the populations depends on
- education and other indicators of human factors (HF);
- natural resources (Sustainable Development) ;
-flows of consumer goods (C).

→ Populations are also concerned about the well-being of

future generations.

the development, the New Development Concept approach

(NDC): combination of Economic Growth (C),
Human Development (HD) and Sustainable Development (SD)

==> D = DH + DD + C

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 1.2 History of the concept of development

Goes back to antiquity:

→ Aristotle (384-322): how to reconcile the permanence of the same
and the appearance of the new?
Reflection on the future of human societies: civilizations
obeyed the cyclic law of rise and decline.
Any growth inevitably involved an end;
that is to say an end.

→ St. Augustine (340-430): integrates all phenomena

natural and socio-historical events for a purpose
teleological.
The human story obeys a necessity in accordance with the design of
God, whose pinnacle is salvation.

→ One must wait for the 17th century: the idea of a possibility of progress.
infusing the social field and the field of knowledge.

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 Natural History of Humanity
Little by little, the idea emerges that there is a natural history of humanity.
and that the development of human societies, knowledge and
wealth corresponds to a natural, self-dynamic principle that underlies the
possibility of a narrative.

→ Thesis of social evolutionism based on analogy with biology.

The concept of development: the analogy with biology: the

advantages of the metaphor:
→ Multiple possibilities to give a generic name to the multiples
practices intended to enhance the well-being of humanity:
Civilization
Modernization;
Occidentalization, etc.

It is the choice of the word development that has prevailed because it

had several advantages.

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 Choice of the "development word":

→ Development is a convenient term to describe the

social change resulting from the economic process: variety of
sense related to deployment and growth;

→ Unanimous sense of development: for example development

of a plant or a child: imperceptible process, impossible to
to notice in the moment and yet obvious when one follows it in the
duration.

Beware of the analogy trap:

We thus relate a social phenomenon to a natural phenomenon,
by acting as if what was true for one should be true for the other
necessarily from the other. It is this transfer from the social to the natural
that should be questioned.

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 What are the implicit significants of development
natural or living beings?

Directionalities
→ Development is necessarily seen as positive:
The continuity

Cumulativity

Irreversibility

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 1.3 Analysis of the Development Trajectory

Our current economies are the result of a long evolution.

millennium that dates back to the origins of humanity.
Their development trajectory has been marked by revolutions.
industrial, economic and social.
Three major waves punctuated by economic revolutions:
Agrarian Wave; Industrial Wave and ICT Wave.

1.3.1Agrarian Vagueness

Pre-agricultural economy: the first step in the evolution of our

economies with main activities
the collection;
the consumption of natural resources;
-and the hunt.

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 1.3.1Agrarian Vagueness

Source of the glacier and discovery of agriculture:

→ Climate change: radical transformation of the natural environment

the liberation of arable lands

Technical progress and Agricultural surplus:

→ Technological progress in the fields of agricultural equipment,

fertilization of the land and selection of plants ==> of the
productivité agricole ==>Surplus agricole

→ Transition from the primitive self-sufficient agricultural production economy

to the market economy through surplus.

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 1.3.2Industrial Vague:

The overall economic and social transformations that the world

capitalist of the XVIII.

There was the discovery of the steam engine (1750 - 1850), of the engine
to explosion and electric motor (1850 - 1950).

It was based on the scientific organization of work (Taylorism)

Organization of work; Control of working time and
worker's remuneration.

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 1.3.3Vague TIC:

Technological development: become the engine of change

economic and social from the 1960s.

ICTs, consisting of digital processing, storage, and

transport of information.

→ Automation of the manufacturing process;

→ Towards an immaterial economy;
→ etc.

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 1.4 Development Policies
Three major periods of development policies since the second
world war
Period 1950 - 1980: the era of developmentalist policies.
→ Substitutions to imports through development policy
by industrialization.
→ Reinforcement of the role of the State.
Period 1980 – 2000: referred to as the era of consensus
Washington
→ emphasis has been placed on macroeconomic stability, discipline
budgetary and commercial opening.

From the 2000s: the era of privatization→

Focus on the quality of institutions: governance;

→ Reflection on the application of development policies and the

rejection of the dichotomy Markets-States.
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 1.5 New tools for Development Policies:
the market

Development must be market-driven while taking into account

the imperfections of this one.

The State should not be directly involved in production (rule

general), but has an important role to play: stability of
the macroeconomic environment, regulation, supply of certain goods
and services, etc.

The market is a qualitative and quantitative factor of development.

→ The law of the market: based on the game of supply and demand.

Positive relationship between the market, the increase in quality of the

life Illustration

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 Additional lectures and tutorials

1.6.1 To go further, additional readings are proposed to

the end of the chapter. See the course materials for access to the
documents available by clicking on the link https.

1.6.2TD 1: Study the transition of the concept of development in F.

Perroux on performance theories. Cf.
[Link]

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