Growth Divergences: Explaining Differences in Economic Performance

by José Antonio Ocampo (Editor), Jomo Kwame Sundaram (Editor)

This volume of analytical studies examines the major differences in economic performance in recent decades between the developing and developed economies. Most developing countries have lagged increasingly far behind, but this growing North-South gap has been masked by the better economic performance of China, India and the East Asian Tigers, implying the expansion of the "middle income" category. The high-profile contributors consider the dynamics of international economic growth, diverging growth rates, economic structures, and sources of demand, successes and collapses in the developing world, and recent episodes of real income stagnation of countries. Several chapters critically review recent misleading claims regarding the relationship of trade liberalization, financial development, development, aid, infrastructure spending, violent conflict, good governance, and industrial policy to economic growth.

Genres: Economics

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 22, 2008

About the author

José Antonio Ocampo is a Professor of Professional Practice in International and Public Affairs and Director of the Program in Economic and Political Development at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. He will teach courses in the Ph.D. program in Sustainable Development and is a member of Columbia's Committee on Global Thought.

Prior to his appointment, Professor Ocampo served in a number of positions in the United Nations and the Government of Colombia, most notably as United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs; Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Minister of Finance and Public Credit, Chairman of the Board of Banco del República (Central Bank of Colombia); Director, National Planning Department (Minister of Planning); Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chairman of the Board of Banco Cafetero (Coffee Bank) and Caja de Crèdito Agraria, Industrial y Minera (Agrarian Bank) and Executive Director, FEDESARROLLO.

Dr. Ocampo received his B.A. in Economics and Sociology from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University, 1976. He was a Professor in the Advanced Programme on Rethinking Development Economics at Cambridge University, a Professor of Economics at Universidad de los Andes, a Professor of Economic History at the National University of Colombia, as well as a Visiting Fellow at Yale and Oxford.

He is the author of numerous books and articles on macroeconomics policy and theory, economic development, international trade and economic history. His recent publications include Stability with Growth: Macroeconomics, Liberalization and Development, with Joseph E. Stiglitz, Shari Spiegel, Ricardo French-Davis and Deepak Nayyar, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Reviews

[Denise DeRocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is an outstanding read - anything by Ocampo is worth picking up!! If you are interested in the question posed by the title, this is an excellent source.