Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Ragnar Nurkse: Trade and Development
- 1 Causes and Effects of Capital Movements (1934)
- 2 The Schematic Representation of the Structure of Production (1935)
- 3 Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium (1945)
- 4 Domestic and International Equilibrium (1947)
- 5 International Monetary Policy and the Search for Economic Stability (1947)
- 6 Growth in Underdeveloped Countries (1952)
- 7 Problems of Capital Formation in Underdeveloped Countries (1953)
- 8 Period Analysis and Inventory Cycles (1954)
- 9 A New Look at the Dollar Problem and the United States Balance of Payments (1954)
- 10 International Investment To-day in the Light of Nineteenth-Century Experience (1954)
- 11 The Relation between Home Investment and External Balance in the Light of British Experience, 1945–1955 (1956)
- 12 Reflections on India's Development Plan (1957)
- 13 Balanced and Unbalanced Growth (1957)
- 14 International Trade Theory and Development Policy (1957)
- 15 Trade Fluctuations and Buffer Policies of Low-income Countries (1958)
- 16 Patterns of Trade and Development (1959)
- Notes
- Bibliography
13 - Balanced and Unbalanced Growth (1957)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Ragnar Nurkse: Trade and Development
- 1 Causes and Effects of Capital Movements (1934)
- 2 The Schematic Representation of the Structure of Production (1935)
- 3 Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium (1945)
- 4 Domestic and International Equilibrium (1947)
- 5 International Monetary Policy and the Search for Economic Stability (1947)
- 6 Growth in Underdeveloped Countries (1952)
- 7 Problems of Capital Formation in Underdeveloped Countries (1953)
- 8 Period Analysis and Inventory Cycles (1954)
- 9 A New Look at the Dollar Problem and the United States Balance of Payments (1954)
- 10 International Investment To-day in the Light of Nineteenth-Century Experience (1954)
- 11 The Relation between Home Investment and External Balance in the Light of British Experience, 1945–1955 (1956)
- 12 Reflections on India's Development Plan (1957)
- 13 Balanced and Unbalanced Growth (1957)
- 14 International Trade Theory and Development Policy (1957)
- 15 Trade Fluctuations and Buffer Policies of Low-income Countries (1958)
- 16 Patterns of Trade and Development (1959)
- Notes
- Bibliography
Summary
The Conflict Between “Balanced Growth” and International Specialization
The idea of balanced growth is playing a prominent role in both the theory and policy of economic development. My purpose here is to consider whether this idea is compatible with the principle of international specialization or whether, on the contrary, it means throwing away the benefits which can be obtained through specialization. The dominant practical question in some of the less-developed countries is whether the available means, limited as they are, should be used to promote activities (a) specialized along lines of comparative advantage internationally or (b) diversified so as to provide markets for each other locally. In Western eyes the pursuit of balanced growth is causing only too often a pathetic misdirection of scarce resources. Some of the underdeveloped countries, on the other hand, feel that they cannot rely on an external demand for their primary products, a demand which is usually inelastic with respect to price. Is there any guarantee, they ask, that the overspill of prosperity from the advanced countries, through changes in the volume and terms of trade and possibly, in response thereto, through private foreign investment in primary production for export, will induce a satisfactory rate of development—satisfactory in relation, for instance, to population change? The clash of prescriptions on the policy plane reflects what looks like a deadlock on the theoretical level also.
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- Ragnar NurkseTrade and Development, pp. 329 - 358Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2009
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