Sir Hans W. Singer The Life and Work of a Development Economist

by Shaw, D. John

• ISBN13: 9780333711309
• ISBN10: 0333711300
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-09-06
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This is the first biography of a world-famous pioneering development economist, Sir Hans W. Singer, who is better known throughout the developing world than any other economist, living or dead. It gives a detailed account of the way in which the 'twists of fate' led him to becoming a leading development economist. It contains a thematic synthesis of all his major theoretical and conceptual work and of the many initiatives in which he has been involved to solve the problems of developing countries.

Author Biography

D. John Shaw was Economic Adviser and Chief of World Food Program’s Policy Affairs Service, a consultant to the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
List of Tables and Figure	xii
Foreword	xiii
Richard Jolly
Preface	xix
Acknowledgements	xxi
List of Abbreviations	xxiii
Part I The Early Years (1910-47)
Growing Up in the Rhineland, Germany	3	(2)
Bonn University: The Influence of Schumpeter and Spiethoff	5	(7)
Keynes and the Cambridge Economics School	12	(8)
Early Emplyment and Experience	20	(19)
The Pilgrim Trust unemployment enquiry (1936-38)	20	(4)
Unemployment and the unemployed (1940)	24	(4)
University of Manchester (1938-44)	28	(1)
Internment (1940)	29	(1)
The German war economy (1940-44)	30	(2)
The social welfare state (1943)	32	(2)
Ministry of Town and Country Planning, London (1945-46)	34	(1)
University of Glasgow (1946-47)	35	(4)
Part II Service in the United Nations (1947-69)
Initiation: A Case of Mistaken Identity	39	(5)
The Economist as Adviser in an International Organization	44	(5)
Distribution of Gains from Trade and Investment: The Terms of Trade Controversy	49	(23)
Early pioneering	49	(9)
Distribution of gains from trade and investment revisited	58	(9)
The Prebisch-Singer thesis vindicated	67	(5)
Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development (Sunfed)	72	(19)
Pre-investment and the UN Special Fund	91	(3)
Technical Assistance	94	(4)
Multilateral Food Aid	98	(5)
First UN Decade of Development	103	(4)
UN Research Institute for Social Development	107	(4)
Assignments Outside New York	111	(12)
Development planning:	111	(5)
Basic principles	112	(1)
Some practical problems	113	(2)
Resources	115	(1)
Common defects in development programmes	115	(1)
Northeast Brazil: problems and experience	116	(2)
African Development Bank	118	(5)
Academic Activities While at the United Nations	123	(32)
The mechanism of economic development	124	(1)
The seven pillars of development	125	(2)
Issues in development theory:	127	(28)
Economic progress in under-developed countries	127	(3)
Barriers to economic development	130	(2)
The role of the public sector in economic development	132	(2)
A balanced view of balanced growth	134	(4)
Deficit financing and public capital formation	138	(4)
Human factors in development: the notion of human investment	142	(5)
Education and economic development	147	(3)
A blueprint for development?	150	(5)
Part III The Later Years (1969-2001)
Work at IDS	155	(3)
Employment and Redistribution From/With Growth	158	(16)
The ILO World Employment Programme	158	(1)
Changing concepts of unemployment	159	(4)
The ILO pilot employment mission to Kenya	163	(9)
International policies and employment	172	(2)
Science and Technology for Developing Countries	174	(6)
UNICEF and Children's Well-Being	180	(8)
Children in the strategy of development	180	(3)
The impact of world recession on children	183	(5)
Food Aid and Food Security	188	(23)
Dissenting view	189	(1)
Multilateral food aid	189	(2)
Food aid for development	191	(1)
Programme food aid, pricing, and counterpart funds	192	(2)
Food aid and the well-being of children	194	(2)
Structural adjustment and economic reform: the role of food aid	196	(1)
Intellectual investment and the disincentive controversy	197	(3)
Redefining food aid in a liberalizing global economy	200	(2)
Development tool or obstacle?: Responding to the food aid critics	202	(6)
Future directions	208	(3)
The United Nations and the Bretton Woods Institutions	211	(15)
The new international economic order	211	(6)
Critic of the Bretton Woods Institutions	217	(4)
UN reform and revitalization	221	(5)
International Aid to Developing Countries	226	(14)
Aid targets and definitions	226	(2)
Aid and trade	228	(1)
Aid conditionality	229	(2)
Aid criteria for allocation and effective use	231	(2)
Responding to the aid critics	233	(1)
Ethics of aid	234	(1)
New priorities for aid	235	(5)
Debt and Debt Servicing	240	(10)
Relevance of Schumpeter and Keynes for Developing Countries	250	(11)
Part IV An Appreciation
Recognition	261	(4)
Twists of Fate	265	(2)
Body of Work	267	(3)
Special Attributes	270	(7)
The combined influence of Schumpeter and Keynes	270	(1)
Terms of trade: the fulcrum	271	(1)
Long service in the United Nations	272	(1)
Theorist and pragmatist	273	(4)
Forebears and Roots	277	(4)
Continuing Relevance of Development Studies	281	(3)
Notes	284	(10)
Bibliography	294	(9)
Appendix: Publications of Sir Hans Singer	303	(35)
Section A: Books and pamphlets	303	(10)
Section B: Reports for United Nations, other international bodies and governments	313	(8)
Section C: Articles	321	(17)
Index	338