PIDE’s Contribution to Development Thinking: The Earlier Phase

To celebrate the Golden Jubilee of PIDE, I have chosen to discuss the influence that its research during the early years exerted on development thinking.1 The period that I have chosen ends in 1970-71, roughly covering the Institute’s first fourteen years, of which I was its staff member for the last ten. My objective is not to make a comprehensive analysis of research at PIDE during that period but rather to highlight those parts of its research output at the time that in hindsight appear highly relevant to the evolution of development debate at a time when development theory itself was going through fundamental transition.