Growth Divergences – Explaining Differences in Economic Performance Edited by José Antonio Ocampo, Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Rob Vos

Publishers: Orient Longman, Zed Books and Third World Network

Published in association with the United Nations

ISBN: 978 1 84277 881 4

About the book

Unlike the 1950s and 1960s, when the rising tide of economic growth lifted most economics, the last three decades have been characterized by a paradox of greater international economic integration as well as divergent economic growth performances. In recent years, most developing countries have grown faster than the developed economies. But the converse has been true in the 1980s and 1990s, except for a number of mostly Asian developing economies.Hence, the growing North-South gap of the two centuries has been moderated by the better economic performance of China,

India and others in East Asia, implying the expansion of the ‘middle income’ category.

This volume of analytical studies seeks to explain these major differences in economic performance in recent decades by considering the dynamics of international economic growth, diverging growth rates, economic structures, and sources of demand, successes and collapses in the developing world, recent episodes of real income stagnation of countries. Several chapters critically review recent misleading claims and the conventional wisdom regarding the relationship of trade liberalization, financial development, development, aid, infrastructure spending, violent conflict, good governance and industrial policy to economic growth.

About the Authors

Jose Antonio Ocampo was United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs from September 2003 until June 2007. He is currently a professor at Columbia University.

Jomo K.S. has been Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development in the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) since January 2005.

Rob Vos is Director of the Development Policy and Analysis Division at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. He is also an affiliate Professor of Finance and Development at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and Professor of Development Economics at the Free University, Amsterdam.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Overview

1. Explaining Growth Divergences
JOSÉ ANTONIO OCAMPA, JOMO K.S. AND ROB VOS

2. Mind the gaps: Economic Openness and Uneven Development
RICHARD KOZUL-WRIGHT

3. Productive Structure and Effective Demand during the Great Divergence: Regional     Contracts
CODRINA RADA AND LANCE TAYLOR

4. Explaining the Dual Divergence: The Role of External Shocks and Specialization     Patterns
JOSÉ ANTONIO OCAMPA AND MARÍA ANGELA PARRA

5. Growth Empirics in a Complex World: A Guide for Applied Economists and      Policymakers
FRANCISCO RODRÍGUEZ

6. Industrial Policy and Growth
HELEN SHAPIRO

7. Openness and Growth: What Have We Learned?
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ

8. Financial Development and Economic Growth: A Critical View
E.V.K. FITZGERALD

9. Aid Does Matter After All: Revisiting the Relationship between Aid and Growth
CAMELLA MINOIU AND SANJAY G. REDDY

10. Have Collapses in Infrastructure Spending Led to Cross-Country Divergence in Per      Capita GDP?
FRANCISCO RODRIGUEZ

11. Governance, Economic Growth and Development since the 1960s
MUSHTAQ H. KHAN

12. The Conflict-Growth Nexus and the Poverty of Nations
SYED MANSOOB MURSHED

Contributors

Index