In Pursuit of Development Six economists and the making of modern development | David Engerman
Feb 11, 2026
David Engerman, historian and author of Apostles of Development, traces six South Asian economists from Cambridge to global institutions. He explores contested meanings of development. The conversation covers debates on markets versus states, trade versus protection, poverty versus inequality, the rise of the Global South category, and the intellectual friendships and rivalries that shaped modern development ideas.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Manmohan Singh’s Different Upbringing
- Manmohan Singh was an outlier, raised by grandparents and later welcomed into the elite by mentors.
- Other apostles came from urban, often upper-middle-class or elite backgrounds with cultural capital.
Cambridge: Economics As Argument And Practice
- Cambridge taught them that economics is an argument and a practical tool rather than settled truth.
- They gained freedom to draw widely across fields because development economics didn't yet exist.
Approach Development As Practical Argument
- Treat economic ideas as contestable arguments tied to specific problems rather than universal recipes.
- Draw across economic subfields when addressing development challenges because no single doctrine fits all contexts.
