In 1954 Arthur Lewis, a Nobel prize-winning economist, argued that development occurs as labour shifts from an unproductive “traditional” sector—activities such as subsistence farming, or petty trade—into modern, capitalist activities. Research by Margaret McMillan, of Tufts University, and Dani...
In a recent paper—Leapfrogging Progress, The Misplaced Promise of Africa’s Mobile Revolution—Juma points out that no advanced economy got where it is today by cutting corners and sidestepping (that is, leapfrogging) industrialization. And he reminds us industrialization requires infrastructure. Juma,...