Interesting --if depressing for all sorts of reasons-- read, but I wish
economists who talked about economic geography actually read some good
economic geography once in a while, and didn't tout ideas that should
have been dead and buried a long time ago! :-)
Andy Herod
On Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:26:34 -0800 Janet Atkinson-Grosjean
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> The following is from the current issue of 'Foreign Policy', and was posted
> on today's electronic alert service of the Chronicle of Higher Education. I
> thought it might interest members of the listserve.
> Janet Atkinson-Grosjean, PhD Candidate
> Interdisciplinary Studies, Green College
> University of British Columbia
>
> Prisoners of geography
>
> The idea that market-oriented economic policies and the rule of
> law alone can make all countries rich is losing credibility,
> says Ricardo Hausmann, a professor of the practice of economic
> development at Harvard University, and former chief economist of
> the Inter-American Development Bank. Economic geography has
> returned to the forefront of the development debate, writes Mr.
> Hausmann, who notes that of the world's 30 richest economies,
> only Brunei, Hong Kong, and Singapore are in tropical zones.
> "Countries that are tropical, far from the coast, and landlocked
> have three geographical strikes against them," he writes. When
> analyzing economic growth, health conditions, and income
> distribution, statistics reveal a less-favorable outlook for
> tropical nations than for temperate ones. One clear hindrance to
> market access, writes Mr. Hausmann, is the cost of land
> transportation, which is up to 50 percent higher for the median
> landlocked country than for the median coastal nation. Inland
> African countries, China, and India thus remain far from markets
> and maritime trade, he notes. The divergence in agricultural
> productivity between the developed and developing world reveals
> another problem: "Governments in advanced economies spend up to
> five times more (as a percentage of total agricultural
> production) on agriculture-related research and development than
> their counterparts in developing countries," writes Mr.
> Hausmann. He disagrees with those who say Mozambique could
> become Singapore if it could only get its institutions and
> policies in order. "If a region is poor because its geography
> undermines agricultural productivity, impedes market access, and
> facilitates endemic disease, then good domestic policies will
> hardly suffice to foster growth." Mr. Hausmann recommends that
> countries, as well as regional and international aid groups,
> devote more resources to transportation infrastructure, new
> technologies for agriculture and public health, and projects
> that expand access to markets by making national borders less
> restrictive. The cause of poverty in the developing world is not
> economic globalization, he says. "It is the absence of
> globalization -- or an insufficient dose of it -- that is truly
> to blame for these inequities." The article is not online, but
> information about the magazine may be found at
> http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
_____________________
Dr. Andrew Herod
Associate Professor
Department of Geography
204 GGS Building
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602, USA
Tel: 706 542 2856
Fax: 706 542 2388
Email: [log in to unmask]
When I give food to the poor, they call me a Saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they
call me a Communist.
Dom Helder Camara
"Con el coyote no hay aduana"
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