Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

Introduction 1 Freedom's Just Another Word  2 The Construction of Consent 3 The Neoliberal State 4 Uneven Geographical Developments 5 Neoliberalism with 'Chinese Characteristics' 6 Neoliberalism on Trial 7 Freedom's Prospect Notes Bibliography Index

/pdf/a-brief-history-of-neoliberalism-1sbwc7l6am.pdf

A Brief History of Neoliberalism

世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lancet/PIIS0140-6736(08)61690-6.pdf

Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307%2F3343168.pdf

Development as Freedom

How should structural adjustment programs be designed

Many of the exports of developing countries are channeled through global value chains (GVCs), which also act as conduits for new technologies. However, new capabilities and productive employment remain limited so far to a tiny sliver of globally integrated firms. GVCs and new technologies exhibit features that limit the upside and may even undermine developing countries’ economic performance. In particular, new technologies present a double whammy to low-income countries. First, they are generally biased towards skills and other capabilities. This bias reduces the comparative advantage of developing countries in traditionally labor-intensive manufacturing (and other) activities, and decreases their gains from trade. Second, GVCs make it harder for low-income countries to use their labor cost advantage to offset their technological disadvantage, by reducing their ability to substitute unskilled labor for other production inputs. These are two independent shocks that compound each other. The evidence to date, on the employment and trade fronts, is that the disadvantages may have more than offset the advantages.

/pdf/new-technologies-global-value-chains-and-developing-456elvrjez.pdf

New Technologies, Global Value Chains, and Developing Economies

The main purpose of industrial policy is to speed up the process of structural change towards higher productivity activities. This paper builds on our earlier writings to present an overall design for the conduct of industrial policy in a low- to middle-income country. It is stimulated by the specific problems faced by South Africa and by our discussions with business and government officials in that country. We present specific recommendations for the South African government in the penultimate section of the paper.

/pdf/reconfiguring-industrial-policy-a-framework-with-an-2gjpjpe2iw.pdf

Reconfiguring Industrial Policy: A Framework with an Application to South Africa

see how these theories would fare when tested simultaneously against each other. Using regression analysis, we came up with some sharp and striking results that have broad implications for development conditionality, discussed below. Our results indicate that the quality of institutions overrides everything else. Controlling for institutions, geography has, at best, weak direct effects on incomes, although it has a strong indirect effect through institutions by influencing their quality. Similarly, trade has a significant effect on institutional quality, but it has no direct positive effect on income. How did we arrive at these findings?

The Primacy of Institutions (and what this does and does not mean)

A common theme in discussions of trade reform is the possibility of improved technical efficiency following trade liberalization, This paper presents a conceptual analysis of the likely linkages between trade regimes and technical efficiency. Three sets of arguments, having to do with X-inefficiency, macroeconomic instability, and increasing returns to scale, are reviewed and found misleading or incomplete. A simple model of technological catch-up by a domestic firm shows the opposite of the usual argument: the larger market share provided by protection to the firm increases its incentives to invest in technological effort. When modified to include oligopolistic considerations at home, the model suggests that the incentives could go either way, depending on the mode of strategic conduct. The presence of economies of scale provides perhaps the strongest reason for productivity improvements, but here the argument relies on frictionless entry into and exit from industries. The paper concludes that the relationship between trade policy and technical efficiency is fundamentally ambiguous.

/pdf/closing-the-technology-gap-does-trade-liberalization-really-3h111vbuql.pdf

Dani Rodrik

Papers

How should structural adjustment programs be designed

New Technologies, Global Value Chains, and Developing Economies

Reconfiguring Industrial Policy: A Framework with an Application to South Africa

The Primacy of Institutions (and what this does and does not mean)

Closing the Technology Gap: Does Trade Liberalization Really Help?