Accumulation, Exchange and Development
Essays on the Indian Economy
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Publishing:30th Nov '26
£103.99
This title is due to be published on 30th November, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
First published in 1994, Accumulation, Exchange and Development is a collection of eleven essays that intertwine the late Professor Krishna Bharadwaj's two major research interests: classical political economy and development studies. Divided into three parts, the essays explore the structures of production and exchange in developing economies and their relationship with accumulation dynamics. Combining classical political economy principles with studies of India's economy, particularly the agrarian sector, Bharadwaj offers insights into formulating a meaningful theory of development.
The first section addresses analytical and theoretical issues in development, advocating for the classical political economy's accumulation approach over the dominant neo-classical framework. The second section examines India's agrarian economy, introducing Bharadwaj's seminal concept of "interlinked markets" and demonstrating how diverse production and exchange processes integrate into the macroeconomy. The final section critiques India's developmental strategy, questioning its focus on commodities and technology while sidelining labour as the core of accumulation.
With a new foreword accompanying this reissue, Accumulation, Exchange and Development remains essential reading for scholars of economic theory, political economy, and development economics.
“Krishna Bharadwaj … was known in the West mainly for her work in the fields of classical economics and the emergence of marginalism. But in the East she enjoyed a wide reputation for her original contributions on Indian agriculture. In her own mind, these two seemingly heterogeneous subjects were closely connected. For the classical theory provided a framework to represent production with a surplus; specific theories, varying according to institutions and other historical data, would explain effective demand, employment and the distribution of surplus … [The] student who has pondered Bharadwaj’s examples will know how to emphasize her methods in the most diverse conditions.”
Bertram Schefold
Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Economics and Business, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
“Krishna Bharadwaj was … always emphasizing the significance of power and questioning precepts of marginalist economics … The republication of these essays is greatly to be welcomed, because even though some of them were written almost fifty years ago, they are of enduring significance – for the exposition, for example, of the crucial idea of ‘compulsive involvement in markets’ and of its implications for understanding of the way in which capitalism developed in the rural economy of India.”
John Harriss
Professor Emeritus, School of International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Canada; and Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
“. . . [Bharadwaj’s] is the earliest and perhaps as yet the clearest statement of interlinked markets; what subsequent mathematical formulations In terms of principal-agent contracts have achieved are explicit characterisations of special cases.”
Badal Mukhopadhyay
Formerly Director, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
“Bharadwaj holds that neither the ‘trickle-down’ view on development nor the ‘welfarist’ view on poverty alleviation appears to be viable as long-term strategies …”
The Pakistan Development Review
ISBN: 9781041443100
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
414 pages