Great development economists remind us that we can oversimplify.
Listener: 22 April, 2006.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
West Indian Arthur Lewis (1915-91) shared the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in development economics. His “Lewis” model divided the economy into two sectors – (subsistence) farming and (capitalist) manufacturing. Labour shifting from the first to the second presents a very powerful growth process. I am using his model in my Marsden study on the globalisation of nations (particularly to explain Chinese economic growth). He was also an early advocate of the importance of infrastructure and education in development – views that are today’s conventional wisdom.