Introduction Published at the tail end of the “development decades” of the 1960s–80s, Handbook of Development Economics, Volume 1 (edited by Hollis Chenery and T.N. Srinivasan) represents a formal maturation of development economics as a distinct field within mainstream economics. Unlike earlier normative treatises on modernization, this volume seeks to consolidate theoretical frameworks, empirical regularities, and policy trade-offs. It bridges the structuralist approaches of the 1970s with the emerging neoclassical resurgence of the late 1980s.

Reading Volume 1 in the 2020s is a historical exercise as much as a technical one. You will see the roots of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) prefigured in calls for “project-level evaluation,” and you will find echoes of modern structural transformation models in Chenery’s regressions. However, you will also be struck by the relative silence on climate, fragility, and global value chains. For doctoral students, the handbook serves as a map of where the field has been—and a reminder that many “new” ideas have older intellectual parents.