The metamorphosis of Lewis’s dual economy model

This paper argues that Arthur Lewis originally presented the problem of economic development in terms of an open system, in the sense that it focused on a number of possible pitfalls and socio-economic constraints in the process of capital accumulation and industrialization in a labour-surplus economy. In the hands of the neoclassical economists, who were predominantly interested in achieving deterministic equilibrium results by introducing strict assumptions, the theoretical system later became closed – something Lewis never intended.