1974: Volume 6
Volume 6 Number 4 October 1974
Edited by: Robin Murray
This bulletin is devoted to the work of the International Problem Area Group (INTERPAG), and is the last of four such bulletins reporting on problem area group research. The first three articles cover the group's work on trade. The first, by Hans Singer, reports on the trade liberalization project which has been centred at IDS and whose first report argued the benefits of increasing trade between developed and under-developed countries. The second article, by Percy Selwyn, is a critique of this approach, principally for practical reasons. The third, by David Evans, presents an alternative theoretical approach for analysing trade relations 'unequal exchange' - which questions among other things the orthodox theory on which proposals for trade liberalization are based.
1975: Volume 7
Volume 7 Number 1 January 1975
Edited by: Dudley Seers
Amongst the central questions being discussed at IDS is 'dependence'. This used to be thought of mainly in economic terms. One reason for this was the realization in former colonies that political independence had a limited significance so long as the economy was tied closely to that of the former colonial power and other industrial countries. The emphasis on economic factors was reinforced by the dominance of economics within the social sciences, due (apparently) to an analytical framework which permitted extensive quantification of variables and their elaborate manipulation. Another influence was the Marxist theory that the economic base of a society determines other phenomena, which form the 'super-structure'.'
Volume 7 Number 2 May 1975
Edited by: Dudley Seers
It is by now generally agreed that economic growth is by no means a sufficient condition for ending the unholy trinity of unemployment, inequality and poverty. In recent years, as readers of the IDS Annual Reports will know, a great deal of work has been done at the Institute on the theoretical and practical problems of egalitarian, poverty-oriented, development strategies. IDS economists who had taken part in the ILO Employment missions to Colombia, Sri Lanka and Kenya had been feeling the need to explore the technical possibilities of incorporating distributional objectives in growth models, and quantifying policy options. Starting from a slightly different position, several staff economists of the World Bank had become aware of the same need.
Volume 7 Number 3 July 1975
Edited by: Dudley Seers
Social scientists have come to rely very heavily on statistics. in retrospect the crucial step was probably the development of national income accounts in the 1930s to illustrate the Keynesian model of macro-economics. By bringing out the connections between various components of demand and supply, this made it possible to estimate the effects of policy variables,(especially tax revenues and government investment) on output (and therefore employment) and on the balance of payments. Economists gained much more insight into how an industrial economy operated and this increased their usefulness to politicians and administrators. National income accounting had practical uses for demand management by governments intent on avoiding unemployment after the war, and the system of national accounts could later be adapted to quantify Harrod-Domar growth models, forming the core of most of the 'development plans' of the post-war period.
Volume 7 Number 4 October 1975
Edited by: Gamani Corea
Over the past few years the world has witnessed major developments which have vastly altered the international scene. One of these is the deep crisis that has afflicted the international economic order as we have known it up to now the crisis that was reflected in the break up of the international monetary and financial system and in the emergence of such disruptive forces as inflation and recession in virtually all the industrialised countries of the West. Another major development has been the emergence of the developing countries themselves as a significant force on the world stage a phenomenon that is evidenced by the greater assertiveness, greater self-awareness and the greater capacity for action of these countries. The concerted action of the oil producing countries, themselves developing countries, in respect of the price of oil is a manifestation of these changed circumstances. These developments have served to create a new awareness of the need for change, of the inadequacy of prevailing structures, and, above all, of the key importance of the development issue as a factor of international relations.
