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Growth and Policy in Developing Countries: A Structuralist Approach Page xv (15 of 200)
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Preface
In this book, we address growth and development strategies in the devel-oping world (including the so- called emerging and transition economies)
based on the structuralist tradition of economic thought. Structuralist views of
how an economy works and especially how developing countries can advance
toward economic and social sustainability have long been an integral part of
economics in general and of development economics in par tic u lar. Th e appeal
of structuralist economics to policy makers and researchers follows from its
system- wide approach, including the social context in which economies oper-
ate. We believe that structuralism provides the best way to understand the
problems people in poor countries have to confront in trying to reshape their
national economies.
Th ere is, however, no comprehensive text that looks at growth and devel-
opment from this perspective, in both empirical and analytical terms, compa-
rable to the diverse supply of mainstream texts on economic growth. In this
book, we try to fi ll this gap by using structuralist methods to analyze the eco-
nomic per for mance of developing countries around the world since the 1960s.
Traditionally, structuralist economists begin their analysis with a look at
“stylized facts” that characterize the economy. Th e starting point in this book
is the observed divergence in the economic per for mance between industrial
and developing countries, and among the latter since the 1960s but particularly
following the oil and interest rate shocks of the late 1970s. Our main task is to
ascertain reasons why relatively few countries have managed to grow steadily
for long time periods. Understanding, in turn, how the structure of the eco-
nomic system, institutions, and the stage of fi nancial development can con-
strain policy space is essential in providing the right solutions to policy prob-
lems as they arise in developing countries.
Th e structuralist approach departs from the orthodox policy framework
proposed since the 1970s by mainstream economists and international fi nancial
