Diverse Development Paths and Structural Transformation in the Escape from Poverty

This book discusses possibilities for, and obstacles to, economic development in lower income countries in Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. It examines how lower income countries might 'catch up' and advantages and disadvantages of the lateness of poor countries in the development process.

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This volume analyzes the experiences of developing countries in Asia, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, and examines how they might catch up.

Based on growth performance across the developing world over the last five decades, it offers a thorough account of the possibilities to engage in such processes in an increasingly globalized world. Together, the chapters highlight the diversity and variation of development pathways and provide valuable lessons and implications for how to approach this difficult question. The book shows the importance of acknowledging that the process of development is dynamic and that the possibilities for catch up are situation dependent. At the same time it makes clear that without structural change, and in particular agricultural transformation, sustained catch up is unlikely to happen.

The volume demonstrates how analysis of current growth processes in developing countries can be enriched by paying closer attention to the multifaceted nature of both economic backwardness and successful pathways to escape it.