Non-economic factors in the study of economic development

However, most early economists did not make extensive use of noneconomic factors in their work. As the science of economic development progressed and our knowledge of the nonwestern world increased, it became apparent that sociocultural factors played a greater part in economic development than traditional economic models indicated. To incorporate noneconomic factors into the economists" interpretations of economic development, concepts of sociocultural behavior were adopted from the writings of anthropologists and sociologists. Relatively recently social scientists, other than economists, have also begun to examine planned economic development, using multivariable frameworks and overall perspectives which are cultural in their orientation. When both the early and the more current models of development are reviewed, we see that social groups and cultural values emerge as two of the most significant of noneconomic factors.