LITERATURE REVIEW
Economic Growth and Human Development
Deardorff (2009) has discussed this section of development by underscoring the fact that evidence he has gathered from unstable spots in parts of Africa suggest that most of the underlining issues that creates instability were the results lack of development. In the work of Backhaus (2003) his focus was in examining what really constituted economic development and how it directly affect human development. In doing this he examined the work of Karl Marx that seems to suggest that the economy was the most important part of every human endeavour and for that matter the extent to which there is growth and stability in the economy was a direct reflection of the level of development of the people who are within a particular area. He specifically distinguishes between economic growth and economic development and the different way the two issues affect human development.
According to Cameroun (2005) economic development is a reference to advances or progress that is made socially and technologically to affect the way and manner goods and services are produced even though changes that are made in terms of increases in production of goods and services using old method of production on a wider scale is also a form of economic development. According to him economic growth on the other hand refers to only increases in quantitative output which may or may not constitute development. This he asserts is measured by the rate of change of gross domestic products.
Schumpeter (2003)on the other hand has also explained that while economic development typically involves an improvement in a variety of indicators which include the rate of literacy, the rate of life expectancy and the rate of poverty the growth in the economy does not take into account other aspects such as leisure time environmental quality, freedom and social justice. By this revelation Deardorff (2009) is of the view that whiles a nation or a group of person pursues economic growth it is important for them to acknowledge that economic growth that does not constitute development is meaningless and hence prefers an effort of economic growth that integrates a wide range of other issues in order to achieve economic development.
Schumpeter (2003) has also examined the issue of economic growth and economic development from the dependency theorist perspective. He opens his study by asking whether growth in people’s economic wellbeing is a measure of the extent of development of the people. In that study he was emphatic that the reasons why many poor communities or countries may experience some level of economic growth without a corresponding economic development. This he argues is because evidence he has gathered from parts of central Asia gives credence to the view that in most cases the communities only function as resource providers to wealthy industrialized countries. However Cameroun (2005) insists that economic growth has a direct reflection on the level of economic development to the extent that resources that are accumulated from increases in income are also used to make advances in the health and educational sectors. But the most important issues to him are in relation to the role of economic development and economic growth in human development.
It has been suggested that if economic growth does not necessarily lead to economic development then to what extent are advances in economic growth and economic development affects human development. In the work of Ranis et al (2000) they were certain that economic growth and human development have a two way relationship. They further suggest that the first chain consist of economic growth which benefits human development as results of growth in Gross National Product. In this sense he is of the view that while there is an increase http://www.ukassignment.org/essayfw in the Gross National Income there is a corresponding increase in the human development factors such as expenditure from families, government and organizations such as non-governmental organizations. He also emphasizes that economic growth is largely responsible for likely increases in the expenditure of families and individuals due to the increases in income which leads to human development. Further, with the increased in expenditures, health, education tend to increases in the country and later will contribute to economic growth. |