Abstract
In this chapter I examine what I call “enhanced mobilization” (EM) strategies for economic development. While this strategy has been relatively rarely practiced in the last century, in my view it has been the highest-performing strategy in terms of permitting a country to catch up with other countries that are more advanced. I use the term enhanced mobilization instead of two other names that may be more familiar, i.e., “export promotion” and “neo-mercantilism.” I prefer not to use these latter terms because the first term fails to fully capture the overall idea, and the second term carries some historic baggage that could be a distraction.
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- 1.
Alice H. Amsden, The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
- 2.
The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy, World Bank Policy Research Reports, 1993.
- 3.
See BCA Research, formerly the Bank Credit Analyst, an investment advisory service based in Montreal in various issues of their monthly letter on the US markets.
- 4.
From Hamilton’s “Report on the Subject of Manufactures,” quoted in James Willard Hurst, Law and Markets in United States History (Union, NJ: The Lawbook Exchange, 2001), 15–16.
- 5.
Elkins and McKittrick, The Age of Federalism.
- 6.
The exact figure is 519,666. Sweden’s population was 5,136,441 in 1900 and 6,142,191 in 1930.
- 7.
Peter Swenson, Capitalists Against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 77.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
In addition, at least in the post-World War II era, Sweden had capital controls, so extra profits would not likely flow abroad. Swenson does not mention these controls and I have not been able to find when they were initiated.
- 10.
The following historical survey draws heavily on Swenson, Capitalists Against Markets: The Making of Labor Markets and Welfare States in the United States and Sweden.
- 11.
Sweden’s population in 1910 was 5,522,493.
- 12.
Swenson, Capitalists Against Markets, 84.
- 13.
Ibid., 78.
- 14.
Ibid., 86.
- 15.
Ibid., 84.
- 16.
Ibid., 101.
- 17.
Ibid., 101–102.
- 18.
Ibid., 100.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
Angus Maddison, Dynamic Forces in Capitalist Development: A Long-Run Comparative View (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 248–249.
- 21.
Angus Maddison, Dynamic Forces in Capitalist Development (Publication Details), pp. 248–249.
- 22.
Maddison, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, 264.
- 23.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Economic Surveys 1991–1992: Sweden (Paris: OECD, 1992), 132.
- 24.
Sweden seems to have done remarkably well in terms of keeping up technologically without the usual capitalistic incentives such as bonuses and stock options, but this is part of another story.
- 25.
These figures, and others on the Netherlands, are drawn from Bruce R. Scott and Jamie Matthews, “The Netherlands: A Third Way?” Harvard Business School Case No. 702-015, originally published in 2001 and revised in 2003.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
In real, inflation-adjusted GDP. This section draws on Willis M. Emmons III, Adele S. Cooper, J. Richard Lenane, “1-800 Buy Ireland,” Harvard Business School Case No. 799-132.
- 28.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Economic Surveys 1996–1997: Ireland (Paris: OECD, 1997), 3.
- 29.
Emmons et al., “1-800 Buy Ireland,” exhibit 13.
- 30.
Australian System of National Accounts (5204.0) (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2002–2003).
- 31.
The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle, 266.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Ibid., 271.
- 34.
Ibid.
- 35.
Ibid., 267.
- 36.
Cf. “Strategies for Rapid Accumulation,” in The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle; The East Asian Miracle, 83.
- 37.
The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle, 191.
- 38.
Ibid., 88.
- 39.
Ibid., 89.
- 40.
The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle, 225, Table 5.8.
- 41.
Bruce R. Scott, John W. Rosenblum, and Audrey T. Sproat, Case Studies in Political Economy: Japan, 1854–1977 (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1980).
- 42.
See, for example, Miyohei Shinohara, Growth and cycles in the Japanese economy, Economic research series (Hitotsubashi Daigaku. Keizai Kenkyujo) 5 (Tokyo: Kinokuniya Bookstore, 1962).
- 43.
The World Bank, The East Asian Miracle, 206, Table 5.5.
- 44.
Ulrike Schaede, “Japanese Financial System: From Postwar to the New Millennium,” Harvard Business School Case No. 700-049.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Katharina Pistor and Philip A. Wellons, The Role of Law and Legal Institutions in Asian Economic Development, 1960–1995 (Asian Development Bank and Oxford University Press, 1998).
- 47.
Ibid., 27, exhibit 12.
- 48.
Ibid., 25, exhibit 14.
- 49.
See Schaede, “The Japanese Financial System.”
- 50.
Ibid., footnote 50.
References
Elvander, Nils. Den svenska modellen. Stockholm: Almänna förlaget, 1988.
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Scott, B.R. (2012). Neo-Mercantilist or Enhanced Mobilization Strategies. In: Capitalism. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-1879-5_12
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