Date: 	Sun, 14 Dec 1997 00:49:07 -0500 (EST)
From: Rakesh Bhandari <bhandari-AT-phoenix.princeton.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Taylorism & Romer's Endogenous Growth Theory



> 
> On an endogenous model, an interventionist government within the periphery
> would invest big-time in domestic education and R&D, encourage the
> dissemination of concomitant developments, try accordingly to keep a
> decisive say in the patent, and *democratise* work-places.  There's a
> rhetorical and practical dimension there for a potentially popular policy
> framework under the 'local praxis under global pressure' rubric, I think
> (even if a little problematic under the hegemony of MAIs and WTOs).

Hi Rob,
I always look forward to your comments and appreciate much the threads you
have begun from time to time. I am not at my books at present, though I
would like to mention in Frontiers of Political Economy, Carchedi's
critical analysis of the Chinese bureaucrats'  attempt to increase
productivity through ever more import of advanced means of production from
abroad (for which they pay in a ton of toys, shoes and shirts, as you
have been emphasizing for some time), instead of
through democraticization of the workplace. I think there is also the
problem of third world absorption of "overcapitalised" morally depreciated
capital equipment. The Indian economist Ranjit Sau has written about this,
as well as Gabriel Kolko in his recent book on Vietnam. In the end, the
big time investment in domestic R& D, along with the other reforms you
recommend, may be a lot less costly and much more effective than the
importation of techno-fixes to productivity crises. 

rb




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