This paper describes an emerging literature in economics that aims to merge macro issues of structural change and growth with micro data and analysis. This literature focuses on a set of related patterns of change that accompany the processes of growth and development. Traditionally, the focus has been on industrialization – and more broadly the reallocation of employment and economic activity from agriculture to manufacturing and services. The new literature considers a broader set of transformations: from rural to urban, from home to market (and from market to home), from informal to formal, and from self-employment to wage work. Drawing on new data sources, including micro data and administrative records, the literature tries to understand the complex interactions of a broad set of market failures, policy distortions, and impediments to the growth process. In broadening the understanding of structural transformation – to encompass processes beyond industrialization – this literature opens the door to a richer understanding of the processes of growth and a wider set of potential levers for policy.
Synthesis Paper
• Research Theme 0: Data, Measurement, and Conceptual Framing,
Research Theme 1: Firms, Frictions and Spillovers, and Industrial Policy,
Research Theme 2: Labour, Home Production, and Structural Transformation at the Level of the Household,
Research Theme 3: Agricultural Productivity and Sectoral Gaps,
Research Theme 4: Trade and Spatial Frictions,
Research Theme 5: Political Economy and Public Investment
New Views of Structural Transformation: Insights from Recent Literature
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