Structuralist Contributions to Development Thinking

This chapter reviews the structuralist contributions to thinking about economic growth and development. The chapter begins by tracing the roots of structuralism back to the classical economists such as Smith, Ricardo, and Quesnay. The common denominator of structuralist thought is the emphasis on breaking down the economy into different industrial sectors and examining the effects of sectoral developments on aggregate economic development. This contrasts with neoclassical thinking, which in all its varieties, tends to focus on the macro-economy without a breakdown into sectors. The authors go on to discuss early contributions, post-war contributions, and recent contributions. They analyse the major drivers of structural change. These include technology which changes the structure and composition of demand, productivity trends within sectors, and the role of demand and income elasticity