Economic Development - Social Science Research

Social Science Research

The study of economic development by social scientists encompasses theories of industrial/economic modernization causes, the historical phases or waves of economic development, and the organizational aspects of enterprise development in modern societies. Economic development embraces sociological research on a variety of topics including: business organization, enterprise development, evolution of markets and management, and cross-national comparisons of industrial organization patterns. One example inquiry would be: "Why are levels of direct foreign investment and labour productivity significantly higher in some countries than in others?"

In economics, the study of economic development was borne out of an extension to traditional economics that focused entirely on national product, or the aggregate output of goods and services. Economic development was concerned in the expansion of people’s entitlements and their corresponding capabilities, morbidity, nourishment, literacy, education, and other socio-economic indicators. Borne out of the backdrop of Keynesian, advocating government intervention, and neoclassical economics, stressing reduced intervention, with rise of high-growth countries (Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong) and planned governments (Argentina, Chile, Sudan, Uganda), economic development, more generally development economics, emerged amidst these mid-20th century theoretical interpretations of how economies prosper. Also, economist Albert O. Hirschman, a major contributor to development economics, asserted that economic development grew to concentrate on the poor regions of the world, primarily in Africa, Asia and Latin America yet on the outpouring of fundamental ideas and models.