Industrial adjusment and liberalisation

Abstract

Some parts of the world have experienced remarkable rates of economic growth over the recent decades, and others have stagnated. Many of the stagnating economies had relatively low income levels to begin with. These observations raise two types of very interesting and important questions. First why is it that some countries grow rapidly and others do not? And second, are the poorer countries doomed to be a perpetual "underclass" in the world economy? Recent research suggests that the answers to these questions might be closely related.