Development, Behavioral, and Game-Theoretic Economics

W. Arthur Lewis (1915-1991), an economist born in Saint Lucia, developed the dual-sector model of economic development in his 1954 article "Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour." Lewis described developing economies as composed of two sectors: a traditional, low-productivity agricultural sector holding a large pool of surplus labor, and a modern, capitalist industrial sector. Economic growth, in his model, proceeds as workers migrate from agriculture to industry at a roughly constant, low subsistence wage, until the surplus of agricultural labor is finally absorbed, a point later termed the "Lewis turning point." Lewis won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1979, becoming the first Black recipient of a Nobel Prize in any field.