Editing Economic development (section)

==Economic development goals==
The development of a country has been associated with different concepts but generally encompasses economic growth through higher productivity,<ref>Simon Kuznets (1966). ''Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure and Spread'', Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.</ref> political systems that represents the preferences of its citizens as accurately as possible,<ref>Kenneth Shepsle and Mark Bonchek (2010), ''Analyzing Politics,'' Second Edition, Norton, pp. 67 – 86.</ref><ref>G. Bingham Powell (2000). ''Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Views.'' Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.</ref> the extension of rights to all social groups and the opportunities to get them<ref>C.A. Bayly (2008). "Indigenous and Colonial Origins of Comparative Economic Development: The Case of Colonial India and Africa", Policy Research Working Paper 4474, The World Bank.</ref> and proper functionalities of the institutions and the organizations that engages in more technical and complex tasks (i.e. raise taxes and deliver public services).<ref>Deborah Bräutigam (2002), "Building Leviathan: Revenue, State Capacity and Governance", IDS Bulletin 33, no. 3, pp. 1 – 17</ref><ref>Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2012), ''Why Nations Fail'', New York: Crown Business.</ref> These processes describe the State's capabilities to manage its economy, polity, society and public administration.<ref name=":0">Lant Pritchett, Scott Smith, Michael Woolcock & Matt Andrews (2013). Looking Like a

State: Techniques of Persistent Failure in State Capability for Implementation, ''The Journal of Development Studies'', 49:1, 1–18, DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2012.709614
</ref> Generally, economic development policies attempt to solve issues in those topics.

Economic development is typically associated with improvements in a variety of areas or indicators (such as [[literacy rate]]s, [[life expectancy]], and [[poverty rate|poverty rates)]], that may be the causes of economic development rather than the consequences of specific economic development programs. For example, health and education improvements have been closely related to economic growth, but the causality with economic development may not be obvious. In any case, it is important to not expect that particular economic development programs be able to fix many problems at once as that would establish unsurmountable goals that are highly unlikely to be achieved. Any development policy should have targeted goals and a gradual approach should be to avoid those goals being burdensome which has been termed by Prittchet, [[Michael Woolcock|Woolcock]] and Andrews as 'premature load bearing'.<ref name=":0" />

The State's capabilities, most often, limits the economic development goals of countries. For example, if a nation has minimum capacity to carry out basic functions, such as security and policing, or core service deliveries, it is unlikely that a program, that aims to foster a free-trade zone (special economic zones) or distribute vaccinations to vulnerable populations, can accomplish their goals. This has been overlooked by multiple international organizations, aid programs and even participating governments who attempt to carry out the 'best practices' from other places in a carbon-copy manner with Insignificant achievements. This isomorphic mimicry –adopting organizational forms that have been successful elsewhere– hide institutional dysfunctions without any solutions contributes countries stuck in 'capability traps' where the country does not meets its development goals.<ref name=":0" /> An example of this can be seen through some of the criticisms of foreign aid and its success rate at helping countries develop.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

Beyond the incentive compatibility problems that can happen to foreign aid donations –that foreign aid granting countries continue to give it to countries with little results of economic growth<ref>William Easterly (2003), "Can Foreign Aid Buy Growth?" in ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'' 17(3), pp. 23 – 48.</ref> but with corrupt leaders that are aligned with the granting countries' geopolitical interests and agenda<ref>Ethan Bueno de Mesquita (2016), ''Political Economy for Public Policy'', Princeton University Press, chapter 11.</ref> –there are problems of fiscal fragility associated to receiving an important amount of government revenues through foreign aid. Governments that can raise a significant amount of revenue from this source are less accountable to their citizens (they are more autonomous) as they have less pressure to legitimately use those resources.<ref name=":1">Todd Moss, Gunilla Pettersson and Nicolas van de Walle (2006), "An Aid Institutions Paradox? A review essay on aid dependency and State building in Sub-Saharan Africa", Working Paper 74, Center for Global Development.</ref> Just as it has been documented for countries with an abundant supply of natural resources such as oil,<ref>Michael Ross (2012), ''The Oil Curse: How petroleum wealth shapes the development of nations.''</ref> countries whose government budget consists largely of foreign aid donations and not regular taxes are less likely to have incentives to develop effective public institutions.<ref name=":1" /> This in turn can undermine the country's efforts to develop.