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Do unfree countries grow faster?
Right now they do, check out this chart. But fear not for the consilience of liberty and utility. Kevin Hassett is citing Arrow when he should be invoking Robert Solow. The poorer countries are playing "catch-up" by adopting Western technologies and business practices. In the classic Solow model catch-up will give them a higher rate of economic growth but of course they still have a lower level of per capita income. And why are those same poorer countries playing catch-up more today than they did thirty years ago?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 3, 2007 at 05:33 PM in Political Science | Permalink
Comments
Maybe if those in the politically free were a bit more economically free the date wouldnt look so bad.
Posted by: John Pertz at Jul 3, 2007 5:47:12 PM
Dictatorship 36,000!
Posted by: Keith at Jul 3, 2007 5:58:19 PM
And why are those same poorer countries playing catch-up more today than they did thirty years ago?Because they are freer.
Also, because those supposedly more-free countries seem to be suffering some tightening of economic controls (in other words, they are catching up faster not only because they're freer, but also because the competition is less free).
Posted by: apotheon at Jul 3, 2007 6:40:07 PM
I think the catch-up model is more Alexander Gerschenkron than Robert Solow.
Posted by: Barkley Rosser at Jul 3, 2007 10:12:29 PM
Arrow's theorem applies to dictatorships too. There's no way of aggregating arbitrary preferences, whether you use voting or not. Aggregating actual preferences (rather than pathological distributions of preferences) is better done by a democracy than a dictatorship.
Posted by: pete at Jul 4, 2007 2:21:12 AM
I think the "flying geese model" can provide more benefits to the developing countries than the "catching up model."
Posted by: GVV at Jul 4, 2007 10:08:01 AM
You might also be interested in this new paper that look at the causes of civil war. The authors argue that the main culprit are poor insitutions - not economic growth.
http://econ.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64165259&theSitePK=469372&piPK=64165421&menuPK=64166093&entityID=000016406_20070615144341
Posted by: Pablo at Jul 4, 2007 12:40:26 PM
I think the "flying geese model" can provide more benefits to the developing countries than the "catching up model."
Could you elaborate? I don't really understand what you are trying to say. Do you have any prominent examples you could use for what works vs what doesn't work?
Posted by: TGGP at Jul 4, 2007 12:46:19 PM
Not only are these countries freer, gaining more freedom in the last 20 years than the West, but they added freedom in the right places for economic growth.
China has barely any social safety net, and even public school costs money. If the U.S. abolished the welfare state and cut local property taxes by 50%, how fast would GDP increase annually?
Posted by: 8 at Jul 4, 2007 1:22:54 PM
8 (of how many?)
Yeah! slaves in the stone quarries, poison in the toothpaste... curse the evil government that denies us these liberties!
Posted by: MikeN at Jul 4, 2007 1:58:56 PM
@8: I don't know how long term growth would benefit from having a illiterate work
force (having no pesty public education and all). I do know that a major problem
of one of the fast growing asian countries (India) are poorly trained college graduates.
Posted by: JSK at Jul 4, 2007 9:17:23 PM
JSK, the U.S was not illiterate before public education. Remember, Plymouth was a colony of Puritans who insisted that the young read the Bible! In India, private education seems to be doing a better job than public education.
Posted by: TGGP at Jul 5, 2007 12:45:10 AM
The US spends a huge amount per capita on K-12 education, yet has amongst the worst such systems in the developed world. Money spent by government doesn't equal increased effectiveness.
Virtually all of the faults of the US regarding the poor can be answered by our poor system of K-12 education. This in contrast to those who claim the problem is we don't steal enough from the rich to give to the poor like Europe does.
Posted by: happyjuggler0 at Jul 5, 2007 2:09:20 AM
Juggler,
I two very good friends, a married couple, the guy from Germany and the woman from Japan, who want to stay in the US, but the public schools are so bad they won't even consider raising kids here. The guy said that private schools pretty much don't exist in Germany, simply because they are not necessary. Somehow, these publicly funded schools are so much better they will risk going back to countries where the other person in the couple will have intense difficulty finding a job because the publicly funded schools are simply so much better there. If you compare the relative strength of the unions in Germany and Japan to the US, you will find they are much stronger in those two countries than they are here. Somehow, these countries manage to have excellent education systems despite their unions and public funding of the educational system. It is difficult for me to conclude the problem is the teachers union or publicly funded education in the case of the US, given what happens elsewhere.
Posted by: mickslam at Jul 5, 2007 7:04:35 PM
Virtually all of the faults of the US regarding the poor can be answered by our poor system of K-12 education.
Read Chapter 5 of Freakonomics. I think public education, like virtually all government provided "services" would be inferior to the free market, but don't expect it to work miracles. The main problem with bad schools is bad students.
Posted by: TGGP at Jul 5, 2007 9:17:13 PM
TGGP,
I saw your posting only today.
The "flying Geese" model was invented by the Japanese economist Akamaste Kaname.You will get enough reference through googling, including the Wiki meaning.
The other point:
Public education runs in a better manner than the cut throat inflated fees-poor quality combined private education in India.
Posted by: GVV at Jul 7, 2007 7:23:52 AM
TGGP,
I saw your posting only today.
The "flying Geese" model was invented by the Japanese economist Akamaste Kaname.You will get enough reference through googling, including the Wiki meaning.
The other point:
Public education runs in a better manner than the cut throat inflated fees-poor quality combined private education in India.
Posted by: GVV at Jul 7, 2007 7:25:57 AM
Posted by: 鑽石 at Apr 2, 2008 8:58:09 PM
