Editing Economic development (section)

{{short description|Process and policies to improve economic well-being}}
{{Economics sidebar}}
[[File:Transport Development Pathways.png|thumb]]
In economics, '''economic development''' (or '''economic and social development''') is the process by which the economic [[well-being]] and [[quality of life]] of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and objectives.

The term has been used frequently in the 20th and 21st [[21st century|21st centuries]], but the concept has existed in the West for far longer.{{cn|date=January 2024}} "[[Modernization]]", "[[Westernization]]", and especially "[[industrialization]]" are other terms often used while discussing economic development. Historically, economic development policies focused on industrialization and [[infrastructure]]; since the 1960s, it has increasingly focused on [[poverty reduction]].<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|last=Finnemore|first=Martha|title=National Interests in International Society|date=1996|publisher=Cornell University Press|pages=89–97|jstor=10.7591/j.ctt1rv61rh|isbn=978-0-8014-8323-3 }}</ref>

Whereas economic development is a [[Public policy|policy]] intervention aiming to improve the well-being of people, [[economic growth]] is a phenomenon of market [[productivity]] and increases in [[GDP]]; economist [[Amartya Sen]] describes economic growth as but "one aspect of the process of economic development".