Todaro and Smith believe that development economics should foster a student's ability to understand real problems faced by developing countries. Unlike other texts, Economic Development , Ninth Edition, introduces economic models within the context of countries and issues, so that students learn to analyze and engage in ongoing policy debates. Praised for its even, balanced coverage, this text helps students to evaluate issues using the best available cross-sectional data, economic theory, and institutional and structural perspectives. Keeping pace with current data and events, the Ninth Edition includes the latest research in development as well as extensive country-specific examples of topics such as transition economics and urban policy.
Michael P. Todaro was Professor of Economics at New York University for eighteen years and Senior Associate at the Population Council for thirty years. He lived and taught in Africa for six years. He appears in
Who's Who in Economics and Economists of the Twentieth Century. He is also the author of eight books and more than fifty professional articles.
In a special February 2011 centenary edition, the American Economic Review selected Todaro’s article “Migration, Unemployment and Development: A 2-Sector Analysis” (with J. Harriss) as one of the twenty most important articles published by that journal during the first hundred years of its existence.
Stephen C. Smith is Professor of Economics and International Affairs at George Washington University. He received his PhD in economics from Cornell University. Smith is author of
Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works, co-editor of
NGOs and the Millennium Development Goals: Citizen Action to Reduce Poverty, and author or coauthor of some three dozen journal articles.