Economic Development (The Addison-Wesley Series in Economics) [Paperback]

Michael P. Todaro (Author), Stephen C. Smith (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0273655493 | ISBN-13: 978-0273655497 | Publication Date: December 2003 | Edition: 8

This best-selling text offers a unique policy-oriented approach that uses models and concepts to illustrate real-world development problems. Retaining its hallmark accessibility throughout, the Eighth Edition uses the most current data, offering full coverage of recent advances in the field, and featuring a balanced presentation of opposing viewpoints on today's major policy debates. Economic Development includes extensive country-specific examples, with particular attention given to economic dislocations throughout Asia, Russia, and Brazil. Updated Country Case Studies and Comparative Case Studies allow students to apply concepts to specific developing nations.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael P. Todaro was Professor of Economics at New York University for eighteen years and Senior Associate at the Population Council for thirty years. He lived and taught in Africa for six years. He appears in Who's Who in Economics and Economists of the Twentieth Century. He is also the author of eight books and more than fifty professional articles. In a special February 2011 centenary edition, the American Economic Review selected Todaro's article Migration, Unemployment and Development: A 2-Sector Analysis (with J. Harriss) as one of the twenty most important articles published by that journal during the first hundred years of its existence. Stephen C. Smith is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. He received his PhD in economics from Cornell University. Smith is author of Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works, co-editor of NGOs and the Millennium Development Goals: Citizen Action to Reduce Poverty, and author or coauthor of some three dozen journal articles --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 816 pages
• Publisher: Financial Times Management; 8 edition (December 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273655493
• ISBN-13: 978-0273655497
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,444,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very readable introduction to developmental economics., August 23, 2000

By 

J. Michael Showalter (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Economic Development (Hardcover)

Todaro in this book presents what is quite possibly the easiest to understand introduction to developmental economics that the world has to offer. He does not provide quick answers but a logical and well thought out conception of the complexities of the problems in a format that although not wholly excluding mathmatics, uses it only in appendixes, etc. to explain problems-- which leaves the book open to a wider audience (and also does not allow its readers into the overly simplistic answers that too much mathmatics sometimes hints at....) In my studies of development, this book more often than any other served as a quick reference and fairly handy bibliography. I recommend this book to any undergraduate student or student of public policy the world over. It should be a classic.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and Comprehensive, April 12, 2003

By 

-_Tim_- (The Western Hemisphere) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Economic Development (8th Edition) (Hardcover)

The greatest problem facing economists today (I should say "facing the world today") is how to create wealth in the poorest countries of the world. This introduction to the subject is accessible to any reader, even those with very limited previous knowledge of economics. The book begins with a critical summary of current development theories and then takes on a number of policy questions, with case studies. Each chapter ends with discussion questions and the publisher maintains a web site with useful quantitative and graphing exercises (with answers).

Michael Todaro writes from a left-of-center perspective and is more ideological than most textbook writers. However, he presents other points of view and presents them pretty fairly in my opinion. And I have to say that he scores some pretty big points against the neoclassical theorists by showing that their assumptions are frequently at odds with reality.

While some of Todaro's more stridently ideological statements can be annoying, I know of no other book that provides such a comprehensive, well organized, and engagingly written introduction to economic development.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on the complexities of economic development., October 13, 1997

By 

Pedro J. Quintanilla (LAREDO, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Economic Development (Hardcover)

Todaros's text on the complexities a developing country must face and consider to lead itself out of poverty and backwardness gets better with every edition, now on its sixth. It is the only book I have found that, with unsurpasssed dexterity, combines economics, sociology and political science into a unifying frame that should be required reading for policymakers and government throughout the developing world. His writing style, clarity of exposition and long-term vision are absolutely second to none.