A dual economy is the existence of two separate economic sectors within one country, divided by different levels of development, technology, and different patterns of demand.
The concept was originally created by Julius Herman Boeke to describe the coexistence of modern and traditional economic sectors in a colonial economy.
Dual economies may exist within the same sector, for example a modern plantation or other commercial agricultural entity operating in the midst of traditional cropping systems.
Sir Arthur Lewis used the concept of a dualistic economy as the basis of his labour supply theory of rural-urban migration.
[1] A World Bank comparison of sectoral growth in Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana and Zimbabwe since 1965 provided evidence against a basic dual economy model.