La politica urbana y el bienestar en el pensamiento económico de Lauchlin Currie (The Economic Thought of Lauchlin Currie)

The construction sector is an indispensable element in the labour mobility mechanism. This promotes not only faster growth but also better distribution. In Colombia there is still a great imbalance in the allocation of labour, notably between low-paying agriculture and high-paying urban activities. And in cities like Bogota there is urgent need for better balance between where people live and where they work, and for an improvement in the quality of the housing needed and/or demanded by all income groups. All this was covered by Currie in his work on 'taming the megalopolis' through the 'cities-within-cities' approach to urban planning, and in answering the question: 'For whom should houses be built?

China : the role of rural-urban migration in economic development under capitalism

Examining the problems for post-communist countries in the context of the European Union. This paper focuses on China and the role of rural-urban migration in economic development under capitalism. The economic relationships between the urban and rural areas of a less developed economy encompass the terms of trade between rural and urban products, the intersectoral transfer of labour, the relative wages of labour in the two sectors, the intersectoral transfer of saving, the relative sectoral returns to investment, the relative sectoral contributions to tax revenue and benefits from public expenditure, and the extent to which government policies favour one sector over the other. There are at least three theoretical frameworks for the analysis of these relationships: the Lewis model of eco­nomic growth with surplus rural labour, the 'coercive', or 'price-scissors', model of economic growth financed by extracting a rural surplus, and the notion that economic policy is subject to 'urban bias'

Solovian and New Growth Theory from the Perspective of Allyn Young on Macroeconomic Increasing Returns

This paper evaluates, from an Allyn Youngian perspective, the neoclassical Solow model of growth and the associated empirical estimates of the sources of growth based on it. It attempts to clarify Young’s particular concept of generalised or macroeconomic “increasing returns” to show the limitations of a model of growth based on an assumption that the aggregate production function is characterised by constant returns to scale but “augmented” by exogenous technical progress. Young’s concept of endogenous, self-sustaining growth is also shown to differ in important respects (including in its policy implications) from modern endogenous growth theory.Solow model; aggregate production function; Allyn Young; endogenous growth theory; macroeconomic increasing returns.

Social Housing Policies in Latin America and Singapore: Lessons for China

This paper addresses the challenges facing China in accelerating the pace of rural-urban migration as part of its on-going economic development programme. It explains the push and pull influences on migration and in particular explains why a continuing focus on urbanisation is justified by the very large gap between rural and urban incomes and the relatively higher income elasticity of demand for urban-based goods and services. The provision of affordable housing is an integral part of this structural shift programme. The paper thus considers the most appropriate ways in which housing finance can be mobilised, and thence how both the quality and the affordability of the housing stock can be increased. Positive and negative lessons for China are offered from the different urbanisation experiences of Latin America (especially Colombia) and Singapore.China, Colombia, Singapore, rural-urban migration, housing finance

New Evidence on Allyn Young’s Style and Influence as a Teacher

This paper publishes the hitherto unpublished correspondence between Allyn Abbott Young’s biographer Charles Blitch and 17 of Young’s former students or associates. Together with related biographical and archival material, the paper shows the way in which this adds to our knowledge of Young’s considerable influence as a teacher upon some of the twentieth century’s greatest economists. The correspondents are as follows: James W Angell, Colin Clark, Arthur H Cole, Lauchlin Currie, Melvin G de Chazeau, Eleanor Lansing Dulles, Howard S Ellis, Frank W Fetter, Earl J Hamilton, Seymour S Harris, Richard S Howey, Nicholas Kaldor, Melvin M Knight, Bertil Ohlin, Geoffrey Shepherd, Overton H Taylor, and Gilbert Walker.Allyn Young, Harvard University, London School of Economics

An Archival Case Study: Revisiting The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie

This paper forms part of a wider project to show the significance of archival material on distinguished economists, in this case Lauchlin Currie (1902-93), who studied and taught at Harvard before entering government service at the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Board as the intellectual leader of Roosevelt’s New Deal, 1934-39, as FDR’s White House economic adviser in peace and war, 1939-45, and as a post-war development economist. It discusses the uses made of the written and oral material available when the author was writing his intellectual biography of Currie (Duke University Press 1990) while Currie was still alive, and the significance of the material that has come to light after Currie’s death.Lauchlin Currie; economic biography; the New Deal; macroeconomic policy; development economics.

How to motivate faster growth in Colombia : the leading sector strategy revisited

This paper reproduces two public lectures given at an Incolda conference in Bogota, October 1, 2002 on La Realidad de la Economía Colombiana. It reviews the great structuralchanges in output and employment over recent decades and how macroeconomic policies can strengthen or weaken the natural forces underlying these changes. It distinguishes between potentially inflationary policies designed to increase demand ina monetary sense, and those that focus on institutional changes that enhance competition and mobility. It explains how inflation distorts the allocation of resources, and why it especially harms long-term housing finance and exports. It explains the logic of Lauchlin Currie's leading sector theory of growth and shows whyand how housing and exports can be given special protection to accelerate development

How to motivate faster growth in Colombia: the leading sector strategy revisited

This paper reproduces two public lectures given at an Incolda conference in Bogota, October 1, 2002 on «La Realidad de la Economía Colombiana ». It reviews the great structural changes in output and employment over recent decades and how macroeconomic policies can strengthen or weaken the natural forces underlying these changes. It distinguishes between potentially inflationary policies designed to increase demand in a monetary sense, and those that focus on institutional changes that enhance competition and mobility. It explains how inflation distorts the allocation of resources, and why it especially harms long-term housing finance and exports. It explains the logic of Lauchlin Currie´s leading sector theory of growth and shows why and how housing and exports can be given special protection to accelerate development.

Globalization and the ladder of comparative advantage

This book categorizes globalization into three types: Financial Globalization, the collapse of the Cold War order and the ensuing convergence toward the capitalistic system; and the rise of the emerging nations. The globalization of capitalism has two implications. One is trust in the market economy system and support for a minimal state while another is an aspect of the Casino Capitalism as typically seen by the rampant emergence of hedge funds. This book explores both the light and shadows cast by globalization, endeavoring to identify both positive and problematic effects of the globalization process on the world economy. For this purpose we would first examine the nature and the feature of the world capitalism in relation to globalization. Then we would discuss and investigate the path along which important nations - first the developed nations (the USA, EU and Japan), followed by the emerging nations (BRICs) - have proceeded under the influence of globalization. Focusing on this phenomenon from diverse points of view, which is to be taken by the first-rank contributors in their fields, will be extraordinarily fruitful for understanding not only the world capitalism

Hawtreyan 'Credit Deadlock' or Keynesian 'Liquidity Trap'? Lessons for Japan from the Great Depression

Hawtreyan 'Credit Deadlock' or Keynesian 'Liquidity Trap'? Lessons for Japan from the Great DepressionGreat Depression; Japan’s Great Stagnation; Hawtreyan Credit deadlock; Keynesian Liquidity trap