Least Developed Countries: A Review of Worldwide Research

In recent decades, a number of initiatives have been undertaken to reduce poverty and improve the economic situation of Least Developed Countries (LCDs), but there are still problems that prevent them from progressing toward their goals. This article studies the scientific contributions related to the issue of the LCDs to detect how these countries can achieve sustained economic growth with full use of their capacities, allowing access to new forms of production that could generate products and activities with greater added value. The research has been carried out using bibliometric tools (Vosviewer and Biblioshiny) and the data have been extracted from Web of Science and Scopus. This method includes the topics that have been dealt with the most, the trend followed by these publications, the concentration of authors and the responses that scientific journals offer on LDCs. In conclusion, there has been increased concern about these issues, especially around the topic of trade, sustainability, and the African continent, albeit with gaps in aspects such as the importance of raw materials, official development aid, transportation, and the distribution of its products, as well as other key variables to achieve its future development. As a recommendation, we suggest that the group of researchers on the subject must be stimulated so that the message provokes a reaction regarding the importance of the issues affecting these countries, their painful consequences, and the need to find adequate solutions considering their social and humanitarian significance. It is about raising awareness among the scientific community on topics that have been largely overshadowed by more media-driven current issues. This work aims to analyse the evolution and concentration of studies on the issue of Least Developed Countries to detect the topics that researchers have most discussed. These are matters of great economic and social importance, affecting two-thirds of the planet. It analyses the work and research carried out to detect how these countries can achieve sustained economic growth with full use of their capacities, allowing access to new forms of production that could generate products and activities with greater added value. The work is therefore structured as follows: First, a description is given of the characteristics of LDCs and the different initiatives that have been taken over the last 50 years to reduce poverty and improve their socio-economic situation. Secondly, following the analysis carried out in the first part, it describes the problems that prevent LDCs from progressing in their objectives and highlights the main contributions in the existing literature on the subject. This is a summary of the different perspectives and theories that attempt to explain the problems related to LDCs, the most appropriate model designs that have been proposed, the most successful strategies, the validity of the data used, on which the conclusions of the studies will depend. Thirdly, we apply a bibliometric analysis of the works that have addressed the issue of LDCs. This method includes the topics that have been dealt with the most, the trend followed by these publications, the concentration of authors and the responses that scientific journals offer on LDCs. It should be noted that this is one of the few research studies to have used this methodology to address this issue. This article is of great interest to experts, public institutions and researchers sensitive to problems of such great importance and so widespread that they affect a large part of the world population.