ABSTRACT
Sir W. Arthur Lewis is the first modern economist considered in this study. He is a true economic theorist and pioneer in the field of economic development. Lewis is the only black to ever win the Nobel Prize in economics. He was also the first black Nobel Laureate in an area other than peace. Lewis was born in St. Lucia, a small island in the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Lewis' research has been in three areas: industrial economics, the history of the world economy since 1870, and development economics. Lewis' interest in development economics arose when he spent time in the Colonial Office Library reading reports from the colonial territories on agricultural problems, mining, currency questions and other issues. Drawing on classical theory and the historical experiences of the western industrialized nations, Lewis developed a two-sector model of economic development, dividing the economy into a rural subsistence sector and a modern urban industrial sector.
