Publication: Growth Strategies and Dynamics: Insights from Country Experiences
Date
2008
ISSN
Published
2008
Author(s)
El-Erian, Mohamed A.
Spence, Michael
Abstract
The paper examines the challenges that
developing countries face in accelerating and sustaining
growth. The cases of China and India are examined to
illustrate a more general phenomenon which might be called
model uncertainty. As a developing economy grows, its market
and regulatory institutions change and their capabilities
increase. As a result, growth strategies and policies and
the role of government shift. Further, as the models of
economies in these transitional states are incomplete and
because models used to predict policy impacts in advanced
economies may not provided accurate predictions in the
developing economy case, growth strategies and policies need
to be responsive and to evolve as the economy matures. This
has lead governments in countries that have sustained high
growth to be somewhat pragmatic, to treat the policy
directions that emerge from the advanced economy model with
circumspection, to be somewhat experimental in seeking to
accelerate export diversification, to be sensitive to risks,
and as a result to proceed gradually in areas such as the
timing and sequencing of opening up on the current and
capital accounts. The last is an area in which existing
theory provides relatively little specific guidance, but in
which there are relatively high risks that decline over time
as the market matures.