1. The best set of essays on classical development economics remains Bert F. Hoselitz, ed, Theories of Economic Growth (New York: The Free Press, 1960). Joseph J. Spengler’s essay on John Stuart Mill is a true gem that has high pertinence. He says, “Mill believed that noneconomic factors played an important role in human affairs, which involved economic progress. Among these factors he included beliefs, habits of thought, customs, and institutions” (pp. 118–119).
2. The first true textbook to survey and synthesize development economics was Benjamin Higgins, Economic Development (New York: W.W. Norton, 1959). Higgins drew heavily on standard ideas from classical and neoclassical economics, including public finance, in which he had a background. The text surveyed in a mostly sympathetic fashion the then recent contributions of the early development economists. He provided chapter-length case studies of several countries, including Indonesia and Libya. Although he insisted on the global relevance of standard economics, he recognized country differences and incorporated the role of social and cultural factors in development. Among the first journals in the field was Economic Development and Cultural Change, which took a broad multidisciplinary view of the subject, as its title suggests.
3. Economists’ changing views of economic development are well described in H.W. Arndt, Economic Development, The History of an Idea (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989). The cross-currents are much more complex than suggested by the simple pro and con polarity I have used.
4. Two recent compendia that review the dimensions of development economics are: Gustav Ranis and T. Paul Schultz, eds., The State of Development Economics, Progress and Perspectives (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988); Hollis Chenery and T.N. Srinivasan, eds., Handbook of Development Economics, Volumes I and II (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1989).
5. W. Arthur Lewis, The Theory of Economic Growth (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955), pp. 11–12.