Når rigere u-lande havner i “mellemindkomst-fælden”

The seminar will be conducted in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use our online registration form on

https://conferencemanager.events/Howdevelopingcountriescanescapethemiddl…

And do so no later than Tuesday 6 October at 12.00 noon.

Background

Countries in the middle income range of per capita GDP (roughly PP 2,000-12,000 US dollar) tend to experience more volatile economic growth than low- or high-income countries, with periods of fast growth followed by abrupt slowdowns and longer periods of low growth.

Brazil, for example, grew at an average rate of 5.2 per cent between 1967 and 1980; its rate of growth of per capita GDP in the next 22 years to 2002 was zero (0) per cent.

Between 1950 and 2010 (when the data set ends) Brazil spent the first 7 years as a “low-income” country, and the next 53 years as a “lower-middle-income country (PPP 2,000 – 7,250 US dollar per capita). East Asian countries, by contrast, powered through the lower-middle-income band in less than two decades.

Washington consensus

The standard policy prescription for developing countries coming from western countries and the international organizations they dominate (eg. World Bank, IMF, OECD, WTO) has called – ever since the 1980s – for trade liberalization, capital market liberalization, privatization, and a role for “government intervention” in steering resource allocation only when there is clear “market failure” and the costs of the failure are demonstrably more than the costs of government intervention. 

We know this as the Washington Consensus. Hence it is right and proper for western governments and their international organizations to construct international trade and investment regimes which shrink the “policy space” of developing country governments, because there is no effective alternative to the Washington Consensus.

The trouble is that there is little evidence to support the efficacy – for the implementing country, as distinct from western multinationals – of the Washington Consensus, except when implemented by previously very corrupt governments.  

But nor is there an alternative policy paradigm “waiting in the wings”. We – the world community – need to reform international trade and investment regimes so as to enable more policy experimentation by developing country governments.

This includes more active industrial policies to impart directional thrust into higher value-added activities – including renewable energy and adaptation to intensifying climate disruption.

Speakers

• Robert Wade, Professor of Political Economy and Development, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
• Gregory Chin, Associate Professor of political economy, York University, Canada
• Jakob Vestergaard, Senior Researcher DIIS

Programme

Læs videre på

http://www.diis.dk/event/how-developing-countries-can-escape-the-middle-…

HUSK at du indtil videre kan se hele månedsoversigten over arrangementer på http://u-landsnyt.dk/kalender