Appropriate Economic Policies at Different Stages of Development

Abstract

This paper summarizes theoretical arguments and provides empirical evidence to support the statement that rational economic policies depend qualitatively on two factors – technological and institutional level of development of a country. We concentrate on the impact of three policies to promote the catch up development – import tariffs, increase of government revenues/spending, and the speed of foreign exchange reserves accumulation (exchange rate protectionism). It is shown that the impact of these policies may be positive or negative dependening on a stage of development; in each case we find threshold levels or critical combinations of GDP per capita and/or an institutional quality indicator. A theoretical model demonstrates how tariff protection and accumulation of reserves can boost long term growth in the presence of externalities.