Premium
The world bank and the application of Asian industrial policy to Africa: Theoretical considerations
Author(s) -
Stein Howard
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.3380060304
Subject(s) - industrialisation , economics , government (linguistics) , identification (biology) , agriculture , structural adjustment , east asia , development economics , macroeconomics , political science , china , market economy , history , linguistics , philosophy , botany , archaeology , law , biology
Abstract The paper discusses two general difficulties in drawing lessons from Asian industrialization for Africa, the problem of identification and the problem of reproducibility. The paper criticizes the World Bank/neoclassical model's attempt to solve the identification problem. Using examples from a number of East and Southeast Asian countries the paper argues that the model's export‐oriented vs import‐substitution dichotomy is a false one, that government policy was not neutral but active, interventionist and ‘distorting’, often with positive results, and that statist policies ensured that agriculture supported labour‐intensive industrialization. It also points out that the problem of reproducibility, which is complicated by structural and historical dimensions, is largely ignored by the World Bank/neoclassical model. This raises serious doubts about the usefulness of the World Bank's model of structural adjustment as it applies to Africa, since it is based on a misinterpretation of the factors responsible for industrialization in Asia.