Most people want to control and plan their economic future. The complexity of contemporary technology and the long time between project conception and completion require planning, either by private firms or government (Galbraith 1967). Indeed, the University of Chicago economists Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales (2003:293) argue that “markets cannot flourish without the very visible hand of government, which is needed to set up and maintain the infrastructure that enables participants to trade freely and with confidence.”

Many growth-enhancing activities require coordinated policy, frequently at the national level. Development planning is the government's use of coordinated policies to achieve national economic objectives, such as reduced poverty or accelerated economic growth. A plan encompasses programs discussed earlier – antipoverty programs, family planning, agricultural research and extension, employment policies, education, local technology, savings, investment project analysis, monetary and fiscal policies, entrepreneurial development programs, and international trade and capital flows. Planning involves surveying the existing economic situation, setting economic goals, devising economic policies and public expenditures consistent with these goals, developing the administrative capability to implement policies, and (where still feasible) adjusting approaches and programs in response to ongoing evaluation.

Planning takes place in capitalist, mixed private–public, and socialist LDCs. Capitalist countries plan in order to correct for externalities, redistribute income, produce public goods (for example, education, police, and fire protection), provide infrastructure and research for directly productive sectors, encourage investment, supply a legal and social framework for markets, maintain competition, compensate for market failure, and stabilize employment and prices.