Different social, economic, political, cultural, ethical, and moral, factors ultimately determine the socio-economic growth-path of a nation-state. Economic development is, therefore, a multi-dimensional process involving a multitude of economic and non-economic factors. It is an all-encompassing phenomenon involving numerous variables that comprise and transcend the economic sphere.
More specifically, economic growth can be traced to the contributions made by the 5 Ms, namely: Men, Material, Machine, Method and Money. As resources, these 5 Ms can be defined as human resources, natural resources, productive facilities, technological inputs and financial resources.
A South Asian country belonging to the developing Third World, the backward economy of Bangladesh can be easily traced to its backward state in all the key resources, viz. natural, human, technological, productive and capital-related. All these inter-connected variables constantly interact with each other leading to a vicious cycle of backwardness and underdevelopment.
In this ground-breaking book titled 'Sources of Economic Growth in Bangladesh: 1972-1990', eminent economist, noted educationist and winner of the Ekushey Padak for education late Dr. Mansurul A. Khan has examined the inter-linked sources of economic growth in Bangladesh based on a rigorous economic analysis.
Undoubtedly a trend-setter in the genre of books on Bangladesh economy, Dr. Khan has examined various possible factors influencing economic growth and their contributions to this growth in the book. Some specific elements, such as the size of the labour force, the length of work-week, the amount of capital and the spread of education have been kept in view for ascertaining and taking an in-depth look at the sources of economic growth in Bangladesh. Data provided by the author suggest that the employed labour force in Bangladesh has been shifting from agriculture towards a greater mix of agriculture, manufacturing, financial activities, transportation and commercial enterprises. The quality of labour force is also improving in the country. Bangladesh is educating more of its youths for longer periods of time.
However, the data suggest that the expansion of education may be occurring faster than the ability of the labour market to absorb the more highly-skilled workers, thereby creating downward pressure on the wages of the skilled labour relative to unskilled workers; although the overall unemployment rate is low and non-manual labour is rewarded with much higher rates than manual labour.
Growth in 'clerical' work and in various types of profession has added positively to the country's GDP growth. The author shows that the spread of education is strongly correlated to increases in capital stock and GDP. The data suggest that improvement in the quality of labour force in Bangladesh is closely linked to economic advances. In addition, expansion of education has also been shown to be correlated to the gains in the GDP.
A Fulbright scholar, Dr. Mansurul A. Khan was a Lecturer at the London Polytechnic University during 1980-82, and then served as Lecturer/Assistant Professor at the Economics Department of Dhaka University during 1983-93. He later migrated to the USA and settled down in New York City, where he founded Khan's Tutorial, which now has nine branches all over the city, and earned fame for providing quality education at affordable cost. Dr. Khan had three Master's degrees in Economics from the UK, Ukraine and the USA, and later obtained his PhD in Economics from the New School University of New York. He was awarded the state honour Ekushey Padak in Bangladsh in 2012 for spreading and popularising education.
A brave cancer survivor since 1999, Dr. Khan passed away recently in New York City. The book on the sources of economic growth in Bangladesh will remain as his valedictory contribution to the pursuit of education and research in the country. Â
The writer is a senior civil servant, and former editor of Bangladesh Quarterly.
 hahmed1960@gmail.com