This is a collection of essays offering comparative analysis of the divergent experiences of developing countries responding to economic crises by adopting macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment policies.

Given the widely-accepted premise that free trade is the best means of maximising overall societal welfare, why has it proven so difficult to achieve in certain industries? This book tackles arguably the most perennial and deep-rooted of all questions in political economy, and questions the incumbent orthodox liberal theories of collective action. Using a historical institutionalist framework to explore and explain the political economy of trade protectionism and liberalization, this book is based on detailed case studies of the textiles and clothing sector in the EU, United States, China, Caribbean Basin and sub-Saharan Africa. From this, the book expands to discuss the origins of trade protectionism and examine the wider political effects of liberalization, offering an explanation of why a successful conclusion to the WTO ‘Doha’ round has proven to be so elusive. The book argues that the regulation of global trade - and the economic consequences that this has for both developed and developing countries - has been the result of the particular way in which trade preferences are mediated through political institutions. The Global Political Economy of Trade Protectionism and Liberalization will be of interest to those studying and researching international and comparative political economy, developing area studies, economics, law and geography.

Study of changes in USA economic policy and the uses of economics in politics - includes fiscal policy. References pp. 175 to 189.

"This book encapsulates the six papers delivered during the 54th Werner Sichel Lecture Series, held on the campus of Western Michigan University during the academic year 2017-2018. The book's title is taken from the theme for that year's lecture series, "The Political Economy of Inequality: U.S. and Global Dimensions.""--

Michael C. Webb explores a central question about postwar economic history: how has the growth of international markets affected the coordination of economic policy among nations? His analysis overturns the popular assumption that policy coordination has eroded as American hegemony has receded. Instead, he argues that the growing mobility of capital forced governments to abandon the strategies they had used in the 1950s and 60s to insulate monetary and fiscal policies from international influences, and to move toward more direct coordination of central economic strategies. Webb shows that since 1945 there has been a crucial shift in the pattern of international collaboration. He focuses on three types of adjustment policy: trade and capital controls, balance-of-payment lending and intervention in foreign-exchange markets, and monetary and fiscal policies. Noting that the first two types are no longer effective, he demonstrates that governments now rely more on monetary and fiscal policy coordination to regulate the global economy. As the expansion of international finance created greater turbulence in the global economy in the 1980s, the liberal system of international trade threatened to collapse. Webb examines in particular how the United States, Japan, and Germany took unprecedented steps to coordinate monetary and fiscal policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although domestic political obstacles—not any decline in U.S. power—limited the impact of this policy coordination. He concludes by assessing the effectiveness of these attempts to reconcile the goal of a stronger liberal system of economic exchange with the desire to maintain national autonomy.

In the 1980s some developing countries adopted orthodox market-oriented policies in response to international economic crises, others experimented with alternative programs, and still others failed to develop coherent adjustment strategies of any sort. Building on the case studies in Economic Crisis and Policy Choice, these essays offer comparative analysis of these divergent experiences with macroeconomic stabilization and structural adjustment. Barbara Stallings and Miles Kahler explore the external pressures on governments. Peter Evans and John Waterbury examine the role of the state in the adjustment process, Evans through the lens of earlier historical experience with economic restructuring, Waterbury by focusing on the politics of privatization. Joan Nelson analyzes the politics of income distribution in the adjustment process, and Haggard and Kaufman investigate the political correlates of inflation and stabilization. A final essay assesses the prospects for combining market-oriented reforms with political democratization.

The state and its institutions are crucial for economic development: for better and for worse. This insight informs this important, up-to-date and authoritative survey of new trends in growth economics and the widely divergent economic performance of developing countries - for example, between Latin America and South-east Asia - which seemed to be similarly placed just a generation ago. The decisive role of the political dimension in economic growth seems clear but there are many challenges to be met in getting an analytical handle on the precise determinants and in testing empirically for this. This is the challenge taken up by the international team of contributors.