Erik S. Reinert

A maverick economist explains how protectionism makes nations rich, free trade keeps them poor---and how rich countries make sure to keep it that way. Throughout history, some combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investment has driven successful development everywhere from Renaissance Italy to the modern Far East. Yet despite the demonstrable success of this approach, development economists largely ignore it and insist instead on the importance of free trade. Somehow, the thing that made rich nations rich supposedly won't work on poor countries anymore. Leading heterodox economist Erik Reinert's invigorating history of economic development shows how Western economies were founded on protectionism and state activism and only later promoted free trade, when it worked to their advantage. In the tug-of-war between the gospel of government intervention and free-market purists, the issue is not that one is more correct, but that the winning nation tends to favor whatever benefits them most. As Western countries begin to sense that the rules of the game they set were rigged, Reinert's classic book gains new urgency. His unique and edifying approach to the history of economic development is critical reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got here and what to do next, especially now that we aren't so sure we'll be the winners anymore.

The Visionary Realism of German Economics forms a collection of Erik S. Reinert’s essays bringing the more realistic German economic tradition into focus as an alternative to Anglo-Saxon neoclassical mainstream economics. Together the essays form a holistic theory explaining why economic development—by its very nature—is a very uneven process. Herein lie the important policy implications of the volume.

Når Vesten ber u-landene åpne markedene sine for fri konkurranse, trekker vi i virkeligheten opp stigen etter oss, skriver Reinert. Boken forklarer hvordan ulikhetene oppstod, og viser at økonomisk politikk må ta utganspunkt i faktiske forhold snarere enn ideologi. Vi gir ikke de fattige landene mulighet til å føre den samme økonomiske politikk vi selv gjorde for å bli velstående: " "Gjør som vi sier, ikke som vi gjorde," " blir budskapet. Denne håndboken om dagens globale økonomi forklarer hvordan ulikhetene mellom fattige og rike land oppstod, og viser hvor viktig det er at økonomisk politikk tar utgangspunkt i faktiske forhold snarere enn ideologi. Erik S. Reinert er siviløkonom (MBA Harvard) og sosialøkonom (Ph. D. Cornell) og spesialist på utviklingsteori og internasjonal handelsteori.

In ‘Competitiveness and Development’, the author explains the confusion surrounding the concept of competitiveness in the context of developing countries; proposes policies for achieving competitiveness at a high level of development; examines its possibilities and constraints; and suggests policy changes necessary at the national and international levels. Shafaeddin illustrates how developed countries impose restrictive policies on developing countries through international financial institutions and the WTO, as well as regional and bilateral agreements, which limit their policy space for promoting dynamic comparative advantage in order to achieve competitiveness at a high level of development. Ultimately, such policies lock developing countries that are at early stages of development in specialization based on static comparative advantage and competitiveness at a low level of development.

In ‘Competitiveness and Development’, the author explains the confusion surrounding the concept of competitiveness in the context of developing countries; proposes policies for achieving competitiveness at a high level of development; examines its possibilities and constraints; and suggests policy changes necessary at the national and international levels. Shafaeddin illustrates how developed countries impose restrictive policies on developing countries through international financial institutions and the WTO, as well as regional and bilateral agreements, which limit their policy space for promoting dynamic comparative advantage in order to achieve competitiveness at a high level of development. Ultimately, such policies lock developing countries that are at early stages of development in specialization based on static comparative advantage and competitiveness at a low level of development.

How Rich Countries Got Rich buries the economic orthodoxy once and for all and shows why freetrade is not he best answer for our hopes of worldwide prosperity.

Historically, much of economic thought, especially until the 1960s, has been preoccupied with the central concerns of development economics. It is thus contemporary mainstream economics - dominated by those with a touching faith in the virtues and infallibility of the market - that emerges as almost exceptional when viewed in a longer-term perspective. Although economics has gone through many changes over the centuries, the original developmental concerns of economists have persisted until relatively recently - diminishing, ironically, only as development economics emerged as a sub-discipline in the post-war period. This book reviews the history of economic thought to highlight these enduring developmental concerns in earlier economic discourses. This survey also shows that various schools of economic thought, over the years, have pointed to the role of the state in leading and coordinating economic transformation and progress. In the second half of the twentieth century, often static, abstract and formal approaches displaced historically informed and institutionally nuanced discourses. Thus, the narrow approaches of contemporary economics have marginalized greater appreciation of history and other social sciences. In the first three chapters of the book, Erik and Sophus Reinert offer fascinating surveys of mercantilism, the Italian tradition associated with its city-states, and the later German economic tradition. Mushtaq Khan surveys the historical debate over capitalist transformation. Jaime Ros reviews the impact of modern growth theory on pioneering development economists, while Amitava Dutt considers the role of international trade in early development economics. Alfredo Saad-Filho assesses Latin American structuralism and dependency theory. Finally, Tamas Szentes discusses development in the history of economics.