Anthem Press Ragnar Nurkse: Trade and Development: 1 (Anthem Other Canon Economics, 1)

‘Ragnar Nurkse, Trade and Development’ is a timely reprint of Nurkse’s most important works, given the renewed interest in his writings amongst development economists, who are turning to this pioneering thinker in search for new inspiration. This volume aims to make his rarely published works available for an audience of economists, policy makers, researchers and students. Book Description Reprints Nukse’s most important works, making them widely available for an audience of economists, policy makers, researchers and students. About the Author Rainer Kattel is Professor of Innovation Policy and Technology Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Jan A. Kregel is Senior Scholar at The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College; the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability at the University of Missouri, Kansas City; and the Tallinn University of Technology. Erik S. Reinert is Chairman of The Other Canon Foundation, Norway, and Professor at Tallinn University of Technology. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Ragnar Nurkse: Trade and Development By Rainer Kattel, Jan A. Kregel, Erik S. Reinert Wimbledon Publishing Company Copyright © 2011 Rainer Kattel, Jan A. Kregel and Erik S. Reinert All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-84331-787-6 Contents Preface by the Editors, vii, Introduction by the Editors, ix, 1. Causes and Effects of Capital Movements (1934), 1, 2. The Schematic Representation of the Structure of Production (1935), 15, 3. Conditions of International Monetary Equilibrium (1945), 27, 4. Domestic and International Equilibrium (1947), 51, 5. International Monetary Policy and the Search for Economic Stability (1947), 73, 6. Growth in Underdeveloped Countries (1952), 85, 7. Problems of Capital Formation in Underdeveloped Countries (1953), 99, 8. Period Analysis and Inventory Cycles (1954), 213, 9. A New Look at the Dollar Problem and the United States Balance of Payments (1954), 237, 10. International Investment To-day in the Light of Nineteenth-Century Experience (1954), 249, 11. The Relation between Home Investment and External Balance in the Light of British Experience, 1945–1955 (1956), 261, 12. Reflections on India's Development Plan (1957), 315, 13. Balanced and Unbalanced Growth (1957), 329, 14. International Trade Theory and Development Policy (1957), 359, 15. Trade Fluctuations and Buffer Policies of Low-income Countries (1958), 385, 16. Patterns of Trade and Development (1959), 397, Notes, 435, Bibliography of Ragnar Nurkse, 475, CHAPTER 1 CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CAPITAL MOVEMENTS (1934) The theory of capital movements has not been treated systematically, so far, in the literature of economics. The reason for this neglect may well be found largely in the fact that the classical doctrine of international trade, the theory of comparative costs, rests on the fundamental assumption that while the factors of production, labor and capital, are freely mobile inside a given country, they are lacking external freedom of mobility. This basic premise of the international immobility of capital seems to have prevented the possibility of a theoretical approach to capital movements, at least from the standpoint of international trade theory. It is significant that whenever the so-called problem of transfers comes up in the orthodox theory of international trade, the discussion is always concerned with indemnity payments between governments and matters of this kind, never with spontaneous, economic money transfers, i.e., with capital movements in the strict sense. Secondly, the theory of capital movements undoubtedly suffers from the fact that the transfer problem, which arises in capital movements as well as in indemnity payments, has taken up far too much room at the center of the stage. No attempt has been made to look beyond it, either at the causes of capital movements or at their effects. The discussion has been limit