For this Handbook authors known to have different views regarding the nature of development economics have been selected. The Handbook is organised around the implications of different sets of assumptions and their associated research programs. It is divided into three volumes, each with three parts which focus on the broad processes of development.
Volume 1 of the Handbook begins by discussing the concept of development, its historical antecedents, and alternative approaches to the study of development, broadly construed. The second part is devoted to the structural transformation of economies. The role that human resources play in economic development is the focus of the last section of this volume.