Acknowledgments

  This volume presents the key fi ndings of my research program on New

  Structural Economics (NSE), which I conducted during my tenure as Chief

  Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank from 2008 to

  2011. This contribution to development economics and policy would not

  have been possible without the overall guidance and support of Robert

  Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group. I am grateful to Bob for his

  encouragement and valuable advice over my tenure.

  I am also very thankful to K. Y. Amoako, Alice Amsden, Ha-Joon

  Chang, Anne Krueger, Wonhyuk Lim, Howard Pack, Dani Rodrik, Joseph

  Stiglitz, Suresh Tendulkar, and Dirk Willem te Velde for providing insightful

  and detailed comments on the NSE framework. Their contributions

  fueled a thought-provoking and enriching debate about the framework

  and are presented in this book.

  In addition, I would like to thank my many friends and colleagues

  who provided thoughtful inputs and suggestions on various aspects of

  the work presented here and throughout the research process. In particular,

  I am grateful to Shaida Badiee, Gary Becker, Otaviano Canuto,

  Ha-Joon Chang, Robert Cull, Augusto de la Torre, Christian Delvoie, Asli

  Demirgüç-Kunt, Shantayanan Devarajan, Hinh Dinh, Doerte Doemeland,Shahrokh Fardoust, Ariel Fiszbein, Robert Fogel, Alan Gelb, Indermit Gill,

  Ann Harrison, James Heckman, Vivian Hon, Jiandong Ju, Auguste Tano

  Kouame, Aart Kraay, John Litwack, Norman Loayza, Frank Lysy, Shiva

  Makki, William Maloney, Célestin Monga, Mustapha Nabli, Vikram

  Nehru, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Howard Pack, Luiz Pereira da Silva,

  Nadia Piffaretti, Claudia Paz Sepulveda, Brian Pinto, Zia Qureshi, Martin

  Ravallion, David Rosenblatt, Sergio Schmukler, Luis Servén, Sunil Sinha,

  Hans Timmer, Volker Treichel, Harald Uhlig, Lixin Colin Xu, Yong Wang,

  and the many others whom I have had the pleasure and opportunity to

  collaborate with during the production of the manuscript. I would like to

  express special thanks to Doerte Doemeland, who worked closely with me

  in the fi nalization and editing of the manuscript.

  The research on NSE evolved from my previous work on economic

  development and transition at the China Center for Economic Research

  at Peking University. Several papers produced during that period are also

  included in this volume. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my

  former colleagues, Qiang Gong, Demin Huo, and Ho-Mou Wu, and former

  students, Binkai Chen, Shudong Hu, Feiyue Li, Yongjun Li, Zhiyun Li,

  Mingxing Liu, Peilin Liu, Xifang Sun, Zhaoyang Xu, and Pengfei Zhang

  for their support and collaboration in the research.

  Last, the World Bank’s Offi ce of the Publisher provided excellent editorial,

  design, and printing services under the direction of Carlos Rossel.

  In this context, I would like to thank Santiago Pombo-Bejarano, Patricia

  Katayama, Aziz Gökdemir, Andrés Meneses, and Martha Gottron.

本文摘自《新结构经济学》


Acknowledgments   Economic development is a process of continuous technological innovation and structural transformation. Development thinking is inherently tied to the quest for sustainable growth strategies. This book provides a neoclassical approach for studying the determinants of economic structure and its transformation and draws new insights for development policy. The market is the basic mechanism for effective resource allocation at each level of development. However, economic development as a dynamic process entails structural changes, including industrial upgrading and diversification and corresponding improvements in hard and soft infrastructure. Such upgrading and improvements require coordination and go hand in hand with large externalities to firms transaction costs and returns to capital investment. Thus, in addition to an effective market mechanism, the government should play an active role in facilitating structural changes. The book provides empirical evidence in support of this framework as well as concrete advice to development practitioners.