Silvio Borner - Böcker

The liberalization of trade and factor movements and the adoption of a common currency proposed for the EEC in 1992 have important implications for the rest of the world. For many small and distant countries the effects are shown likely to be insignificant in any case.

Ten case studies pitting Latin American countries against Southeast Asian ones reveal the sources of political credibility. Despite the seemingly superior strength of authoritarian reputation democratic control is the more successful road.

The state and its institutions are crucial for economic development: for better and for worse. This insight informs this important, up-to-date and authoritative survey of new trends in growth economics and the widely divergent economic performance of developing countries - for example, between Latin America and South-east Asia - which seemed to be similarly placed just a generation ago. The decisive role of the political dimension in economic growth seems clear but there are many challenges to be met in getting an analytical handle on the precise determinants and in testing empirically for this. This is the challenge taken up by the international team of contributors.

The liberalization of trade and factor movements and the adoption of a common currency proposed for the EEC in 1992 have important implications for the rest of the world. For many small and distant countries the effects are shown likely to be insignificant in any case.

About 10 years ago, the first very small steps towards this book were taken. The starting point was marked by the deep and sudden slump of the Swiss economy in the mid-seventies: a crisis wiping out about 10 percentage points of GNP and employment within just two years. To this writer, it was clear from the beginning that neither the exogenous shocks nor the struc­ tural changes were in fact exogenous or structural. They were given and sha­ ped by global forces. They were part and parcel of capitalist development. There is no other highly developed country in the world which is so ex­ tremely and integrally exposed to world-wide currents of financial and economic changes as Switzerland. The degree and dimensions of open­ ness ofthe Swiss economy led to the formulation of our research approach for studying the internationalization of the economy, a topic theoretically and politically developed in this book. Empirical evidence relates to our study of Swiss experience. A well-known Swiss-American economist offered the following com­ ment on our previous work on the internationalization of industry: "You are very good in raising interesting questions ..." What was undoubtedly meant as a criticism was received as a compliment. Too much talent and too many research efforts are, in my opinion, wasted by research programs which place technique over substance. This unfortunate development in our profession has already greatly reduced the social utility of economists.