Big Business And Economic Development

Bringing together an international and multidisciplinary group of experts, this is the first comprehensive volume to analyze conglomerates and economic groups in developing countries and transition economies. Using sixteen in-depth case studies it provides a comparative framework for the study of contemporary process of privatization, economic and financial liberalization and neoliberal globalization. Exploring the various causes and economic, social and political effects of the rise of ‘big business’ in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe, the main issues that are examined include: the nature of contemporary economic concentration the relations between ‘local’ and ‘external’ investors the impact on development, and on economic and political control over its direction the new role of the state towards conglomerates and economics groups the effects of economic and political changes on the legitimacy of the state and large companies. This volume is perfect as either a textbook or supplementary reading for students at all levels, as well as researchers and governmental and non-governmental professionals working and studying in the fields of international business and economic development.

Written in nontechnical terms, Big Business and the Wealth of Nations explains how the dynamics of big business have influenced national and international economies in the twentieth century. A path-breaking study, it provides the first systematic treatment of big business in advanced, emerging, and centrally planned economies from the late nineteenth century, when big businesses first appeared in American and West European manufacturing, to the present. These essays, written by internationally known historians and economists, help one to understand the essential role and functions of big businesses, past and present.

Why small business is not the basis of American prosperity, not the foundation of American democracy, and not the champion of job creation. In this provocative book, Robert Atkinson and Michael Lind argue that small business is not, as is widely claimed, the basis of American prosperity. Small business is not responsible for most of the country's job creation and innovation. American democracy does not depend on the existence of brave bands of self-employed citizens. Small businesses are not systematically discriminated against by government policy makers. Rather, Atkinson and Lind argue, small businesses are not the font of jobs, because most small businesses fail. The only kind of small firm that contributes to technological innovation is the technological start-up, and its success depends on scaling up. The idea that self-employed citizens are the foundation of democracy is a relic of Jeffersonian dreams of an agrarian society. And governments, motivated by a confused mix of populist and free market ideology, in fact go out of their way to promote small business. Every modern president has sung the praises of small business, and every modern president, according to Atkinson and Lind, has been wrong. Pointing to the advantages of scale for job creation, productivity, innovation, and virtually all other economic benefits, Atkinson and Lind argue for a “size neutral” policy approach both in the United States and around the world that would encourage growth rather than enshrine an anachronism. If we overthrow the “small is beautiful” ideology, we will be able to recognize large firms as the engines of progress and prosperity that they are.

This book debunks the rosy success story about South Korean economic development by analyzing how the state and businesses formed an alliance, while excluding labor, in order to attain economic development, and how these three entities were transformed in the process. The author analyzes the paradox of South Korean development from 1960 to 1990—a period during which the country experienced dramatic social, economic, and political changes. By reexamining South Korea's development through the collaboration and conflict between the state and the chaebol (big businesses), she illuminates the inherent limitations and problems of the developmental state.

Focusing on the formation of the Korean economic system, this book presents a fascinating and comprehensive analysis of economic development outside of the traditional neo-classical, developmental-state and dependency perspectives. It examines in detail the evolution of institutions that contributed to economic growth and the formation and the workings of the economic system. With an emphasis on the interaction between government, private institutions (Chaebol and financial institutions) and the influence of Japan, it offers one of the most stimulating and distinctive views of Korean economic development to date. It will be of key interest to scholars and researchers of financial growth and development, Asian finance, and regional and heterodox economics.

Economic and social progress requires a diverse ecosystem of firms that play complementary roles. Making It Big: Why Developing Countries Need More Large Firms constitutes one of the most up-to-date assessments of how large firms are created in low- and middle-income countries and their role in development. It argues that large firms advance a range of development objectives in ways that other firms do not: large firms are more likely to innovate, export, and offer training and are more likely to adopt international standards of quality, among other contributions. Their particularities are closely associated with productivity advantages and translate into improved outcomes not only for their owners but also for their workers and for smaller enterprises in their value chains. The challenge for economic development, however, is that production does not reach economic scale in low- and middle-income countries. Why are large firms scarcer in developing countries? Drawing on a rare set of data from public and private sources, as well as proprietary data from the International Finance Corporation and case studies, this book shows that large firms are often born large—or with the attributes of largeness. In other words, what is distinct about them is often in place from day one of their operations. To fill the “missing top†? of the firm-size distribution with additional large firms, governments should support the creation of such firms by opening markets to greater competition. In low-income countries, this objective can be achieved through simple policy reorientation, such as breaking oligopolies, removing unnecessary restrictions to international trade and investment, and establishing strong rules to prevent the abuse of market power. Governments should also strive to ensure that private actors have the skills, technology, intelligence, infrastructure, and finance they need to create large ventures. Additionally, they should actively work to spread the benefits from production at scale across the largest possible number of market participants. This book seeks to bring frontier thinking and evidence on the role and origins of large firms to a wide range of readers, including academics, development practitioners and policy makers.

This book argues that a key dynamic behind economic development in the emerging markets is the coordination between the state and businesses. Exploring the links between institutions, state--business alliances and economic development in the context of tumultuous market transitions since the 1980s, the book tackles the formation and sustainability of coordination-inducing institutions besides their mere existence, and points out the new modalities of coordination in the age of new developmentalism. Based on extensive original research in Turkey and Mexico embedded in a comparative historical analysis, the book shows how state--business alliances have been formed, collapsed and re-formed between the respective states and shifting business actors since the launching of market transitions. It demonstrates how both the state and business actors, and their cohesiveness vs. fragmentation, play crucial roles in the making and sustainability of the institutions, which are central to state--business alliances. It explores the emergence of new actors, the diversification of the organizational landscape, and the evolution of the ways in which the states interact with businesses throughout major economic and political transformations that helped transform the respective states and their interactions with the non-state actors. It draws on the meandering developmental trajectories of Turkey and Mexico from the 1970s to the present and goes on to draw some lessons for institution-building and market reforms in selected countries in North Africa.

One of the most influential studies ever written in the field of development economics, this book has, since first publication in 1957, bred a whole school of followers who are producing further works along the lines indicated by Baran. Concerned with the generation and use of economic surplus, it analyzes from this point of view both the advanced and the underdeveloped countries. A work in political economy rather than solely in economics, this book treats the economic transformation of society as one facet of a total social and political evolution.