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Amartya Sen's Contribution to Development Economics

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  • Meghnad Desai

Abstract

Amartya Sen has been writing about development issues since the mid-1950s, most notably, but far from exclusively, in the 1960s. As a young man he was influenced by Tagore, by Nehru and by his teachers in Calcutta and Cambridge. He generally adopted an anti-market, anti-neoclassical stance. In the period 1957-76 Sen worked on choice of techniques, surplus labour in Indian agriculture and the rationale for import substitution in Indian planning; a group of issues relating to "pervasive suboptimality", which led to development of the concept of shadow pricing. The second phase came from 1976 onwards when there was a shift from suboptimality to what can be termed "humane economics", which challenges conventional utility theory. It began with applied work on the Bengal famine, leading to the concept of "entitlement", and branched outwards into intensive studies of poverty and deprivation. The end result is the creation of a new set of concepts in economics and philosophy with human concerns at the centre. This by passes many central preoccupations of economists and shifts work on development on to new ground.

Suggested Citation

  • Meghnad Desai, 2001. "Amartya Sen's Contribution to Development Economics," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 213-223.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:29:y:2001:i:3:p:213-223
    DOI: 10.1080/13600810120088831
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. K. N. Raj & A. K. Sen, 1961. "Alternative Patterns Of Growth Under Conditions Of Stagnant Export Earnings," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 43-52.
    2. Basu, K. & Pattanaik, P. K. & Suzumura, K. (ed.), 1995. "Choice, Welfare, and Development: A Festschrift for Amartya K. Sen," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287896.
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    Cited by:

    1. Séverine Deneulin and Jhonatan Clausen, 2018. "Collective Choice and Social Welfare by Amartya Sen:A Review Essay with Reference to Development in Peru," OPHI Working Papers ophiwp113.pdf, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.
    2. Polly Vizard, 2005. "The Contributions of Professor Amartya Sen in the Field of Human Rights," CASE Papers 091, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    3. Vizard, Polly, 2005. "The contributions of Professor Amartya Sen in the field of human rights," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 6273, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Muriel Gilardone, 2018. "The influence of Sen’s applied economics on his “social choice” approach to justice: agency at the core of public action to remove injustice," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2018-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    5. Muriel Gilardone, 2019. "3 enfants, 1 flûte : le choix des principes de justice chez Amartya Sen," Post-Print halshs-02274935, HAL.
    6. Muriel Gilardone, 2018. "3 enfants, 1 flûte : le choix des principes de justice chez Amartya Sen," Working Papers halshs-02274935, HAL.
    7. Maswana, Jean-Claude, 2006. "A New Framework for African Economic Development with a Focus on Technological Innovation," MPRA Paper 5550, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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