ABSTRACT
Development economics offered a double specificity when it first emerged as a separate discipline at the end of the Second World War. For some analysts, it constituted an exception to the theories that were assumed to be operative in the developed economies. Others felt that the developing world could become a new zone of application for such theories – as long as they were adapted to its main characteristics. However, in both cases, development economics was only of secondary importance. As Axel Leijonhufvud humorously wrote in 1973:
The priestly caste (the Math-Econ), for example, is a higher “field” than either Micro or Macro, while the Develops just as definitely rank lower. . . . The low rank of the Develops is due to the fact that this caste, in recent times, has not strictly enforced the taboos against association with the Polscis, Sociogs and other tribes. Other Econ look upon this with considerable apprehension as endangering the moral fiber of the tribe and suspect the Develops even of relinquishing model-making.
