THOUGHT LEADERS

Roads to Prosperity

Dani Rodrik

Is free trade always the best policy? Should developing countries open their financial systems? Do foreign-exchange controls serve any useful purpose in our globalized world?

RECENT COMMENTARIES

FEATURED COMMENTARIES

Will China Rule the World?

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2010-01-12

Americans and Europeans blithely assume that China will become more like them as its economy develops and its population gets richer. But a world order centered on China will reflect Chinese values rather than Western ones - that is, if China can continue its rapid economic growth and maintain its social cohesion and political unity. ... read

Comments: 8 Recommended: 1 Read: 12268

Making Room for China

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-12-11

Currency undervaluation is currently the Chinese government’s main instrument for subsidizing manufacturing and other tradable sectors, and therefore promoting growth through structural change. The massive global current-account imbalances that have resulted are the price that China and the world economy must pay for WTO rules that prohibit direct industrial policies.... read

Comments: 3 Recommended: 0 Read: 6167

The IMF Needs Fresh Thinking on Capital Controls

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-11-11

The IMF has slapped Brazil's wrist for daring to impose a 2% tax on short-term capital inflows. But such capital controls make a lot of sense, because “hot” inflows make it difficult for financially open economies like Brazil to maintain a competitive currency, depriving them of what is in effect the most potent form of industrial policy imaginable.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 7804

The Myth of Rising Protectionism

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-10-12

There was a dog that didn’t bark during the financial crisis: the growing protectionist threat. Despite much hue and cry about it, governments have in fact imposed remarkably few trade barriers on imports, and the world economy remains as open as it was before the crisis struck.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 5646

The Tobin Tax Lives Again

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-09-11

In late August, Adair Turner, the head of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, shocked the Anglo-American empire of finance by coming out in support of a Tobin tax – a global tax on financial transactions. Predictably, Adair's proposal was met with a storm of criticism by bankers, which suggests why implementing such a tax would be a very good idea.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 1 Read: 6929

Let Finance Skeptics Take Over

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-08-11

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s term ends in January, and President Barack Obama must decide before then: either re-appoint Bernanke or go with someone else. Given Bernanke's complicity in the Alan Greenspan-era Fed's enthrallment with Wall Street, he deserves to be replaced.... read

Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 8091

Mercantilism Reconsidered

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-07-10

Adam Smith and his liberal followers decisively won the intellectual battle against mercantilist models of capitalism. But recent history tells a more ambiguous story: growth champions such as Japan in the 1950’s and 1960’s, South Korea from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, and China since the early 1980’s have all had activist governments collaborating closely with large business. ... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 9491

The Bumpy Road Ahead

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-06-11

If stock market and interest-rate spreads are to be believed, the US economy has seen the worst and may be on its way to a slow recovery. But the troubles for the world economy are just starting, and if globalization does not get the fix it needs, economic prospects will be dim for rich and poor countries alike.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 8193

A De-Globalized World?

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-05-11

It may take a few months or a couple of years, but one way or another the US and other advanced economies will eventually recover from today’s crisis. We are, however, likely to find ourselves in a somewhat de-globalized world, in which international trade grows more slowly, external finance declines, and rich countries’ lose their appetite for running large current-account deficits. ... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 10504

An IMF We Can Love?	Dani Rodrik
Until the onset of the global economic crisis, the IMF seemed condemned to run out of income, in addition to losing its raison d’être. Now, following the G-20 summit in London, its lending capacity has been tripled, while traditional conditionality will be relaxed and developing countries will gain a larger say in how the organization is run.... read

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Blame the Economists, Not Economics

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-03-11

As the world economy tumbles off the edge of a precipice, critics of the economics profession are raising questions about its complicity in the current crisis. Rightly so: economists have plenty to answer for.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 14645

The Death of the Globalization Consensus

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-07-11

There was a time when world leaders could comfort themselves with the thought that opposition to globalization consisted of violent anarchists, self-serving protectionists, trade unionists, and ignorant, if idealistic youth. But what makes news nowadays is the growing list of mainstream economists who are questioning globalization’s supposedly unmitigated virtues. ... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 21982

Globalization and the Beautiful Game

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-03-13

Is globalization mainly a force for good, enabling poor nations to lift themselves up from poverty, or does it create vast opportunities only for a small minority? To answer these questions, look no farther than soccer. ... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 21406

Who Killed Wall Street?

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-10-10

Perhaps it is futile to look for the single cause without which America's financial system would not have blown up. There were so many contributing factors that this may have been a case of a “perfect storm,” a rare failure that required a large number of stars to be in alignment simultaneously.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 20705

Guns, Drugs, and Financial Markets

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-04-11

Most financial market participants oppose government regulation that takes the form of direct inhibitions on transactions. But we restrict access to most drugs, impose heavy taxes and marketing constraints on tobacco, and control gun ownership for a good reason: our ability to monitor and regulate behavior is necessarily imperfect.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 18987

Is There a New Washington Consensus?

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-06-11

At the end of May, a star-studded World Bank commission on economic growth rejected much of the traditional framework for advising policy makers in developing countries. Rather than offering facile answers such as “just let markets work” or “just get governance right,” the commission rightly emphasizes that each country must devise its own mix of remedies.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17824

Getting Governance Right

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-05-12

Economists used to tell governments to fix their policies; now they tell them to fix their institutions. While that's a welcome change, because good governance is inherently desirable, achieving faster economic growth requires a narrower focus on those institutions that are constraining it.... read

Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 15669

Don’t Cry for Doha

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-08-04

The latest failure of global trade talks has alarmed many, but the collapse of the negotiations was both inevitable and inconsequential. The Doha Round was constructed on a myth, namely that an agenda focused on agriculture would constitute a “development round,” and that its success was crucial to lifting tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people out of poverty.... read

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 15115

Let Developing Nations Rule

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2008-12-11

Once the current economic crisis passes, China, India, Brazil, South Korea, and a handful of other “emerging” nations will be able to exercise greater influence over the way that multilateral economic institutions are run, and will be in a better position to push for reforms that reflect their interests. So, what should these countries seek?... read

Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 14776

Blame the Economists, Not Economics

Dani Rodrik Series: Roads to Prosperity

2009-03-11

Comments: 1 Recommended: 0 Read: 14645

Coming Soon: Capitalism 3.0	Dani Rodrik
Capitalism is in the throes of its most severe crisis in many decades. But those who predict capitalism’s demise have to contend with one important historical fact: capitalism has an almost unlimited capacity to reinvent itself.... read
Is Export Led Growth Passé?	Dani Rodrik
For five decades, developing countries that managed to develop competitive export industries have been rewarded with astonishing growth rates. But, with the US and Europe heading into recession, those days are over, and domestic demand in developing countries is unlikely to take up the slack.... read

AUTHOR INFO

Dani Rodrik

Dani Rodrik, Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the first recipient of the Social Science Research Council’s Albert O. Hirschman Prize. His latest book is One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth.

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THOUGHT LEADERS

Roads to Prosperity

Dani Rodrik

Will China Rule the World?

Making Room for China

The IMF Needs Fresh Thinking on Capital Controls

The Myth of Rising Protectionism

The Tobin Tax Lives Again

Let Finance Skeptics Take Over

Mercantilism Reconsidered

The Bumpy Road Ahead

A De-Globalized World?

Blame the Economists, Not Economics

The Death of the Globalization Consensus

Globalization and the Beautiful Game

Who Killed Wall Street?

Guns, Drugs, and Financial Markets

Is There a New Washington Consensus?

Getting Governance Right

Don’t Cry for Doha

Let Developing Nations Rule

Blame the Economists, Not Economics

AUTHOR INFO

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