Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
This article discusses some of the issues involved in the choice of technology in developing countries, especially those in Africa, and the relationship of this to employment and output. The problem is to find an optimum combination of productive resources that comes nearest to satisfying two objectives: the full and economically efficient utilisation of such resources, and the creation of as much surplus as possible over current consumption, thereby making possible new investment and long-term growth.
page 550 note 1 V. G. Desai, International Conference on Technology Transfer in Modernising Nations, Karachi, November 1973. Useful analyses of ‘appropriate’, ‘intermediate’, or ‘alternative’ technologies are to be found in the works of the late Schumacher, E. F., e.g. Small is Beautiful: a study of economics as if people mattered (London, 1973),Google Scholar and, more recently, Stewart, Frances, Technology and Underdevelopment (London, 1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 553 note 1 Turnham, D. and Jaeger, I., The Employment Problem in Less Developed Countries (Paris, 1971).Google Scholar Other useful O.E.C.D. Development Centre publications include: Choice and Adaptation of Technology in Developing Countries – an Overview of Major Policy Issues (Paris, 1974),Google Scholar and Jequier, N., Appropriate Technology – Problems and Policies (Paris, 1976).Google Scholar
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page 556 note 1 Myint, Hla, The Economics of the Developing Countries (London, 1965).Google Scholar
page 557 note 1 Sen, A. K., Employment, Technology and Development (Oxford, 1975).Google Scholar
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page 560 note 2 Maddison, Angus, Economic Progress and Policy in Developing Countries (London, 1970).Google Scholar
page 560 note 3 Myrdal, Gunnar, Asian Drama (Harmondsworth, 1967).Google Scholar
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