Diverse Development Paths and Structural Transformation in the Escape from Poverty

This volume analyzes the experiences of developing countries in Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and examines how they might catch up. Based on growth performance across the developing world over the last five decades, it offers a thorough account of the possibilities to engage in such processes in an increasingly globalized world. Together, the chapters highlight the diversity and variation of development pathways and provide valuable lessons and implications for how to approach this difficult question. The book shows the importance of acknowledging that the process of development is dynamic and that the possibilities for catch up are situation dependent. At the same time it makes clear that without structural change, and in particular agricultural transformation, sustained catch up is unlikely to happen. The volume demonstrates how analysis of current growth processes in developing countries can be enriched by paying closer attention to the multifaceted nature of both economic backwardness and successful pathways to escape it. Contributors to this volume - Lee J. Alston, Indiana University Martin Andersson, Lund University Gareth Austin, Graduate Institute Geneva Tobias Axelsson, Lund University Luis Bertola, Universidad de la Republica Anne Booth, University of London Christer Gunnarsson, Lund University Justin Yifu Lin, Peking University Bernardo Mueller, University of Brasilia Yusi Ouyang, University of Tulsa Lennart Schon, Lund University Erik Thorbecke, Cornell University C. Peter Timmer, Harvard University