Book Review:Personal Finance Companies and Their Credit Practices. National Bureau of Economic Research

This volume on India is one of a series of research projects on exchange control, liberalization, and economic development, undertaken for many less developed countries. The study deals with three major topics: exchange control, liberalization, and growth. First, under 'The Anatomy of Exchange Control', the methods of allocation and intervention in the foreign trade and payments practised by the government during the restrictive period 1956-66 and their economic impact are discussed. Then, a detailed analysis of the 'Liberalization Episode' which covers the policies in the period 1966-68, including the June 1966 devaluation, and the episode's effect on price level, economic activity, and exports is given. Finally, the overall growth effects of the foreign trade regime (broadly defined as exchange rate policy plus the frame-work of relevant domestic policies such as industrial licensing), and their possible contribution to India's rather unsatisfactory economic performance are examined.

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Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: TURKEY. By Anne O. Kneger. New York : Columbia University Press 1975. (Published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., New York) xxiii + 339 pp. Price $ 17.50 for hard cover ; $ 5.00 for paperback.

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v14i3pp.377-380 ◽

1975 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 377-380

Author(s):

Javed Ashraf

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

New York ◽

Economic Development ◽

Foreign Trade ◽

Economic Research ◽

National Bureau ◽

Columbia University ◽

Individual Country ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Exchange Control

The book is the first of a series of studies on Exchange Control, Liberalization and Economic Development sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research, New York. The ten-country study, of which the book under review is a part, provides an in-depth analysis of three major areas : The anatomy of exchange control along with its implications, the episode of the liberalization of the payments regime, and the relationship of growth with the exchange control regime. The findings of the individual country-studies have been consolidated in an overall synthesis. However, each study is complete in itself in accordance with the needs of scholars having an interest in only some of the studies. The book under review seeks to analyse Turkey's trade and payments regime and the effect that the latter has had on the country's economic growth. Whereas quite a few other factors are instrumental in development (e.g. agricultural productivity, levels of education, political and social stability, etc.), the focus on foreign trade alone is justified by the author on the grounds of the tremendous amount of government influence in foreign trade. Moreover, the author believes that an intensive study of the trade-growth relationship is more rewarding than: a general survey of all factors related to economic growth.

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