The Political Economy of Growth

One of the most influential studies ever written in the field of development economics, this book has, since first publication in 1957, bred a whole school of followers who are producing further works along the lines indicated by Baran. Concerned with the generation and use of economic surplus, it analyzes from this point of view both the advanced and the underdeveloped countries. A work in political economy rather than solely in economics, this book treats the economic transformation of society as one facet of a total social and political evolution.

Paul A. Baran (1909-1964) was Professor of Economics at Stanford University. Born in the Ukraine, he was educated in Germany and the Soviet Union, and moved to the United States on the eve of the Second World War. After wartime military service, he joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, leaving to become a member of the Stanford economics faculty in 1949. He was a frequent contributor to Monthly Review, co-author (with Paul M. Sweezy) of Monopoly Capital, and author of The Political Economy of Growth and The Longer View.