Evidence is piling up that neither government nor multilateral spending on education and infrastructure are key to Third World development. To move out of poverty, countries instead need fast growth; and to get that they need to unleash the animal spirits of entrepreneurs, says Mary Anastasia O’Grady, a member of the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.
According to the “Index of Economic Freedom: 2008 Edition,” co-published by the Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal:
Stephen Parente, associate professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, cites the microeconomic research of McKinsey Global Institute, which estimates that modern industry in India could take a huge bite out of its productivity gap with U.S. competitors by simply upgrading production techniques.
India doesn’t need another multilateral education project. It needs to tap into knowledge already available in successful economies – the information and technology is out there, says Parente. The trouble is that it is unavailable in many countries like India, because government barriers and constraints to limit competition make access difficult or impossible.
Source: Mary Anastasia O’Grady, The Real Key to Development, Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2008; and Index of Economic Freedom: 2008 Edition, Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal, January 2008.
For text: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120036519907490279.html
For Index of Economic Freedom: http://www.heritage.org/index/
For more on International Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=26
FMF Policy Bulletin/ 22 January 2008
