IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/stanec/97044.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Balanced or Unbalanced Development: Special Economic Zones as Catalysts for Transition

Author

Listed:
  • John Litwack
  • Yingyi Qian

Abstract

Journal of Comparative Economics, March 1998. We develop a theory for a transition economy under which an unbalanced development strategy that favors special economic zones emerges as a response to two critical problems: (1) political pressure to satisfy certain social expenditure requirements, and (2) the lack of institutions to constrain the state from expropriation. By promoting the concentration of resources in some areas, a low equilibrium trap can be avoided, while important spillover effects may be generated elsewhere. The experience of China with special economic zones and coastal open areas is interpreted in this light. Some problems in the Russian economy are also discussed in the context of this theory. Key Words: Unbalanced Development, Special Economic Zones, Political Constraint, Commitment, Transition Economies Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: O20, P41, H30

Suggested Citation

  • John Litwack & Yingyi Qian, "undated". "Balanced or Unbalanced Development: Special Economic Zones as Catalysts for Transition," Working Papers 97044, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wop:stanec:97044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-econ.stanford.edu/faculty/workp/swp97044.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerard Roland, 1994. "The role of political constraints in transition strategies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 2(1), pages 27-41, March.
    2. Russell Cooper & Andrew John, 1988. "Coordinating Coordination Failures in Keynesian Models," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 103(3), pages 441-463.
    3. Murphy, Kevin M & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1989. "Industrialization and the Big Push," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1003-1026, October.
    4. Tibor Scitovsky, 1954. "Two Concepts of External Economies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62, pages 143-143.
    5. Gordon, Roger H & Li, David Daokui, 1997. "Government Distributional Concerns and Economic Policy During the Transition from Socialism," CEPR Discussion Papers 1662, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "Rationalizability, Learning, and Equilibrium in Games with Strategic Complementarities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1255-1277, November.
    7. Roland, Gerard & Verdier, Thierry, 1994. "Privatization in Eastern Europe : Irreversibility and critical mass effects," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 161-183, June.
    8. Kornai, J., 1993. "Transformational Recession; A General Phenomenon Examined Through the Example of Hangary's Development," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 1648, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    9. Laban, Raul & Wolf, Holger C, 1993. "Large-Scale Privatization in Transition Economies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1199-1210, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wojciech Lichota, 2016. "Efektywność finansowa specjalnych stref ekonomicznych w Polsce," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 1, pages 99-130.
    2. World Bank, 2011. "Russia : Reshaping Economic Geography," World Bank Publications - Reports 13052, The World Bank Group.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Litwack, John M. & Qian, Yingyi, 1998. "Balanced or Unbalanced Development: Special Economic Zones as Catalysts for Transition," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 117-141, March.
    2. Rabah Amir & Filomena Garcia & Malgorzata Knauff, 2006. "Endogenous Heterogeneity in Strategic Models: Symmetry-breaking via Strategic Substitutes and Nonconcavities," Working Papers Department of Economics 2006/29, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    3. Ciccone, Antonio & Matsuyama, Kiminori, 1996. "Start-up costs and pecuniary externalities as barriers to economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 33-59, April.
    4. Amir, Rabah & Garcia, Filomena & Knauff, Malgorzata, 2010. "Symmetry-breaking in two-player games via strategic substitutes and diagonal nonconcavity: A synthesis," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 145(5), pages 1968-1986, September.
    5. Matsui Akihiko & Matsuyama Kiminori, 1995. "An Approach to Equilibrium Selection," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 415-434, April.
    6. Rodriguez-Clare, Andres, 1996. "The division of labor and economic development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 3-32, April.
    7. Pranab Bardhan, 1993. "Economics of Development and the Development of Economics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(2), pages 129-142, Spring.
    8. Louis Makowski & Joseph M. Ostroy, 1991. "The Margin of Appropriation and an Extension of the First Theorem of Welfare Economists," UCLA Economics Working Papers 629, UCLA Department of Economics.
    9. Karl H. Schlag & Péter Vida, 2014. "Believing when Credible: Talking about Future Plans," Vienna Economics Papers 1409, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    10. Earle, John S. & Peter, Klara Sabirianova, 2004. "Contract Violations, Neighborhood Effects, and Wage Arrears in Russia," IZA Discussion Papers 1198, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Schlag, Karl H. & Vida, Péter, 2015. "Believing when Credible: Talking about Future Plans and Past Actions," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 517, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.
    12. John S. Earle & Klara Sabirianova Peter, 2006. "Complementarity and Custom in Contract Violation," Upjohn Working Papers 06-129, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    13. Cheikbossian, Guillaume, 2003. "Property rights, rent-seeking and aggregate outcomes in transition economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 271-288, September.
    14. Rohini Pande, 2005. "Profits and Politics: Coordinating Technology Adoption in Agriculture," Working Papers 922, Economic Growth Center, Yale University.
    15. Bresnahan, Timothy F. & Trajtenberg, M., 1995. "General purpose technologies 'Engines of growth'?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 83-108, January.
    16. Karl H. Schlag & Péter Vida, 2014. "Believing when Credible: Talking about Future Plans," Vienna Economics Papers vie1409, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    17. George-Marios Angeletos & Christian Hellwig & Alessandro Pavan, 2003. "Coordination and Policy Traps," NBER Working Papers 9767, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Pande, Rohini, 2006. "Profits and politics: Coordinating technology adoption in agriculture," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 299-315, December.
    19. Hansen, Nico A., 1997. "Privatization, technology choice and aggregate outcomes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 425-442, June.
    20. Lau, Sau-Him Paul, 2001. "Aggregate Pattern of Time-dependent Adjustment Rules, II: Strategic Complementarity and Endogenous Nonsynchronization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 98(2), pages 199-231, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unbalanced Development; Special Economic Zones; Political Constraint; Commitment; Transition Economies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O20 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - General
    • P41 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wop:stanec:97044. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/destaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.