Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin
"Justin Lin wants to make structuralist economics respectable again, and I applaud him for that. He wants to marry structuralism with neoclassical economic reasoning, and I applaud this idea too. So he has two cheers from me. I withhold my third cheer so I can quibble with some of what he write...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13511 |
| id |
okr-10986-13511 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-135112021-04-23T14:03:08Z Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin Rodrik, Dani brand developing countries development economics economic analysis Economics employment externalities foreign direct investment government intervention International Bank market distortions market failures market prices Monetary Fund neoclassical economics political economy relevant market substitution surplus trade liberalization "Justin Lin wants to make structuralist economics respectable again, and I applaud him for that. He wants to marry structuralism with neoclassical economic reasoning, and I applaud this idea too. So he has two cheers from me. I withhold my third cheer so I can quibble with some of what he writes. The central insight of structuralism is that developing countries are qualitatively different from developed ones. They are not just radially shrunk versions of rich countries. In order to understand the challenges of under-development, you have to understand how the structure of employment and production—in particular the large gaps between the social marginal products of labor in traditional versus modern activities—is determined and how the obstacles that block structural transformation can be overcome. The central insight of neoclassical economics is that people respond to incentives. We need to understand the incentives of, say, teachers to show up for work and impart valuable skills to their students or of entrepreneurs to invest in new economic activities if we are going to have useful things to say to governments about what they ought to do. (And of course, let's not forget that government officials must have the incentive to do the economically “correct” things too.) If we put these two sets of ideas together, we can have a useful development economics, one that does not dismiss the tools of contemporary economic analysis and yet is sensitive to the specific circumstances of developing economies. This is the kind of development …" 2013-05-21T21:28:39Z 2013-05-21T21:28:39Z 2011-08-01 Journal Article World Bank Research Observer 1564-6971 doi:10.1093/wbro/lkr008 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13511 en_US World Bank Research Observer;26(2) CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank Journal Article East Asia |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
en_US |
| topic |
brand developing countries development economics economic analysis Economics employment externalities foreign direct investment government intervention International Bank market distortions market failures market prices Monetary Fund neoclassical economics political economy relevant market substitution surplus trade liberalization |
| spellingShingle |
brand developing countries development economics economic analysis Economics employment externalities foreign direct investment government intervention International Bank market distortions market failures market prices Monetary Fund neoclassical economics political economy relevant market substitution surplus trade liberalization Rodrik, Dani Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin |
| geographic_facet |
East Asia |
| relation |
World Bank Research Observer;26(2) |
| description |
"Justin Lin wants to make structuralist economics respectable again, and I applaud him for that. He wants to marry structuralism with neoclassical economic reasoning, and I applaud this idea too. So he has two cheers from me. I withhold my third cheer so I can quibble with some of what he writes.
The central insight of structuralism is that developing countries are qualitatively different from developed ones. They are not just radially shrunk versions of rich countries. In order to understand the challenges of under-development, you have to understand how the structure of employment and production—in particular the large gaps between the social marginal products of labor in traditional versus modern activities—is determined and how the obstacles that block structural transformation can be overcome.
The central insight of neoclassical economics is that people respond to incentives. We need to understand the incentives of, say, teachers to show up for work and impart valuable skills to their students or of entrepreneurs to invest in new economic activities if we are going to have useful things to say to governments about what they ought to do. (And of course, let's not forget that government officials must have the incentive to do the economically “correct” things too.)
If we put these two sets of ideas together, we can have a useful development economics, one that does not dismiss the tools of contemporary economic analysis and yet is sensitive to the specific circumstances of developing economies. This is the kind of development …" |
| format |
Journal Article |
| author |
Rodrik, Dani |
| author_facet |
Rodrik, Dani |
| author_sort |
Rodrik, Dani |
| title |
Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin |
| title_short |
Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin |
| title_full |
Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin |
| title_fullStr |
Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Comments on “New Structural Economics” by Justin Yifu Lin |
| title_sort |
comments on “new structural economics” by justin yifu lin |
| publisher |
World Bank |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/13511 |
| _version_ |
1764423652836638720 |