Abstract: | In 2006, led by the National Treasury, the South African government appointed an International Growth Advisory Panel, which has come to be known as the 'Harvard Panel'. Chaired by Ricardo Hausmann, Head of the Centre for International Development at Harvard University, the panel released its recommendations in May 2008. Continuing in the long tradition of debate on economic policy in South Africa on its pages, 'Transformation' is publishing in this issue the critique of the Panel's recommendations prepared for COSATU by Ben Fine, Professor of Economics at the London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). The critique is followed by a defence and elaboration of the Panel's ideas and recommendations by Ricardo Hausmann and Matt Andrews, a South African based at the Kennedy School at Harvard and a member of the Panel, and a rejoinder from Ben Fine. Underlying the debate are different positions about causal relationships in the economy, and these reflect broader and deeper differences over the nature and causes of development as well as methodological and theoretical differences. Whereas the Harvard Panel is highly critical of market fundamentalists, its analysis often looks for market failures (i.e. why is the market not solving the problem) and for mechanisms to correct these failures. Fine, on the other hand, is more concerned with relationships of power in the economy in order to explain its lack of growth and what solutions are more appropriate and under what circumstances they are politically feasible. The debate is preceded by an introductory comment by Imraan Valodia. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |