Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Visible and Invisible Hands

Here is a little blurb from an article titled "No Invisible Hands Here" written by Ms. Kalpana Khanal and Mr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha on The Kathmandu Post:

The developmental experiment in Nepal, and many studies done elsewhere, confirm that market-based development strategies alone do not work in countries like Nepal.
In the preliminary stage of development, the government should be instrumental in bringing the economy onto a path of development. The state can fail in many dimensions, but as Polanyi (1944) emphasised, it is the central economic actor.


I agree with the authors on most things they discuss in their article. However, I did have a slightly different view on the role of the government in the Nepali economy, which I expressed in my article "Of Growth & Visible Hands" published on Nepali Blogger. Here is a little blurb:

Yes, the government does have a role, an important one at that, to play for the development of a nation, especially when it comes to maintaining equity and addressing market failures. However, the economic problems of Nepal that the authors cite are mostly due to the ineffective government that Nepal has seen over the years, especially since the 1991 revolution. Giving more power and control to such dysfunctional government is a recipe for disaster!

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