Erik S. Reinert

How Rich Countries Got Rich and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

How Rich Countries Got Rich . . . and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

How Rich Countries Got Rich is a narrative history of modern economic development from the Italian Renaissance to the present day. In it Erik S. Reinert shows how rich countries developed through a combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investment. Reinert suggests that this set of policies in various combinations has driven successful development from Renaissance Italy to the modern Far East. Yet despite its demonstrable success, orthodox development economists have largely ignored this approach and insisted instead on the importance of free trade. Reinert presents a strongly revisionist history of economics and shows how the discipline has long been torn between the continental Renaissance tradition on one hand and the free market theories of English and later American economics on the other. He argues that our economies were founded on protectionism and state activism and could only later afford the luxury of free trade. When our leaders come to lecture poor countries on the right road to riches they do so in almost perfect ignorance of the real history of mass affluence.

How Rich Countries Got Rich and why Poor Countries Stay Poor

How Rich Countries Got Rich...and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

Ingrid H. Kvangraven

In contrast to neo-classical mainstream approaches to economics, this innovative Modern Guide addresses the complex reality of economic development as an inherently uneven process, exploring the ways of theorizing and empirically exploring the mechanisms with which the unevenness manifests itself. It covers a wide array of issues influencing wealth and poverty, technological innovation, ecology and sustainability, financialization, population, gender, and geography, considering the dynamics of cumulative causations created by the interplay between these factors.

A Modern Guide to Uneven Economic Development

The Visionary Realism of German Economics forms a collection of Erik S. Reinert’s essays bringing the more realistic German economic tradition into focus as an alternative to Anglo-Saxon neoclassical mainstream economics. Together the essays form a holistic theory explaining why economic development—by its very nature—is a very uneven process. Herein lie the important policy implications of the volume.

The Visionary Realism of German Economics

Rainer Kattel

Jan A. Kregel

'Ragnar Nurkse, Trade and Development' reprints Nukse's most important works, making them widely available for an audience of economists, policy makers, researchers and students.

Trade and Development

Ragnar Nurkse

J. A. Kregel

‘Ragnar Nurkse (1907-2007): Classical Development Economics and its Relevance for Today’ presents a selection of papers that casts new insight on Nurkse’s thought, and discusses his relevance for today, in light of the renewed interest in Nurkse amongst development economists. The volume also celebrates the 100th anniversary of this profoundly important thinker’s birth.

Classical Development Economics and Its Relevance for Today

Ragnar Nurkse (1907-2007)

"Members of the anti-globalization movement will find the explanations given in this book insightful, as will employees of international organizations due to the important policy messages. The theoretical interest within the book will appeal to development economists and evolutionary economists, and policymakers and politicians will find the explanations of the present failure of many small nations in the periphery invaluable."--BOOK JACKET.

An Alternative Perspective

Globalization, Economic Development and Inequality

‘Ragnar Nurkse, Trade and Development’ is a timely reprint of Nurkse’s most important works, given the renewed interest in his writings amongst development economists, who are turning to this pioneering thinker in search for new inspiration. This volume aims to make his rarely published works available for an audience of economists, policy makers, researchers and students.

From the Thirty Years' War to the Cold War

Wolfgang J. M. Drechsler

'Techno-Economic Paradigms' presents a series of essays discussing one of the most interesting and talked-about socio-economic theories of our times: techno-economic paradigm shifts.

Essays in Honour of Carlota Perez

Techno-Economic Paradigms

¿Por qué sigue creciendo, día a día, la distancia que separa a los países ricos de los pobres? Erik S. Reinert, profesor de la Universidad Tecnológica de Tallin, revisa la historia del crecimiento económico del mundo desarrollado para demostrarnos que las reglas que hicieron posible su progreso son contradictorias con las que las organizaciones que controlan la economía mundial, incluyendo las que ofrecen ayuda para el desarrollo, imponen hoy a las naciones pobres. Con un lenguaje claro, pensado para facilitar al lector medio la plena comprensión de sus argumentos, Reinert desmonta los mitos neoliberales -como el de la libertad de mercado, que está destruyendo nuestro propio tejido industrial- y nos enseña a mirar con ojos críticos la forma en que estamos agravando la situación de quienes viven en los países pobres. Como ha dicho José Antonio Ocampo, Subsecretario general para asuntos económicos y sociales de las Naciones Unidas, éste es un libro «que obliga a pensar».

La globalización de la pobreza

Francesca L. Viano

After his death Thorstein Veblen was hailed as ‘America’s Darwin and Marx’ and is normally portrayed as the perennial iconoclast. He severely criticised traditional economics and attempted to create an alternative approach based on a much more complex view of human beings. He is one of the most celebrated economists of our age and has been the inspiration for many books; the predatory version of capitalism we now again experience, the phenomenon of studying cultures of consumption and the darker sides of gilded ages can be traced back to Veblen. A conference in Veblen’s ancestral Norway marked the 150th anniversary of his birth. The aim of the conference was to consolidate Veblen scholarship and evaluate his relevance for the problems of today. This collection offers the results of that endeavour; it is a milestone of Vebleniana which assesses all the most salient aspects of his life and influence. Many of its contributors also push into uncharted territory, examining the man and his work from new and necessary perspectives hitherto ignored by scholarship.

Economics for an Age of Crises

Thorstein Veblen

Jayati Ghosh

The Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Development explores the theories and approaches which, over a prolonged period of time, have existed as viable alternatives to today’s mainstream and neo-classical tenets. With a total of 40 specially commissioned chapters, written by the foremost authorities in their respective fields, this volume represents a landmark in the field of economic development. It elucidates the richness of the alternative and sometimes misunderstood ideas which, in different historical contexts, have proved to be vital to the improvement of the human condition. The subject matter is approached from several complementary perspectives. From a historical angle, the Handbook charts the mercantilist and cameralist theories that emerged from the Renaissance and developed further during the Enlightenment. From a geographical angle, it includes chapters on African, Chinese, Indian, and Muslim approaches to economic development. Different schools are also explored and discussed including nineteenth century US development theory, Marxist, Schumpeterian, Latin American structuralism, regulation theory and world systems theories of development. In addition, the Handbook has chapters on important events and institutions including The League of Nations, The Havana Charter, and UNCTAD, as well as on particularly influential development economists. Contemporary topics such as the role of finance, feminism, the agrarian issue, and ecology and the environment are also covered in depth. This comprehensive Handbook offers an unrivalled review and analysis of alternative and heterodox theories of economic development. It should be read by all serious scholars, teachers and students of development studies, and indeed anyone interested in alternatives to development orthodoxy.

Erik S. Reinert

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