Synopsis Universities in developing countries often face severe resource constraints, making it difficult for them to stock their libraries with the latest books and journals, and to attract and retain faculty who are abreast of current trends in research. In order to meet this perceived gap, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) funded a conference at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Calcutta, at which papers were presented by specialists on various aspects of development. This volume comprises substantially updated and revised versions of those papers, in which the authors show how recent theoretical techniques and statistical analyses can illuminate a wide range of important issues in developing countries.