Alice Amsden

Alice Hoffenberg Amsden (June 27, 1943 – March 14, 2012) was a political economist and scholar of state-led economic development. For the last two decades of her career, she was the Barton L. Weller Professor of Political Economy at MIT.^[1]

Amsden was known best for her work on the developmental state, which argued that state-led industrialization was a viable alternative to the market-oriented industrialization of North America and Europe. She argued that the "catching up" of late-industrializing economies, particularly the "Asian Tigers," was accomplished through government intervention that promoted organizational learning, arranged "reciprocal control mechanisms" between states and firms, and established price control and import substitution policies. Her work is viewed as a rebuttal of the Washington Consensus and neoclassical economic doctrine that sought to restrain state intervention in industrialization.^[2][3]

Life and career

Born in New York City, Amsden received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and her PhD from the London School of Economics. Professor Amsden began her career as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and taught at University of California, Los Angeles, Barnard College at Columbia University, Harvard Business School and The New School before being appointed professor at MIT in 1994. She remained in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning until her death in 2012.

In addition to teaching and writing, she was a consultant to the World Bank, OECD and various organizations within the United Nations. In 2002, she was awarded the Leontief Prize by the Global Development and Environment Institute and was named one of the top 50 visionaries by Scientific American for her premise that one-size-fits-all economic policies are ill-suited for poor countries looking to become industrialized. In 2009, she was appointed by the United Nations secretary-general to a 3-year seat on the U.N. Committee on Development Policy, a subsidiary of the U.N. Economic and Social Council. The 24-member committee provides inputs and independent advice to the council on emerging cross-sectoral development issues and on international cooperation for development.

Amsden wrote several books about the industrialization of developing countries. Her work emphasized the importance of the state as a facilitator and guide of economic development. She also saw knowledge as a crucial determinant of economic growth. Her books include Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialisation and The Rise of the Rest. In the former she concentrated on the development of South Korea and in the latter she compared the experiences of several developing countries—mostly East Asian and Latin American countries.

In 2012, Amdsen died suddenly at her home in Cambridge at the age of 68.^[1]

Books

In addition to numerous journal articles, Professor Amsden has authored:

• The Role of Elites in Economic Development, Oxford University Press, 2012, (with Alisa Di Caprio and James A. Robinson).
• Escape from Empire: The Developing World's Journey through Heaven and Hell, MIT Press, 2007.
• Beyond Late Development: Taiwan's Upgrading Policies, MIT Press, 2003, (with Wan Wen Chu).
• The Rise of "The Rest": Challenges to the West From Late-Industrializing Economies, Oxford University Press, 2001.
• The Market Meets Its Match: Restructuring the Economies of Eastern Europe, Harvard University Press,1994 (with Jacek Kochanowicz and Lance Taylor).
• Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization, Oxford University Press, 1989. Awarded "Best Book in Political Economy," American Political Science Association, 1992.

References

External links

• Winner of the 2002 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought
• Column archive at The Nation
• Works by or about Alice Amsden in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• MIT 2012 Memorial Symposium
• Special Issue of Journal of Regions, Economy and Society on Amsden's contributions