Bringing production and employment back into development: Alice Amsden’s legacy for a new developmentalist agenda

Abstract

Building on Alice Amsden’s legacy, the article criticises the currently dominant view of development for its neglect of production and employment. To remedy its shortcomings, the article introduces a new theoretical synthesis that sees development as a process of production transformation, led by the expansion of collective capabilities and resulting in the creation of good quality jobs and sustainable structural change. Within this new developmentalist framework, the article highlights the policy challenges, the opportunities and the trade-offs associated with reconciling industrialisation, generation of good quality jobs and environmental sustainability, as emerging from the post-2015 sustainable development goals.