The Political Economy of Development Policy Change - Hardcover

Ranis, Gustav

 
9781557862501: The Political Economy of Development Policy Change

Synopsis

Since World War II most developing economies have tried to modernize their economies. This book attempts to explain why the achievement of growth and distributional objectives has varied so enormously, attempting to link different systems' initial conditions to policy responses over a long period. The authors first present a theoretical framework for tracing the impact of positive and negative exogenous shocks on the major macroeconomic variables, seen as political instruments for promoting growth in the "typical" developing country case. This framework is then applied to three pairs of countries: Colombia and Mexico representing Latin America, where a wealth of resources has been squandered by the failures of import substitution, protectionism and frequent policy changes; South Korea and Taiwan representing the successful east Asian region where export-led growth has been dramatic; Thailand and the Philippines as intermediate cases which have gradually diverged, the former achieving excellent growth rates, and the latter following the Latin route,

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