Economic essays on developing countries

The economic essays contained in this book have been grouped under several convenient headings of Economic Policy Issues, Objectives, and Means: Monetary; Fiscal and Economic Development; Capital Markets; and Balance of Payments. While most of the essays fit snugly into their respective classifications, several of them refer to more than one aspect of an economy because one cannot treat topics in watertight compartments. For example, events taking place in the monetary and fiscal fields affect the balance of payments and vice versa. Every essay comments on the nature of economic problems in a specific area in developing countries and on the manner in which these problems man ifest themselves.
The main points in the three essays of the section "Economic Policy Issues, Objectives, and Means" are that (1) economic analysis with appropriate modification can be applied to developing countries; (2) economic policy cannot be formulated without a correct appreciation of the current economic situation and a decision as to the objectives and targets to be reached; (3) the limited effectiveness of instruments at the disposal of the policy-maker in developing countries, in part due to the lack of adequate institutional arrangements, makes it difficult to con struct policy-oriented models and to change the course of economic events; (4) while economic objectives are naturally uppermost in the mind of policy-makers, non-economic inputs and targets should also be considered in order to link economics more closely with other disciplines.