Economic Policy In A Liberalising Economy

This book follows up on the author’s popular previous volume on Indian development planning and policy, published under the UNU WIDER series in development economics. It first introduces an evaluation of the newly mandated policy body of India, National Institution for Transforming India (also called the NITI Aayog), which replaced the erstwhile Planning Commission. As per the government site, NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.The book goes on to critically describe and analyse the think tank’s policies in sectors like population, demographics and poverty; agriculture and industry; and infrastructure. Lastly, the concluding chapter discusses appropriate future policies. The approach is to analyse the policy stance of the present Government in India as stated in recent official documents and to see if it has any relationship with past plans in terms of concepts or program details. In addition to the policy makers, the book is a must have resource for students of development economics, particularly of India, and provides a critical account of policies for emerging economies.

Can knowledge of financial policies in developing countries over four decades help the socialist economies of Asia and Eastern Europe become open market economies in the 1990s? In all these countries the loss of fiscal and monetary control has often resulted in high inflation that undermines the liberalization process itself. In the second edition of The Order of Economic Liberalization, Ronald McKinnon builds on his influential work on the liberalization of financial markets in less developed countries and outlines the progression necessary to move from a "repressed" to an open economy. New to this edition are chapters that contrast the gradual Chinese approach to liberalizing domestic and foreign trade with the "big bang" approach followed by some Eastern European countries and republics of the former Soviet Union. Financial control and macroeconomic stability, McKinnon argues, are more critical to a successful transition than is any crash program to privatize state-owned industrial assets and the banking system.

This book starts from the premise that economic liberalization - reduced state interference in economic life - is the common element in the current trend towards privatization and deregulation in the West and economic reform and restructuring in the East. In popular parlance, "privatization" and "perestroika" are its watchwords, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev its heralds. But the specific character of the liberalization will be determined by the social characteristics of different societies. In order to study the reform process in the two systems, it is necessary to dispose of a general conceptual framework capable of embracing both a (predominantly) market economy and a (predominantly) centrally planned economy. The key objective of this work is to provide such a unified framework, and on that basis to analyze the policy conflicts that dominated both systems in the 1980s and the prospects for further change in the years ahead.

Conventional interpretations of the New Economic Policy introduced in India in 1991 see this program of economic liberalization as transforming the Indian economy and leading to a substantial increase in the rate of India’s economic growth. But in a country like India, growth is not enough. Who benefits from the new growth regime, and can it significantly improve the conditions of livelihood for India’s 800 million people with incomes below $2.00 a day? This edited volume looks at international policy regimes and their national adoption under strategic conditions of economic crisis and coercion, and within longer-term structural changes in the power calculus of global capitalism. The contributors examine long-term growth tendencies, poverty and employment rates at the national level, regional level and local levels in India; the main growth centers; the areas and people left out; the advantages and deficiencies of the existing policy regime, and alternative economic policies for India. Bringing together the leading figures in the discussion on India’s economic policy, this volume is the authoritative critical study of India’s New Economic Policy.

Liberalization - economic policy reforms to render economies more market-orientated - is a central issue in most countries of the world. This important contribution to the literature of liberalization analyzes theoretical issues and experiences of reform. Existing approaches to evaluating the effects of reform are reviewed, difficulties of measuring liberalization are discussed, the complex ways in which reforms can impact on individuals and groups are illustrated, and the importance of political concerns are addressed. The final four chapters offer detailed case studies of Pakistan, Mozambique, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

This is a meticulously researched and well written book on a subject of immense contemporary academic and policy interest. Prema-chandra Athukorala, Journal of Development Studies The book is a valuable contribution to the analysis of the links between trade liberalisation, poverty and inequality . . . The book is a coherent piece of work offering an abundance of well-researched and argued information, effectively establishing it as a notable contribution to the investigation and understanding of this very important field. Therefore this book is highly recommended as an important publication for everyone interested in this field as it is a powerful guide to the complex questions that emerge when dealing with the issues of trade liberalisation and poverty elimination at international level. Marios Koutsias, International Trade Law and Regulation Thirlwall and Pacheco-López s book makes its contribution by serving as a clearly written synthesis of a diversity of literatures on trade liberalization and its impacts on growth, inequality and wages, and poverty. . . . the book is an excellent one. It should be a required reading companion to any graduate-level trade course. Kevin P. Gallagher, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities This book breaks out of the standard distinction between free trade and protectionism , and shows how to think constructively about trade policy as an instrument of national economic strategy. It is highly recommended for those who wish to think beyond orthodoxy, and especially for those in developing countries who wish to influence negotiations with developed countries and western-based international organisations. Robert Wade, London School of Economics, UK This is a gem of a book. Based on deep understanding of diverse economic theories and empirical evidence, it offers us a succinct but highly informative overview of the controversies surrounding the impact of trade policy on growth, inequality, and macroeconomics. Ha-Joon Chang, University of Cambridge, UK, and author of Kicking Away the Ladder, and Bad Samaritans Free-trade fundamentalism is gradually making way for a more nuanced and historically well-informed understanding of the role that trade policy plays in economic development. Thirlwall and Pacheco-López provide an excellent review of the relevant literature as well as a sophisticated critique of the earlier, simplistic views. As they explain, it is the details the timing, sequencing, and context that determine whether liberalization will succeed. Dani Rodrik, Harvard University, US This book will infuriate the free trade ultras who believe that liberalisation is the answer to every problem and a good thing too. The real world, as Thirlwall and Pacheco-López show clearly and vividly, is different from the world of theoretical models so beloved by today s economic orthodoxy, and they take delight in tweaking the noses of the Washington consensus. History suggests they are right to argue that managed trade is better for developing countries than swallowing large doses of free-trade medicine. Larry Elliott, The Guardian Orthodox trade and growth theory, and the world s multilateral development institutions, extol the virtues of trade liberalisation and free trade for more rapid economic development of poor countries. However, the contemporary reality and history seem to tell a different story. The world economy has experienced an unprecedented period of trade liberalisation in the last thirty years, and yet international and global inequality is widening; domestic poverty (outside of China) is increasing; poor countries exports have grown more slowly than their imports leading to balance of payments crises, and the so-called globalising economies of the world (excluding China and India) have fared no better, and in some cases worse, than those countries that have not liberalised so extensively. This book argues that orthodox theory is based on many unreal assumptions,

This book analyses the discourses of economic liberalization reform in six Western European countries – Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. It provides systematic empirical evidence that policy-related discourses are much more than noise; rather, they are detailed expressions of institutional complementarities and political struggles. The author posits that the more open a discourse, the broader the range of perceived interests, which, in turn, increases the intensity of conflicts. Similarly, the more public discourse centres on coordination, the more intense actors need to engage with opposite interests, which most probably intensifies political disputes as well. Moreover, Wueest argues that the formation of a consensus within the political mainstream has left a vacuum for outsider parties such as Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain to feed on the contentiousness of economic liberalization policies.

After the 1998 Russian economic crisis, there are new opportunities for sustained growth in many countries of the former Soviet Union. Against this backdrop, the authors of this book analyze the dynamics of macroeconomic and structural developments in Eastern Europe and Russia, with special attention paid to problems of international and national integration, "Dutch disease" and natural resource dependency, and distortions in institutional reforms. The analysis also sheds light on how these problems have implications for cooperation among OECD-countries. A critical focus is on institutional adjustment and learning, human capital formation, trade and foreign investment. The political economy challenges of stability and growth in the region are highlighted. New empirical findings and comparative policy analysis - including in the field of natural resource policy - are major elements in this publication.

This book examines the dynamics shaping the economic process of economic liberalisation in Indonesia since the mid-1980's. Much writing on the process of economic liberalisation in developing countries views economic liberalisation as the victory of economic rationality over political and social interests. In contrast, this book argues that economic liberalisation should not be understood in these terms, but rather in the way that political social interests shape processes of economic reform in both a positive and negative sense. Specifically, Rosser argues that economic liberalisation needs to be understood in terms of the extent to which economic crises shift the balance of power and influence within society away from coalitions opposed to reform and towards those in favour of reform. In the Indonesian context, the main coalitions that need to be examined in this respect are the politico-bureaucrats and the conglomerates who have generally opposed reform and mobile capitalists who have generally supported reform. Based on extensive original research, and providing much new material, the book considers the politics of economic policy-making in Indonesia in a range of sectors including the capital market, intellectual property law, the banking industry, and the trade and investment sectors. Analysing why the nature of economic policy in Indonesia has varied over time, this study argues that there is nothing inevitable about a transition to a fully-fledged liberal market order in Indonesia, and outlines possible future scenarios for the country's political economy.

The Decade Of The Eighties And The Early Nineties Of The Last Century Have Witnessed Changes In The World Economy And In International Economic And Financial Relationship. Several Governments In The Developing Countries Have Recently Embarked On A Liberalization Of Their Foreign Trade And Financial Markets; Many Have Also Decontrolled Domestic Prices And Investment Decisions. The Economies Of Eastern Europe And The Commonwealth Of Independent States (Cis) Have Also Begun To Establish New Political Structures And To Liberalise Their Economies. Liberalisation Policy Is Contemplated As A Measure Of Primary Importance And Is Expected To Improve The Allocation Of An Economy S Resources, Lead To A Greater Efficiency, Expand The Economy S Output, And Accelerate Its Growth. Such A Transition From A Less To A More Liberal Economy Raised Issues Of Great Interest To Policy Makers And Economists Alike.Reform Of Economic Policies In Developing Countries Is One Of The Most Frequently, And Least Understood Efforts Of The Last Decade. The Book Systematically Deals And Analyses The Dynamics Of Liberalisation Process And Compares The Countries Response In Considerable Detail. Struck By The Differences In Their Subsequent Economic Performance, A Closer Analysis Reveals That Their Experience Contradicts The Conventional View That The Ability To Absorb Shocks Depends On The Size Of The Shock, A Country S Experience With Inflation, Its Degree Of Outward Economic Orientation, And Its Various Political Attributes. Genuine Reforms Are Necessary If Countries Are To Achieve Sustained Growth In Real Incomes And Increase In Living Standards.Current International Developments Confirm That The Book Is Dealing With A Question Of Some Urgency: What Can A Developing Country Do To Ensure That It Will Adjust Smoothly And Swiftly After A Macro-Economic Shock? To Find Out What Factors Influence Adjustability, The Study Explores The Recent Stabilization Experience Of Some Developing Countries Around The World, Looking For Any Signs Of A Relationship Between Stabilization Policy And Economic Growth. It Examines The Various Components Of Policy Which Must Be Reformed Government Spending And Revenue, Trade And Exchange Rates, Controls On Private Sector Activity, Labour Market Regulations Etc. Finally, There Is An Analysis Of Why Reforms, Once Implemented, Succeed Or Fail, Accompanied By A Description Of Several Reform Efforts And Their Outcomes.