Centre for Economic and Regional Studies Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre of Excellence

Start: 01/24/2019 14:00

End: 01/24/2019 16:00

Location: MTA Research House, conference room nr. K13-14, ground floor, 4 Tóth Kálmán street, 1097 Budapest

Description

 

The Centre for Economic and Regional Studies of Hungarian Academy of Sciences launched a new seminar series in 2013. A quarterly event, it features the presentation of an academic paper and a short discussion. In this seminar, papers will be presented on diverse topics from international trade, regional development, competition, game theory to labor markets or education. A one hour presentation will be followed by a moderated policy discussion where the author and the moderator will discuss the policy relevant conclusions and potential applications in the European Union and Hungary. The location for the lectures is MTA Research House, conference room nr. K13, ground floor, 4 Tóth Kálmán street, 1097 Budapest.The lectures start at 2 pm and held in English. Event coordinator: Kiss Károly Miklós (Institute of Economics, MTA KRTK)

Forthcoming lecture

 

Hansjörg Herr (Berlin School of Economics and Law, FMM Fellow and Berlin
Institute for International Political Economy):

Underdevelopment and unregulated markets: why free markets do not lead to catching-up

 

Abstract:
After World War II, only a few developing countries were able to catch up to the real GDP per capita levels prevailing in developed countries. These successful countries in almost all cases were in Asia and did not follow the free-market doctrine in the tradition of the Washington Consensus.
There must be theoretical explanations as to why underdevelopment is reproduced and most countries in the world do not catch up. This essay reviews different economic approaches that attempt to explain the lack of convergence. The aim is to explain why neither trade based on comparative advantages, nor on economies of scale, nor in global value chains, can cure the lack
of sufficient productivity development. The essay will also cover special features like negative terms-of-trade effects, abundance of scarce resources, and premature de-industrialisation. Also distorted financial systems, high inequality, and restrictions on macroeconomic demand management are briefly discussed. As most developing countries suffer from several of these factors, this approach can explain why development is only possible with the support of comprehensive regulatory government policies and a change in global governance.

Past lectures