Features of Economic Development

Economic development is the term used in the context of the well-being of the economy of a country; it is a very broad concept which covers not only economy growth but also a wide range of parameters like the standard of living, literacy rate, mortality rate and many other factors. Economic development is not limited to good roads, high rise building, malls, five star hotels but it has many variables; in order to understand this concept let’s look at some of the features of economic development –

1. The topmost feature of the economic development is that it indicates general well-being of the people of the country because if the country is economically developed then automatically it leads to a better standard of living of the people of the country. Although a gap will always be there where some people will benefit more while others will benefit less but still overall there will be more prosperity in the country than before.
2. Another feature of the economic development is that there is a substantial migration of people from rural areas to urban areas in search of better job opportunities as well as for improved standard of living which sometimes may lead to urbanization problem in metro cities and urban areas.
3. Another feature of the economic development is that services and industry sector command more share in GDP of the country than agriculture sector. This shift happens due to government laying more emphasis on industry and service sector by framing policies which promote companies and people working in both the sectors which in turn leads to people and companies moving from agriculture to industry and service sector.
4. The whole focus of the government is on technology because new and innovative technology helps in manufacturing the products at cheaper rates and also automates many works which in turn leads to less human interference and more automation. In short an economically developed nation uses more technology in every field than developing or developed countries.
5. Another important characteristic of economic development is that it leads to the elimination of many age – old beliefs and superstitious because as the standard of living of people improves they are exposed to technology like television and internet and eventually they began to learn that science and technology are the reality while all their superstition is a myth and useless.
6. In economically developed countries there is a tendency of people to save less and spend more besides almost entire population of the country is covered through banks and financial institutions and also people use plastic money like credit cards, debit cards, internet payment gateways to make payment instead of cash. In short financial habits of developed countries are completely different from that of people living in developing or under developed nations.

As one can see from the above that economic development is more extensive in nature and that is the reason why countries strive to achieve economic development rather than economic growth. However economic development does not mean that country has become heaven because problems like corruption, recession, urbanization etc… happen in developed countries also.