DIE ÖKONOMISCHE THEORIE ALS INSTRUMENT DER ENTWICKLUNGSPOLITIK*

Abstract

SUMMARY The traditional economic theory seems to be appropriate to evaluate the economic conditions in underdeveloped countries. However, as the propositions for development policies diverge, neither the classical equilibrium-analysis nor the Harrod-Domar theory of economic growth are very useful for a long-term development policy. The present article shows, where modern economic theory is helpful in performing rational development policies, and where for scientific reasons its feasibility remains limited. Where models of the recent theory of economic growth are used, a time-preference-function or a general objective-function must be introduced; models of the neoclassical theory of economic growth can be used without these functions. As soon as the function is maximized under constraints, a programming problem results. As can be seen here, economic planning is nothing but a special case of economic programming: every consistent development plan can be explained in terms of a decision model derived from the numerical values of the endogenous variables. As it is impossible to formulate a target-function, the problem must be solved by the conflict-models of the theory of games. These methods render the definition of optimal allocation-processes in economic planning feasible. But application to non-repetitive events is impossible; then propositions for rational behaviour have to be given by the methods of heuristic programming. Economic theory is only applicable to repeated events. The increasing specialization in all fields of science leads, as recent developments show, to a strong differentiation of the scopes of objects; on the other hand, the methods of solving problems converge remarkably. Concerning the methodologies, the dissimilarities between arts and sciences today are largely eliminated.