Structural Change, Fundamentals and Growth: A Framework and Case Studies

Margaret McMillan, Dani Rodrik and Claudia Sepulveda

No 23378, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Developing countries made considerable gains during the first decade of the 21st century. Their economies grew at unprecedented rates, resulting in large reductions in extreme poverty and a significant expansion of the middle class. But more recently that progress has slowed with an economic environment of lackluster global trade, not enough jobs coupled with skills mismatches, continued globalization and technological change, greater income inequality, unprecedented population aging in richer countries, and youth bulges in the poorer ones. This essay examines how seven key countries fared from 1990-2010 in their development quest. The sample includes seven developing countries—Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, India, Vietnam and Brazil —all of which experienced rapid growth in recent years, but for different reasons. The patterns of growth are analyzed in each of these countries using a unifying framework which draws a distinction between the “structural transformation” and “fundamentals” challenge in growth. Out of these seven countries, the traditional path to rapid growth of export oriented industrialization only played a significant role in Vietnam.

JEL-codes: O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-lam, nep-pke and nep-sea
Note: DEV EFG PR
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

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Working Paper: Structural Change, Fundamentals, and Growth: A Framework and Case Studies (2017)
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