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1. A Paradigm Shift thatNever Will Be?:Justin Lin’s New Structural Economics (pdf)

Author:
Ben Fine and Elisa Van Waeyenberge
Publication Date:
01-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper assesses the attempt by Justin Lin, former Chief Economist of the World Bank, to posit a new development paradigm through his New Structural Economics, NSE. Lin’s attempt to redefine development economics deserves scrutiny for at least two reasons. He launched his new framework from the platform that his position as Chief Economist at the Bank. Critical scrutiny of his propositions then allows for continued insights into the complex relationship between scholarship and policy at the Bank and further illuminates, more broadly, the role of the Bank across the spectrum of development economics, development studies and development policy. Second, Lin’s framework claims a return to a “structural” understanding of development, with a strong industrial policy rhetoric emanating from it. This has been greeted with considerable enthusiasm by erstwhile critics of the Bank. Closer scrutiny of the NSE, however, both reveals the flawed nature of its core theoretical notion of comparative advantage and exposes its strong, if unfortunately conservative, commitment to a flawed and incoherently applied neoclassical economics. These issues are explored across Lin’s propositions regarding structural change, the role of the state and finance and are further examined in the context of specific policy interventions that Lin attaches to the NSE.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Industrial Policy, World Bank, and Economic structure
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Functional Distribution of Income and Economic Growth in the Chinese Economy, 1978-2007

Author:
Ricardo Molero Simarro
Publication Date:
02-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper seeks to analyse the relationship between functional distribution of income, aggregate demand and growth in Chinese reform economy. For this purpose the Bhaduri-Marglin Model is used, stating the theoretical possibility of both profit-led and wage- led growth regimes. Subsequently, the principal literature on the evolution of factor‟s shares in China is reviewed. The statistical series for the period 1978-2007 are reconstructed in order to carry out our analysis of the relations between capital‟s share and investment, on one hand; and labour‟s share and consumption, on the other. Supported by the Model‟s preliminary estimations, it is argued that Chinese growth has been largely profit-driven. Finally, the implications are presented vis-a-vis concerning Chinese economic prospects.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Reform, and Investment
Political Geography:
China and Asia

3. China versus the Washington Consensus: The Anomaly for World Bank Advocacy Research (pdf)

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
The Chinese experience of economic transformation has presented a serious challenge to the Washington Consensus. Since the mid-1990s, institutions upholding the Washington Consensus have mostly excluded the Chinese experience – because of its conspicuous anomaly – in their attempts to interpret worldwide transition and development in line with their policy doctrines. Yet, China did in fact rigorously implement the policy doctrines in the years 1993-1997, but only to result in severe social and economic problems. Since 1998, in the face of the problems and because of increasingly social resistance to the mainstream policies, China has progressively turned to focus on “constructing a harmonious society”. This turn represents a quest for a model of social and economic development that deviates fundamentally from the Washington Consensus.
Topic:
Civil Society, Economics, World Bank, and Social Policy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

4. European Banks in the Developing World

Author:
Jan Toporowski
Publication Date:
10-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper looks at the recent expansion of European banks in the developing countries. It argues that no specific European influence is apparent in emerging markets, other than a declining financial interest in former colonies. Actual developments in emerging markets are determined by domestic factors, financial liberalisation, and capital account liberalisation. The sole exception is provided by monetary unions of France and Portugal with former colonies. These highlight the drying up of local money markets as local banking becomes a branch activity of global banks. This is a paradoxical result, since financial liberalisation is usually supposed to result in financial development. It also suggests financial liberalisation may not be the best way of supporting the under-banked small and medium enterprise sector in developing countries.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Europe

5. From South Asian to Diaspora: Missing Women and Migration

Author:
Matthew McCartney and Aisha Gill
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
The modernisation paradigm is here tested and found wanting in a very particular context; the experience of the migrant. Women in South Asia have a biologically abnormal chance of mortality from conception until their mid-30s. This phenomenon is thought to be related to a range of economic and cultural factors, which include sex selective abortion and gender-biased allocations of health care and nutrition. There is scant research on the manifestation of this phenomenon after migration to developed countries. The modernisation paradigm suggests that migrants will quickly adopt the norms of the host developed country. Some of the proximate causes that generate the excess mortality of females in South Asia are, indeed, not likely to be operational in a developed country; namely, female infanticide and deprivation of nutrition and health care for girls. However, the cultural preference for sons in South Asia has persisted following migration, while the specific way in which this preference is satisfied has changed: sex-selective abortion is replacing post-natal neglect of, and harm done to, girls and women. In some cases, further empirical work is required if the issue of how South Asian practices of gender discrimination might be manifest in the behaviour of migrants to the UK.
Topic:
Demographics, Economics, Gender Issues, Migration, and Poverty
Political Geography:
United Kingdom and South Asia

6. China's Quest for Alternative to Neo-liberalism: Market Reform, Economic Growth, and Labour

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
Since the turn of the century, China's state and society have focused their efforts on “constructing a harmonious society”. Viewed from the perspective of globalization, these efforts represent a quest for a model of development that deviates fundamentally from neo-liberalism. In particular, state policies and institutional reforms in recent years have tended to target at labor compensation-enhancing economic growth, rather than growth based on “cheap labor”. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of the emerging Chinese economic development model, and, on that basis, to analyze its efficiency and welfare attributes. In conjunction with an analysis of China's economic growth path, which seems to have undergone a transition from labor-intensive growth to capital-deepening growth, it is argued that the new development model does represent a more feasible and desirable pursuit than neo-liberalism. The paper concludes with a discussion on the impact of this new Chinese development model on the future direction of globalization.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Globalization, and Markets
Political Geography:
China and Asia

7. Infrastructure as Economic Density

Author:
Sangaralingam Ramesh
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
Income disparities are rising in China as a consequence of the economic reforms post 1979 which virtually gave unchallenged economic growth and prosperity to the coastal regions whose economic growth increased over the last 30 years at the expense of the interior hinterland. Institutions in China have seen the answer to restoring a rural-urban income balance by redistributing people from the interior regions of China to the prosperous coastal regions. This can be seen as a supply side reaction to the income disparity problem, which will inevitably impose the kinds of social costs, which concentrations of populations normally bring. This paper offers insights into other methods of transforming the urban-rural income disparity problem in China, the economic implications of infrastructure investment, the relevance of Krugmans 'New Economic Geography' to the transformative Economics which China has experienced over the last 30 years; and the close relationship between how Krugman's agglomeration economies arise and the development of SEZ's and HTDZ's in China.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
China and Asia

8. China's Economic Growth, 1978-2005: Structural Change and Institutional Attributes

Author:
Dic Lo and LI Guicai
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
China's sustained rapid economic growth over the era of its systemic reform is of general importance for late development under globalization. This paper seeks to construct an explanation of the experience, which centers around the notion of an evolving "regime of accumulation", or development path, that emboddies an uneasy mix of the attributes of allocative and productive efficiency. In this light, the analytical findings of the paper give rise to two main propositions. First, in contrast to the general direction of market reform in the institutional dimension, China's actual path of industrialization and economic growth has rather tended to contradict the principle of comparative advantage - it has been in the direction of capital deepening, especially since the early 1990s. Second, China's reformed economic institutions have encompassed both market-conforming and market-supplanting elements, represented by non-state-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises, respectively, with the former accounting for the improvement in allocative efficiency while the latter accounting for the improvement in productive efficiency. The paper concludes with a discussion on the social implications of the findings and propositions.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China

9. Making Sense of China's Economic Transformation

Author:
Dic Lo
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
China's sustained rapid economic growth over the post-1978 reform era, which is also the era of globalisation, is of worldwide importance. This growth experience has been based mainly on China's internal dynamics. In the first half of the era, economic growth was propelled by improvement in both allocative efficiency and productive efficiency. From the early 1990s until the present time, however, economic growth has been increasingly based on dynamic increasing returns associated with a growth path that is characterised by capital deepening. In both periods, the growth paths and their associated long-term-oriented institutions contradict principles of the free market economy - i.e., doctrines of globalisation. In the form of an analytical overview, this article seeks to explain and interpret the historical background, logic of evolution, and developmental and social implications of China's economic transformation. The analytics draws on a range of relevant economic theories including Marxian theory of economic growth, Post-Keynesian theory of demand determination, and Neo-Schumpeterian theory of innovation. It is posited that these alternative theoretical perspectives offer better insights than mainstream neoclassical economics in explaining and interpreting China's economic transformation.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
China

10. Export-Oriented Policies, Women's Work Burden and Human Development in Mauritius

Author:
Myriam Blin
Publication Date:
02-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London
Abstract:
This paper, looking at the case study of Mauritius, attempts to understand the factors affecting the relationship between EOP, women's work burden along different social backgrounds. The analysis is based on between-method triangulation consisting of a quantitative survey in the industrial sector and a qualitative survey in the industrial and services sectors. The main result shows that women and the social reproductive process were not affected in the same way depending on the socio- professional background of the woman.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, Economics, and International Political Economy
Political Geography:
Mauritius