Bringing production back into development

Launch event of the special issue of the European Journal of Development Research edited by Ha-Joon Chang and Antonio Andreoni. This special issue of the European Journal of Development Research, is a contribution to the emerging attempt to bring production back into development. The launch event will be structured around two panel discussions chaired by the editors.

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Bringing production back into development

27 Apr 2021, 14:00 – 16:00

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Production was at the heart of economics from the days of Classical economics. However, with the rise of Neoclassical economics in the late 19th century, production has lost its status as the ultimate interest of economics. Several opportunities for fruitful integration of alternative streams of economics research—Evolutionary, Structuralist and Keynesian in particular—have also been missed. Even the humanist approaches to development, such as Sen’s Human Capability Approach, paid little attention to the domain of production. The fragmentation of the production-centred paradigm has weakened both academic research and policymaking related to economic development.

This special issue of the European Journal of Development Research, is a contribution to the emerging attempt to bring production back into development. We have collected eight original articles that use state-of-the-art theoretical developments and empirical evidence to evaluate the recent changes in various aspects of the domain of production, with a focus on developing countries. The launch event will offer an opportunity to discuss why a renewed ‘productionist’ agenda is essential in addressing the structural challenges faced by developing countries, even more so after the pandemic, and how to do so.