How Rich Countries Got Rich...and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

by Reinert, Erik S.

• ISBN13: 9781586486686
• ISBN10: 1586486683
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-06
• Publisher: Public Affairs

Summary

In this refreshingly revisionist history, Erik S. Reinert shows how rich countries developed through a combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investmentrather than through free trade. Yet when our leaders lecture poor countries on the right path to riches they do so in almost perfect ignorance of the fact that our economies were founded on protectionism long before they could afford the luxury of free trade.How Rich Countries Got Rich...will challenge economic orthodoxy and open up the debate on why self-regulating markets are not the best answer to our hopes of worldwide prosperity.

Author Biography

Erik S. Reinert, editor of Globalization, Economic Development and Inequality: An Alternative Perspective, is Professor of Technology Governance and Development Strategies at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, and president of The Other Canon Foundation in Norway.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Figures	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
Discovering Types of Economic Theories	p. 1
The Evolution of the Two Different Approaches	p. 21
Emulation: How Rich Countries Got Rich	p. 71
Globalization: the Arguments in Favour are also the Arguments Against	p. 101
Globalization and Primitivization: How the Poor Get Even Poorer	p. 165
Explaining Away Failure: Red Herrings at the End of History	p. 203
Palliative Economics: Why the Millennium Goals are a Bad Idea	p. 239
'Get the economic activities right', or, the Lost Art of Creating Middle-Income Countries	p. 271
Appendices
David Ricardo's Theory of Comparative Advantage in International Trade	p. 301
Two Different Ways of Understanding the Economic World and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations	p. 305
Frank Graham's Theory of Uneven Development	p. 309
Two Ideal Types of Protectionism Compared	p. 31
Philipp von Hornigk's Nine Points on How to Emulate the Rich Countries (1684)	p. 313
The Quality Index of Economic Activities	p. 317
Notes	p. 318
Bibliography	p. 336
Index	p. 357
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