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Institutional adjustment for economic growth: Small scale industries and economic transition in Asia and Africa
- 2019
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Editorial collection (peer-reviewed)abstract
- First published in 1998, this volume focuses on the special category of countries popularly referred to as ‘transition economies’ through an analysis of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and their role in Asian economies, with a view to assessing whether they could or should provide a model for African countries. The present volume explores the institutional peculiarities displayed by ‘transition economies’. These are economies which are undergoing a comprehensive and fundamental societal transformation with a view to creating a utopian communist society within the frame of a centrally administered economy, then a pluralistic society based on a market economy and the rule of law. Much of the debate on the economic performance of African LCD’s has focused on informal sector activities or on the imperative to achieve structural adjustment. By highlighting instead the challenges facing two of the least successful among the African economies-Ethiopia and Tanzania, both of which share a socialist past-this book moves beyond the above issues. It argues that institutional adjustment is critical to the prospects for success in developing transition economies. As such the book investigates the transaction costs environment within which small-scale industrial activities are set. By drawing extensively on the Asian experience, (predominantly China and Vietnam but also India and Taiwan), it identifies sources of transaction costs by examining not only the transactional disadvantages of small-scale production, but also the past and present sources of institutional inefficiency.
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- Ronnås, Per, et al.
(author)
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Economic reform in Vietnam : Dismantling the centrally planned Economy
- 1991
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In: The Journal of Communist Studies. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0268-4535. ; 7:1, s. 7-19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While Vietnam pioneered macro-economic reforms among socialist states, with 1989 being a decisive year in coming to grips with hyper-inflation and other inherently destabilizing economic imbalances, much remains to be done. There is a wide range of institutions associated with market-type economies still not in place, and the transition is certainly made no easier by the social and regional tension that can be expected to arise. The sequencing and timing of further measures towards the complete dismantling of the centrally planned economy will be crucial. The restrictions imposed by a continuing commitment to the political culture of the pre-reform era is another dark cloud on the horizon.
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- Ronnås, Per, et al.
(author)
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Urbanisation, central planning and Tolley's model of urban growth : A critical review
- 1993
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 1872-9398 .- 0016-7185. ; 24:2, s. 193-204
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The study of urbanisation under central planning, while rich in empirical documentation, still lacks a theory that can take recent advances in our understanding of the socialist (or formerly socialist) societies into account. However, one of a host of new developments in urbanisation studies, the model devised by Tolley, holds great promises in store to inform our endeavours to appreciate the circumstances under which the rural-to-urban drift might take place in a variety of settings. This prompts an effort to evaluate the model's potential contribution towards an improved comprehension of urbanisation in socialist polities. Although previous studies indicate that Tolley's model would seem to fit developments in China and that of other Soviet-type economies in a rather congenial manner, it is here suggested that it is not fully appropriate. As the original model is premised upon carefully specified causal links which are not present under central planning, the conclusions drawn from an apparent congruence of patterns derived from nationally aggregated statistics are spurious at best. Therefore, it is argued, while useful in other contexts Tolley's model sheds little light on urbanisation under central planning. More generally, scholars taking an interest in comparative urbanisation would benefit from studying the processes which mold the patterns in individual cases rather than merely comparing the patterns as such.
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- Ronnås, Per
(author)
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Urbanization in Romania : a geography of social and economic change since independence
- 1984
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Romania is an interesting laboratory for the study of urbanization. Few countries in Europe have experienced such sharp social, cultural and economic discrimination between town and village, among regions and among ethnic groups. Profound political changes after the two world wars have added to the complexity of the urban transition. Within the span of a century, Romania was transformed from a semi-feudal society with a bonded peasantry, into a market economy largely based on subsistence agriculture and then into an industrialized socialist society. At the end of World War II, 70% of the population of Romania were dependent on agriculture. A major aim of the postwar regime was to break up social structure and transform the entire population into a homogeneous class, modelled on the urban workers. The domination of the peasantry and the weak tradition of the working class made this a complete social transformation. The postwar industrialization and the urbanization programmes should be seen in this context. The present study purports to analyze, interpret and describe urban transition in Romania; the transformation of the country from an agrarian society based on subsistence farming and a peasant culture to an industrialized socialist society. Dearth of data have limited this study to a largely explorative broad approach which covers the period from the late 19th century until 1980. Industrial, habitational, socio-economic and cultural aspects are all studied in separate chapters and regional and etnic aspects are examined in detail. In the final chapter, features of postwar urbanization in Romania, ascibed to the introduction of a centrally planned economy within a socialist ideology, are distinguished and discussed. The main data generated in the study are listed in an appendix to facilitate further research.
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