What is development economics?

We cover a wide variety of research at VoxDev, on topics ranging from health interventions to monetary policy, across countries that together make up the majority of the world’s population. Given the increasingly broad scope of research in development economics, I have found it more and more difficult to define what development economics actually is.

So, for this blog, I decided to crowdsource definitions from economists working in policy and academia, by asking what development economics means to them. A huge thank you to those who took the time to think through their definition!

Initially, I was unsure whether this would be a meaningful exercise, and worried that I might end up with a set of nearly identical definitions. In fact, there was a great deal of variation, and I have learnt a lot from the various ways people define development economics.

The collection below is a starting point, and my hope is to add to this with further definitions over the coming weeks. So, if you have a different definition in mind for development economics, I’d love to read it - if you send these through to [email protected], I will be updating this blog in a couple of weeks to reflect new submissions.

Definitions of development economics

Ranil Dissanayake: I’m tempted to quote Potter Stewart in declining to define obscenity: “I know it when I see it”. But we can do better. Development economics is not a set of topics, methods, geographies; nor the contents of specific journals. Gunnar Myrdal has done development: “By development I mean the movement upward of the entire social system”; and Alfred Marshall economics: “a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life… the attainment and use of the material requisites of wellbeing… it is… the study of man.” So: development economics is how people’s wellbeing increases, within the general improvement of the whole social system. I think this is rather beautiful: it encompasses the RCT on cash transfers; the political economy of growth; and even how we interact with nature.

Akib Khan: Development economics studies how societies expand human capabilities at scale. I see it as the theoretical and empirical study of the economic, political, and social arrangements that generate credible hope: the chance to discover one’s talents, develop skills, deploy them productively, and weather misfortune. It blends diagnosis of constraints—in markets, states, and norms—with the investigation of mechanisms that relax them, aiming to understand and inform policies that may raise living standards and agency en masse.

Douglas Gollin: Development economics is the study of economies – entire countries or sub-national geographies – where a preponderance of the population is poor in absolute terms. Development economists study the structure and logic of these economies and seek to understand the ways in which such economies can and do experience improvements in living standards.

Salma Shaheen: As an Arab economist and someone who grew up in the Middle East (which is not the typical region in the fancy development economics papers we read), I see development economics as the discipline that connects evidence to policymaking to drive long-term, inclusive growth (i.e. beyond poverty alleviation). Many countries in our region are stuck in the middle-income trap—not because of a lack of money, aid or education, but due to low productivity across firms, people, and institutions. Development economics helps us understand how to shift from fragmented, reactive policy responses to strategic, data-driven reforms. It’s about building economies with more large firms, specialised jobs, and technological adaptation, while ensuring that growth translates into high female labour force participation (MENA’s biggest paradox!), youth employment, and broad-based prosperity.

Raquel Bernal: Development economics is a field in the economics profession that examines public policies, programs, and initiatives of a country that drive economic growth, advance social progress, and ensure equitable distribution of income and opportunities. It often focuses on the ongoing transformations in low- and middle-income countries, where significant gaps persist compared to developed nations. Core areas of study within development economics include human capital formation, industrial and trade regulation to stimulate growth, redistributive measures for equitable development, and the rules governing labor, financial, real estate, goods and services, and human capital markets, among others. It also assesses the sustainability of a nation’s development path in terms of long-term economic growth and social well-being.

Rohini Pande: Development economists have traditionally focused on policies that enable economic growth to lift poor people out of poverty; in recent decades, growth has raised billions of people out of destitution. But inequality has sharply risen, with the world's most vulnerable now also expected to bear much of the costs of climate breakdown. Looking ahead, while maintaining a focus on growth, development economics needs to be studying how to build effective institutions, globally, that not only fairly share the benefits of prosperity but also ensure we can all survive and thrive on a healthy planet.

Jishnu Das: Development economics is about understanding the constraints that prevent people from prospering in the way that they wish to. And, in doing so, bearing the responsibility of giving a voice to those who are marginalized by societies. But the reality is that the more we open ourselves up to learning from others, the more reflexive we become about who we are, our own choices and those of the societies we live in.

Hanming Fang: Development economics uses empirical and theoretical analysis to understand how to reduce poverty and promote human flourishing, especially in low- and middle-income countries. It examines how individuals and households interact with market/political/social institutions and government policies to jointly shape outcomes in key domains such as labor, education, health, among others. The field also explores, both in contemporary and historical context, broader political and social dynamics—such as governance, inequality, and collective action—that influence development trajectories.

Chatib Basri: Development economics is a field of economics that seeks to understand how countries, especially in the developing world, can improve people’s living standards over time. It focuses not only on growth and poverty reduction, but also on the practical challenges of implementing economic reforms in real-world settings. Development is not a purely technical exercise, it requires navigating political incentives, institutional constraints, and vested interests in order to turn sound economic ideas into policies that actually improve welfare.

Aditi Sengupta: I have had the unique opportunity of coming from a lower-middle-income country and spending the last few years working in a high-income country, funding development economics projects. As a result, my understanding of the field has evolved with my experiences. Currently, to me, development economics is the use of tried-and-tested quantitative methods, often designed at universities in high-income countries, to study the economic and institutional barriers to development in contexts that are often unfamiliar to the people who study them. Over time, I hope development economics evolves to exclude the word “development” altogether and is simply considered a field of economics that studies frictions to growth across different complex systems.

Derrick Ahabyona: Development economics is an intriguing field for those interested in the behaviours of individuals, firms, and government policies within institutions. By using a compelling approach of political economy in developing countries, explaining events that have happened in the past decade, development economics solves challenges by identifying the sources of problems which keep economies poor and inefficient, such as institutional and market failures, and helps us design the best possible interventions, keeping in mind government interests, a major political player in development.

Pranab Bardhan: I define development economics as all of economics as applied to developing countries particularly keeping in mind their special political-economic-institutional framework. I suppose one has to then also define a developing country. Without quibbling too much on this, I suppose one crude way is to take all countries that are low to middle range in per capita income or human development index.

Robert Darko Osei: Development Economics is essentially the branch of economics that deals with development as pertains to individuals both singularly and collectively. Our understanding of development has evolved over the years. In my view it is the branch of economics that studies not only economic growth but also poverty, deprivation and inequality. These concepts are not only derivatives of income, but also relate to differential access to social and public goods.

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Delve further into development economics

If you have a general interest in development economics, study economics, or teach a development economics course, our newsletter is the best way to keep up to date – you can sign up here and to join our fast-growing community.

For those interested in learning specifically about development economics as a discipline, I’d recommend the following:

• For a whistlestop tour of the history, present and future of development economics, last year we were joined by Pranab Bardhan for a wide-ranging discussion on our podcast. I’d highly recommend listening.
• Around a similar time, on VoxEU, Ravi Kanbur argued that “the distinction between development economics and economics in general is increasingly untenable and indeed unnecessary”.
• And more recently, at the ABCDE conference by the World Bank and Center for Global Development, Oriana Bandiera, Jishnu Das and Leonard Wantchekon discussed how development economics can meet the current moment.

And if you want to discover further sources of articles, podcasts, and videos about research and topics in development economics, I’ve listed development economics resources here.