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Essay on Economic Growth and Development

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Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition of economic development.

There is no single definition that encompasses all the aspects of economic development. The most comprehensive definition perhaps of economic development is the one given by Todaro:

‘Development is not purely an economic phenomenon but rather a multi – dimensional process involving reorganization and re orientation of the entire economic and social system.

Development is a process of improving the quality of all human lives with three equally important aspects. These are:

1. Raising peoples’ living levels, i.e. incomes and consumption, levels of food, medical services, education through relevant growth processes.

2. Creating …show more content…

Amartya Sen defines economic development in terms of personal freedom, freedom to choose from a range of options. While economic growth may lead to an increase in the purchasing power of people, if the country has a repressed economy, there is lack of choice and hence personal freedom in restricted. Hence once again growth has taken place without any development.

While economic growth may result in an improvement in the standard of living of a relatively small proportion of the population whilst the majority of the population remains poor. It is how the economic growth is distributed amongst the population that determines the level of development. Taking into consideration the trickle-down theory of economics by
Lewis, if the growth in economy is not sufficient to satisfy the needs and wants of the upper sections, nothing or very little shall trickle down to the lower sections in the hierarchy of society. Thus, the gap between the rich and poor widens and though economic growth has impacted a certain section of society, this cannot be considered development. Another example is an increase in the defence output of a nation, which accounts for an increased GDP but does not in any way contribute to economic development.

Economic growth is not enough in itself to measure economic development as even if there has been a leap in the income of people in a particular nation,

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