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The Process of Economic Development
The fifth edition of The Process of Economic Development offers a thorough and up-to-date treatment of development economics. It has been extensively revised throughout, reflecting the most recent developments in research and incorporating the latest empirical data, as well as key theoretical advances and many new topics. The world has seen vast economic growth in China, economic transformation in India, new challenges in Latin America, rapid economic progress in Southeast Asia, and the deepening impact of environmental issues such as climate change. This new edition addresses all these critical issues as well as the pivotal role of the state, where China’s capacity is contrasted with that of African states. Transnational corporations’ reliance on low-wage manufacturing and labor arbitrage is featured in the book. Agricultural policy―extensively explored―remains crucial, as does the promotion of industrialization. This fifth edition offers a ‘state-of-the-art’ analysis of these essential themes and many others. Numerous case studies and issue focuses have been integrated with sundry central topics. Neoclassical theories and applications, including a timely exploration of behavioral economics, are both rigorously and accessibly explicated. Cypher’s comprehensive account remains the development economics text par excellence, as it takes a much more practical, hands-on view of the issues facing the developing countries than other, overly mathematical texts. This book is unique in its scope and in the detailed attention it gives to a vast range of ideas, including pioneering developmentalist and heterodox formulations. Distinct institutional structures are examined within their historical contexts. This landmark text will continue to be an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and researchers in the fields of development economics and development studies.
- GenresEconomics
756 pages, Paperback
First published March 13, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 20, 2024
1. The content is outdated and misses out a great chunk of development economics:
It has a strong focus on old and outdated theories and misses new frontiers of research in this field. For example the nobel-prize winning strategy on poverty alleviation through field experiments is barely touched upon and heavily criticized, aswell as modern institutionalism (Daron Acemoglu...) does not really find its way into the book. Instead some random theories of the 1950s are elaborated in great detail.
Also the whole area of microeconomic models on development econ is not touched at all! Insurance, healthcase, education, moral-hazard and risk aversion, credit markets, agriculture, all of this is if only elaborated from a very broad and basic view with no focus on household decision making models.
2. The books structure is horrible:
The chapters are 30-40 pages long with content that can be relevantly packed into 5-10 pages. He just elaborates stuff in too much detail, way too much. The content in a chapter is not good to follow as his use of headings and paragraphs just make everything more complicated.
3. The book has a strong bias:
IMF, World Bank, foreign investment... According to the author all of this is mostly bad and hurts developing countries, undermining his opinion in great detail. Topics that fit into his view of the world are greatly elaborated and represented as the truth. "Mainstream" topics are only touched on briefly and are criticised in great detail. The "alternative" way he presents oddly gets not a lot of criticism. For an academic textbook just horrible and creates biases in the whole field.
It has a strong focus on old and outdated theories and misses new frontiers of research in this field. For example the nobel-prize winning strategy on poverty alleviation through field experiments is barely touched upon and heavily criticized, aswell as modern institutionalism (Daron Acemoglu...) does not really find its way into the book. Instead some random theories of the 1950s are elaborated in great detail.
Also the whole area of microeconomic models on development econ is not touched at all! Insurance, healthcase, education, moral-hazard and risk aversion, credit markets, agriculture, all of this is if only elaborated from a very broad and basic view with no focus on household decision making models.
2. The books structure is horrible:
The chapters are 30-40 pages long with content that can be relevantly packed into 5-10 pages. He just elaborates stuff in too much detail, way too much. The content in a chapter is not good to follow as his use of headings and paragraphs just make everything more complicated.
3. The book has a strong bias:
IMF, World Bank, foreign investment... According to the author all of this is mostly bad and hurts developing countries, undermining his opinion in great detail. Topics that fit into his view of the world are greatly elaborated and represented as the truth. "Mainstream" topics are only touched on briefly and are criticised in great detail. The "alternative" way he presents oddly gets not a lot of criticism. For an academic textbook just horrible and creates biases in the whole field.
February 9, 2025
I read the 5th edition (2020) because it is the most recent manual on development economics, and I wanted to see if there had been any significant advancements in the field (spoiler: apparently, there haven’t been).
The book is well-researched, provides numerous examples from around the world, introduces readers to a range of authors and theories and outlines more or less clearly what the process of economic development might look like. However, its defects may outweigh its merits. Each chapter contains, at best, ten pages of truly relevant content, meaning the same information could have been conveyed in 200–250 pages—about a third of the digital edition—if Mr. Cypher knew how to be more concise. The lengthy commentaries on tables that readers can interpret themselves, along with discussions of theoretical models that barely reflect reality and are of little interest outside academia, could have been omitted. Additionally, most case studies are superficial, offering little insight into how specific policies were actually implemented.
But the book’s biggest flaw is its frequent reliance on ideologically charged, subjective, and unscientific claims. Mr. Cypher does not conceal his preference for Marxist thought or his disdain for neoliberalism. However, he reaches infamous levels of bias when discussing the past and present of Spanish America. Without solid evidence, we are told that the Spanish Empire in America was a "case of absolute depredation," that although British rule in India was undoubtedly harsh, it "never reached the depths attained by the Spanish in Latin America," and that Mauricio Macri was "in the opinion of a former vice president of Argentina the most corrupt" president to ever take power in South America. Frankly, had I not paid for this book, I would have stopped reading after encountering a mention of Eduardo Galeano (!!!) at the beginning of Chapter 3.
All in all, a highly disappointing read, unworthy of Routledge’s prestigious brand.
The book is well-researched, provides numerous examples from around the world, introduces readers to a range of authors and theories and outlines more or less clearly what the process of economic development might look like. However, its defects may outweigh its merits. Each chapter contains, at best, ten pages of truly relevant content, meaning the same information could have been conveyed in 200–250 pages—about a third of the digital edition—if Mr. Cypher knew how to be more concise. The lengthy commentaries on tables that readers can interpret themselves, along with discussions of theoretical models that barely reflect reality and are of little interest outside academia, could have been omitted. Additionally, most case studies are superficial, offering little insight into how specific policies were actually implemented.
But the book’s biggest flaw is its frequent reliance on ideologically charged, subjective, and unscientific claims. Mr. Cypher does not conceal his preference for Marxist thought or his disdain for neoliberalism. However, he reaches infamous levels of bias when discussing the past and present of Spanish America. Without solid evidence, we are told that the Spanish Empire in America was a "case of absolute depredation," that although British rule in India was undoubtedly harsh, it "never reached the depths attained by the Spanish in Latin America," and that Mauricio Macri was "in the opinion of a former vice president of Argentina the most corrupt" president to ever take power in South America. Frankly, had I not paid for this book, I would have stopped reading after encountering a mention of Eduardo Galeano (!!!) at the beginning of Chapter 3.
All in all, a highly disappointing read, unworthy of Routledge’s prestigious brand.
May 22, 2023
caused me too many painful hours
April 21, 2009
In a changing world where the reality of free market economics is being brought into question, this new edition of a classic textbook has been perfectly timed to appear.
The book is thoroughly enjoyable and constitutes a really clear guide to the whole development process. There are especially strong discussions on measurement and the different development indicators, endogenous growth theories, the initialization of the industrialization process and the final chapter which provides a systematic description of the IMF and World Bank. Environmental issues are also taken far more seriously than in most development economics texts.
The new edition is strong on the current major issues, including the rise of India and China, the Middle East, the IMF austerity program in various countries, the cycle of extreme poverty in Africa, the Latin American Left (with Morales’s Bolivia perhaps a more important example than Venezuela under Chavez) as well as the influence of leading development economists such as Paul Collier, William Easterly and Jeffrey Sachs, not to mention Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz. The G20 now includes a number of countries that are still lumped into the developing country bracket and attitudes towards what used to be known as the Third World have radically changed. Cypher and Dietz emphasize throughout the importance of institutions: these norms and systems simply cannot be ignored when assessing a country’s development trajectory and prospects.
The book is thoroughly enjoyable and constitutes a really clear guide to the whole development process. There are especially strong discussions on measurement and the different development indicators, endogenous growth theories, the initialization of the industrialization process and the final chapter which provides a systematic description of the IMF and World Bank. Environmental issues are also taken far more seriously than in most development economics texts.
The new edition is strong on the current major issues, including the rise of India and China, the Middle East, the IMF austerity program in various countries, the cycle of extreme poverty in Africa, the Latin American Left (with Morales’s Bolivia perhaps a more important example than Venezuela under Chavez) as well as the influence of leading development economists such as Paul Collier, William Easterly and Jeffrey Sachs, not to mention Nobel winner Joseph Stiglitz. The G20 now includes a number of countries that are still lumped into the developing country bracket and attitudes towards what used to be known as the Third World have radically changed. Cypher and Dietz emphasize throughout the importance of institutions: these norms and systems simply cannot be ignored when assessing a country’s development trajectory and prospects.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews