Political economy goes beyond traditional economics to study, among other things, the social and institutional processes through which certain groups of economic and political elites influence the allocation of scarce productive resources now and in the future, either for their own benefit exclusively or for that of the larger population as well. Political economy is therefore concerned
Developing countries
Countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union, that are presently characterized by low levels of living and other development deficits. Used in the development literature as a synonym for less developed countries.