Economic liberalism and performance of developing countries: a comparative analysis

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2009
Altun, Gizem
Economic liberalism has always been a very controversial issue in the content of development economics. The relation of neo-liberalism with economic development, as today’s dominant discourse of economics, has been highly debated in the last decades. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate this relationship via comparing four countries’ development experiences; Argentina, China, Turkey and Poland, in between 1965-2005. In addition to that purpose, this thesis aims to analyze whether the experiences of the countries are unique or they display strong similarities with each other; and moreover to assess whether countries that follow the dominant development discourse are more successful than those that diverge from it. Development is defined on the basis of twenty-one indicators which consist of both purely quantitative ones and also others that possess qualitative elements. The comparison was concluded with the results that there was not a universal development path followed by the four countries; neo-liberal transition and reforms in the four countries have in fact brought about changes in some indicators and finally China has been performing better than the other countries by means of a number of indicators, as a country which has relatively been outside the dominant development trend in the world.

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Citation Formats
G. Altun, “Economic liberalism and performance of developing countries: a comparative analysis,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2009.