The International Economics of Development by G. M. Meier. Harper and Row, New York, 1968.

Surveys of the main corpus of trade theory are many. Yet a reader of these competent surveys may often be left with a feeling that the conclusions of trade theory may not be very dependable guides in matters of actual formulations of policy in the context of economic development. This is so because rather inadequate emphasis has been given in the existing surveys to dynamic changes in the basis of trade specialization and to historical experience and institutional arrangements governing the direction of trade and distribution of its benefits. Though the analyses of these aspects in the trade literature and in the writings on the problems of economic development are extensive.