NEED ANSWERS ASAP. 1. What reasons do Todaro and Smith offer for the technologic
ID: 1188056 • Letter: N
Question
NEED ANSWERS ASAP.
1. What reasons do Todaro and Smith offer for the technological stagnation of peasant agriculture?
2. Briefly state the economic and noneconomic arguments in favour of land reform in Latin America and the Caribbean.
3. What is comprehensive, or integrated, rural development?
4. a. What are the main arguments of the trade optimists? Is this position supported by the data?
b. Why did import substituting industrialization fail so often?
5. Explain how South Korea combined an active industrial policy with export promotion.
Explanation / Answer
3)Over the last couple of years, the disappointment over the results of past development efforts in many countries has been growing in the world at large. Nobody brought it more emphatically to the notice of the general public than Robert McNamara in several of his speeches, culminating in the well-known statement that, in the 40 developing countries for which data are available, the upper 20 per cent of the population receives 55 per cent of the national income, while the lowest 20 per_cent receives 5 per cent only.
This gap between rich and poor has only been widening so far, and, in many cases, has led to worse conditions for the poorer segments of the population. The traditional socio-economic environment of the rural population has often been destroyed without being replaced by a better alternative. The increasing population could not be absorbed by the existing rural system, this leading to massive migration to cities, and resulting, in many cases, in a virtual breakdown of urban societies. Measures for increasing agricultural production concentrated on the improvement of land productivity in the better areas with larger farms, leaving behind the poorer masses in the rural areas.
It is noteworthy that the increasing differences between haves and have-nots generated by past development are not restricted to the widening gap between rich and poor. The same growing dualism can be observed between regions within countries, and, on a world-wide scale, between industrial and developing countries. Reference is made to the proceedings of the UNCTAD-conferences.
In the final analysis, the reason for the very unsatisfactory results of past development efforts seems to lie in the basic approach. This approach can be characterized as an attempt to promote development by applying economic principles derived from experiences in developed countries. It was not fully realized that the conditions in developing countries were far more different, as regards for instance factors like
the rate of population increase,
the degree of international communication,
the educational level,
the availability of new technologies,
the value system of the population,
to mention only a few examples.
The reassessment of development strategies during the last years tried to surmount the trial-and-error period and to use the experience of the past to design a new strategy which, it is hoped, might yield better results. For the development of the rural areas, during recent years, the concept of integrated rural development has been widely accepted, and the aim of this paper is to introduce this concept and the problems of its operationalization.
4)b
A thoroughly discredited approach once very popular in Latin America..The basic idea is that instead of concentrating on your comparative advantage (which may be in raw materials) and exporting that stuff to the rest of the world, you create industries to produce substitutes for what you import. The idea was that somehow this would make you less dependent on the rich countries of the world, who were paying you little for your raw materials and charging you a lot for manufactured goods made from your raw materials. Brazilian example: instead of selling coffee to the rest of the world, and using the proceeds to buy cheap computers from countries with a comparative advantage in them, you erect a tariff wall that keeps out cheap computers so your own inefficient computer industry can have the domestic market. In theory, over time your industry will become efficient and competitive. More likely is that you will have expensive low quality computers, and you will still need to import the raw materials to make computers. And protected industries tend to stay protected.
5)Many developing countries have conducted active industrial policies. Those of some
countries have clearly been failures, such as India and Argentina. But industrial policy has not failed
everywhere, and South Korea appears to be a good example of success. Exports, particularly
manufactured exports, including such key sectors as motor vehicles, have grown at an extraordinary
rate in Korea, as summarized by three charts at the end of this case study.
While one can never absolutely prove cause and effect, one of the most important reasons
for South Korea's remarkable industrial achievements appears to be the orientation of its industrial
policy toward promotion of exports of increasingly sophisticated skill and technology content.
Strong financial incentives for industrial firms to move up the ladder of skills and technology have
been present in most of its policies.
There appear to be market failures in the transfer of technology from developing countries
similar to those in innovation of original technology in developed countries. Policies that reward
success in the export of goods a step up in technology and skill content provide a good match
between policy goals, incentives to firms to meet those goals, and monitoring to make sure goals
are really met before rewards are receivedâ€â€or are "incentive compatible." Specifically, firms get
efficient feedback on whether their goods meet world price and quality standards by competing on
world export markets; and governments can more easily ensure that rewards go to firms that really
make and sell the intended number and quality of the required products (exports can be "counted
on the dock," or are otherwise more observable than goods for the home market). These points
are brought out with a close examination of the case of South Korea.
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