Patterns of Economic Growth

Much of the current discussion of theories of economic growth is coloured by one of two factors which repeatedly crop up in the pertinent literature. The theoretical treatment of economic growth is either too strongly policy-oriented, or it is stated in an overly general form whose results are applicable only with difficulty, and often with grave reservations, to actual cases of economic growth. Since the practical needs of policy-makers in the United Nations and its specialized agencies and in national governments concerned with developmental policies or colonial development have provided a strong impetus for the recent study of economic growth it is not surprising that the literature on this subject should have taken on a strong policy-oriented coloration. What the practitioners needed and continue to need are general guide-lines for their work. What they ask from the theorist, therefore, is to prescribe for them a series of relatively simple formulas which make up the basic equipment of the tool-kits they can take to the four corners of the world and from which they can select, as the situation demands, the appropriate item for application. The result of this situation has been the elaboration of a large amount of knowledge, the parts of which are little integrated. This is especially unfortunate since the concept of technical assistance has tended to embrace knowledge in many fields of social science and has brought together scholars and administrators in various fields and with varied technical competence.