The Norwegian heterodox economist Erik S. Reinert, author of the excellent book How Rich Countries Got Rich, and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor (New York, 2007), talks about his career and about heterodox development economics in the videos below. Informal but very enjoyable discussion.One point, however: in the first video Reinert says that Ricardo’s comparative advantage argument assumes diminishing returns. Surely, he made a slight mistake here: the argument assumes constant returns.[embedded content]Note the very important point that Reinert makes at the beginning of this second video: Ricardo’s comparative advantage argument for free trade actually uses a naive labour theory of value assumption in its argument! (see also Reinert 2007: 301–304 for discussion).[embedded content][embedded content]You can also download Alexander Hamilton’s famous Report on the Subject of Manufactures here:Hamilton, Alexander. 1827. Alexander Hamilton’s Report on the Subject of Manufactures: Made in His Capacity of Secretary of Treasury on the Fifth of December, 1791. (6th edn.). William Brown, Philadelphia. https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilt00caregoogI’ve been reading it, and it is simply amazing how much Alexander Hamilton understood.See also these studies of the role of the state in industrialisation:Reinert, Erik S. 1999.
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One point, however: in the first video Reinert says that Ricardo’s comparative advantage argument assumes diminishing returns. Surely, he made a slight mistake here: the argument assumes constant returns.
Note the very important point that Reinert makes at the beginning of this second video: Ricardo’s comparative advantage argument for free trade actually uses a naive labour theory of value assumption in its argument! (see also Reinert 2007: 301–304 for discussion).
You can also download Alexander Hamilton’s famous Report on the Subject of Manufactures here:
Hamilton, Alexander. 1827. Alexander Hamilton’s Report on the Subject of Manufactures: Made in His Capacity of Secretary of Treasury on the Fifth of December, 1791. (6th edn.). William Brown, Philadelphia.I’ve been reading it, and it is simply amazing how much Alexander Hamilton understood.
https://archive.org/details/alexanderhamilt00caregoog
See also these studies of the role of the state in industrialisation:
Reinert, Erik S. 1999. “The Role of the State in Economic Growth,” Journal of Economic Studies 26.4–5: 268–321.BIBLIOGRAPHYde Vries, P. H. H. 2002. “Governing Growth: A Comparative Analysis of the Role of the State in the Rise of the West,” Journal of World History 13.1: 67–138.
Parthasarathi, Prasannan. 2011. Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600–1850. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Reinert, Erik S. 2007. How Rich Countries Got Rich, and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor. Carroll & Graf, New York.