Is There A Development Economics Anymore?

Ravi Kanbur ()
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Ravi Kanbur: Cornell University

The European Journal of Development Research, 2025, vol. 37, issue 2, No 11, 397 pages

Abstract: Abstract Development economics has been thought of a distinct sub-field of economics since the 1950s. Nobel prizes have been awarded for work in development economics, university faculty lines are designated for the sub-field, and development economics centers have been set up with world over. However, I argue that the empirical trend of sharp fall in the number of countries in the official “low income” category, and the methodological trend of homogenization of economics methodology across the board means that development economics can no longer easily stand on its own as a sub-field. While institutional inertia will keep things going for quite a while, I think the distinction of development economics as a separate sub-field of economics will simply wither on the vine.

Keywords: Development economics; Empirical convergence; Methodological convergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1057/s41287-024-00677-2

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