Economic development beyond economic growth

Economic development is a policy effort to improve people's well-being and quality of life through targeted goals, distinct from market-driven growth in productivity and GDP. The lessons answer how development can be understood beyond economic growth, through its focus on human well-being. They consider how people's choices, public accountability, and practical efforts to support livelihoods shape that broader view.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 1 hr 18 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   economic development · Wikipedia · 20 min read

   The United Nations Development Programme in 1997 defined development as increasing people's choices. Those choices depend on the people in question and their nation. Median income measures the economic development of the median voter in a country and was argued to be more representative than GDP per capita. It is income distribution-aware and related to real gross national income per capita. Economic development professionals focus on job creation and retention through efforts in business finance, marketing, neighborhood development, workforce development, small business development, business retention and expansion, technology transfer, and real estate development.

2. Read
   

   Economic development is doing OK · Noahpinion (Substack) · 16 min read

   The World Bank's $2.15/day, $3.65/day, and $6.85/day poverty thresholds have all been going down almost continuously in all regions of the world for two to three decades. Accelerating growth in poor countries was accompanied by massive poverty reduction, and all regions have seen some drop in poverty rates except the Middle East since the mid-2010s.

3. Watch
   

   Is prosperity without economic growth possible? | DW Documentary · YouTube · 42 min watch

   Prosperity without economic growth is a live question, and the video contrasts businesses that limit growth with green growth and degrowth. It also describes Iceland's Wellbeing Economy.

4. Book
   

   Development as Freedom · Bookshop.org

   Amartya Sen's 1999 book Development as Freedom is about international development.

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