PREFACE
Writing a textbook is an intellectual challenge and a personal commitment. I commend the authors for their passion and iintellectual ntellectual rigor for being up to the challenge of updating a classic classic.. This edition is timely. Now, more than ever, the importance of development economics as a field crucial to addressing addressing the the major concerns concerns of society society is needed. needed. Poverty, Poverty, income income inequality inequ ality,, labor, labo r, migratio migr ation n and environment al degrad ation are the ki nds of global issues that developme development nt economics economics routinel routinely y addresses. I cannot think of anyone who would question the value of a discipline that dedicates itself to solving these problems. Its influence as a discipline has also grown. As “recent” as the 1960s and 1970s, many of the themes and research pushed forward by development economics did not yet find their way toward national economic economic policies. policies. Economic development development and economic economic growth were used interchange ably. Much has changed since then. Now its methodology and its research are routinely used in structuring policy. But it is not only in the field of economics that development economics makes its mark. The broader concept of the “have’s” and the “have “ have not’s” and the tools on reducing re ducing this divide extend extend beyond purely purely economic matters, into technology, human rights, political science, and public administration, to name a few. It is wonderful that insights and approaches coming from development economics economics have found their way to much wider applications. In many ways, writing a preface to this book makes me feel I have come full circle. I first encountered development economics talking to my economist father and since then was smitten. I majored in it in college, taught taught it after, after, undertook undertook graduate graduate studies studies in economi c poli cy, and did my di ssertatio n in a sub-field. In each of these steps, steps, this book (an earlier version of course) was the re. At this point, I can say I have been involved with the book as a student, a teacher, a researcher, and (though through a very small part) as a contributor. Now I have the privilege to introduce this discipline to a new audience. I hope you gain from it as much learning as I have.
Vincent K. Fabella, Ph.D.
President, President, José Rizal University President, Philippine Association of Collegiate S chools of Business Business (PACSB) Former President, Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU)
