Talk:Paul Rosenstein-Rodan

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More information about this article... The following comments have been left for this page: My apologies: Rodan did liken the economy to a plane taking off. But this was in his 1957 "Notes on the theory of the Big Push", five years after Walt Rostow had done so in his "Theory of Economic Growth". I thus still think my version is more accurate in that it states Rodan's original contribution to economic thought. Inkathi (talk) 12:08, 24 April 2008 (UTC) (edit)

[edit] Modification of the last section, created by "130.225.62.28" on 26 February 2007 18:26

I have modified the section added by "130.225.62.28" on 26 February 2007:

"He was the author of the theory of the 'big push'. He compared an underdeveloped economy to an airplane on a runway. The airplane, before it flies, has to gain a certain velocity in order to take off. Similarly, an economy was able to function along Adam Smith's free makret principles only when it gained momentum stimulated by planned large-scale investment programmes."

to

"He is the author of the 1943 article "Problems of Industrialisation of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe" - origin of the “Big Push Model” theory - in which he argued for planned large-scale investment programmes in industrialisation in countries with a large surplus workforce in agriculture, in order to take advantage of network effects, viz economies of scale and scope, to escape the low level equilibrium "trap"."

The reason is that Rosenstein-Rodan never spoke of an airplane gaining velocity in order to take off. This is a confusion with Walter Rostow's "take off" theory. Also Rosenstein-Rodan does not mention Adam Smith, least of all in a contradictory manner. He refers to Allyn Young (1928) who himself developed a theme discussed by Smith in 1776. I will add a reference to Allyn Young as well.

Inkathi (talk) 11:29, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

My apologies: Rodan did liken the economy to a plane taking off. But this was in his 1957 "Notes on the theory of the Big Push", five years after Walt Rostow had done so in his "Theory of Economic Growth". I thus still think my version is more accurate in that it states Rodan's original contribution to economic thought.

Inkathi (talk) 12:09, 24 April 2008 (UTC)