ABSTRACT
The economic study of underdeveloped countries is certain to bear on important issues of policy, and it may possibly make valuable practical con tributions. It may also advance economics by extend ing the range of phenomena over which its hypotheses can be examined and new hypotheses developed. But quite possibly the contribution of economics to policy may be negligible, or even negative, if its pronounce ments obscure rather than illuminate issues. Work in this field may also undermine economics as a systematic discipline. Interest in the practical prob lems of what were in effect underdeveloped countries stimulated the emergence of economics as a systematic discipline. It may well be that the same interest will contribute to its disintegration, or at least to its trans formation into a subject radically different from eco nomics as it was known until recently. The grounds for these expressions of hope and fear will, I trust, become clearer at a later stage.
