Browsing by Author "Balassa, Bela"

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    The adding up problem
    (1989-03) Balassa, Bela
    The "Adding Up Problem", or the "Fallacy of Composition", has been with us for sometime. In presenting the favorable economic results of countries following outward-oriented policies, or advocating the adoption of such policies in other countries, one often encounters the objection:"But what would happen if everyone did the same?"The implicit, or explicit, contention is that there would not be enough markets, or that protectionist reactions would be triggered in the developed world, as a result of the onslaught of exports by the developing countries.
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    Economic incentives and agricultural exports in developing countries
    (1987-02) Balassa, Bela
    The findings of this paper indicate that exports in general, and agricultural exports in particular, strongly respond to price incentives. this conclusion has been established by an econometric analysis of data for developing countries and for a subset of Sub-saharam African countries as well as by comparisons of the experience of countries at different levels of development and following different policies. The econometric analysis show the responsiveness of the exports of goods and non factor services, merchandise exports, and agricultural exports to changes in the real exchange rate. It is of particular interest to note that this response is apparently greater in sub-saharn African countries than in developing countries in general. The country analyses further indicate that outward-oriented countries had a far better export performance in regard to merchandise exports, as well as for traditional agricultural exports, than inward-oriented economies. The conclusion applies to all the periods under consideration as well as to countries at different levels of development, from newly-industrializing developing countries to sub-saharan African countries.
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    Economic intergration among developing countries
    (1978-09) Balassa, Bela; Stoutjesdijk, Ardy
    In the early postwar period, economic integration among developing countries was considered primarily as a way of extending the policy of import substitution on a regional scale. This approach is subject to serious limitations since even regional markets will often not permit the establishment of efficient-size firms, much less competition among several such firms. Thus regional integration oriented towards import substitution may lead to the establishment of ineffcient plants and of an inefficient industrial structure thereby postponing the time and increasing the difficulties of a reorientation of policies once the limits of import substitution have been reached.