ABSTRACT
The enhancement of living conditions must clearly be an essential – if not the essential – object of the entire economic exercise and that enhancement is an integral part of the concept of development. Indeed, in the contributions to economics, development economics can hardly be separated out from the rest of economics, since so much of economics was, in fact, concerned with problems of economic development. The close link between economic development and economic growth is simultaneously a matter of importance as well as a source of considerable confusion. One of the functionings that may be thought to be particularly important in assessing the nature of development is the freedom to choose. Most of the debates on development policy have tended to concentrate on the relationship between policy instruments and agreed ends. A lot of the debates on policy making in the context of economic development relates to valuation problems that are not unduly problematic.
