The Economics Book

190

O

ne of the central questions
for economists is “how did
poor nations become rich?”
After World War II this question
reemerged with new force. The
crumbling of colonial empires had
spawned young, independent
nations whose living standards were
falling farther and farther behind
those of their former masters. Many
of them were experiencing rapid
population growth and needed a
corresponding growth in the goods
and services they produced in order
to improve living standards.
Europe had quickly recovered
from the war, aided by the Marshall
Plan—a huge infusion of funds from

the US government that funded the

rebuilding of infrastructure and

industries. The Polish economist

Paul Rosenstein-Rodan argued that

to make economic progress, the

newly independent countries of the

1950s and 60s needed a “big push”

in investment, just as Europe had

received from the Marshall Plan.

Another related idea was that

countries pass through a series of

stages, taking them from traditional

societies to mass consumer-based

economies. Walt Rostow, the US

economist who put forward this

theory, said that for traditional

nations to develop, massive capital

investments would be required: it

DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Growth and development

KEY THINKERS

Paul Rosenstein-Rodan

(1902–85)

Walt Rostow (1916–2003)

BEFORE

1837 German economist

Friedrich List argues the use

of import protection to help

establish domestic industry.

AFTER

1953 Estonian economist

Ragnar Nurkse proposes the

policy of balanced growth for

developing countries.

1957 Austrian-Hungarian

economist Peter Bauer

criticizes the idea of the big

push and the orthodoxy of

state planning.

is the big push that triggers a take-

off into self-sustained growth. This

eventually transforms poor countries

into mature economies with high

living standards for the majority

of the population. The question of

how the investments needed for a

big push might be made became

the central question of the new field

of development economics.

Building simultaneously

Rosenstein-Rodan argued that in

less-developed countries the market

fails to funnel resources efficiently

into beneficial investments that

generate growth. This is because

big projects such as roads, ports,

If they do so, countries will grow.

All poor countries need is a big push.

To develop, poor countries need

many investments...

... in both infrastructure (such as

roads and ports) and industry (such

as factories and power stations).

Only governments can afford

to make this level of investment.

These investments must all be

made at once, because they

need each other to survive.