Gustav F. Papanek

The effect on income distribution of development, the growth rate and economic strategy

Abstract An analysis of cross-section and time series data for 83 countries confirms some, and contradicts other work on income distribution. New findings include: a dualistic socio-political system is highly unfavorable for equality. Neither the extent of government intervention in the economy nor the rate of manufactured exports are systematically related to income distribution. The analysis confirms that there is no systematic relationship between equality and the rate of economic growth. Educational participation and a reduction in the share of primary exports in GDP are both favorable for equality. There is some support for the Kuznets hypothesis that inequality increases as per capita income rises to about

The pribumi entrepreneurs of Bali and Central Java (or how not to help indigenous enterprise)

400 and then declines, with further income increase, but the empirical support is not strong and may be weakening over time. These findings lead to more optimistic conclusions then other work: that rapid growth in a mixed economy is quite consistent with unchanged, or even improved, income distribution, even at early stages of development.

Anne Booth (ed.), The Oil Boom and After:Indonesian Economic Policy and Performance in the Soeharto Era

Fostering indigenous (pribumi) entrepreneurs remains a major aim in Indonesia. The history of the Central Javanese batik industry shows, however, that affirmative action programs in pursuit of that aim can be counter-productive if they undermine entrepreneurial skills–innovation in relation to products, markets, technologies and management–and instead encourage cultivation of political and bureaucratic contacts. The batik industry cloth subsidy did this by rewarding well-established and well-connected firms for continuing to do what they had long been doing, while discriminating against new and innovative firms. On the other hand, the emergence and rapid expansion of the Balinese garment industry showed that pribumi are capable of successful entrepreneurship in a favourable environment without any extraordinary government assistance. The challenge for policy makers determined that pribumi play a larger role in business, therefore, is to design policies that encourage the development of pribumi entrepreneurial skills, rather than causing them to atrophy.

Agricultural Income Distribution and Employment in the 1970s

Anne Booth (ed.), The Oil Boom and After: Indonesian Economic Policy and Performance in the Soeharto Era, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. xxvi + 448 A

Pakistan’s Development and Asian Experience

55.00.