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Comparison Of Nurkse 's Argument Versus Protectionism Essay

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IIIB—Section 1 a) Contrast of Nurkse’s argument versus protectionism Nurkse argued that less developed countries must make large investments in the agriculture and manufacturing economy, so that an economy can grow without risking the deterioration of its terms of trade. He believed that if a country were to become more productive, its market size would expand and it would eventually become a developed economy. With the development of the manufacturing sector, consumption of manufactured goods would increase, resulting in a decrease of imported manufactured goods. This will reduce an economy’s dependency on trade. Furthermore, if the phenomenon has any affect on world markets, it will improve the terms of trade (TOT). As seen in the diagram above, Nurkse also believed that capital formation could raise national income. More manufacturing would require more of the labor in the manufacturing sector, causing a labor shift from the agricultural sector. With the amount of land being held constant, and advantageous terms of trade in effect, this would raise the nation’s national income. On the other hand, a policy of import substitution based on protectionism would also increase manufacturing and reduce dependency on imports of manufactured goods; however, this would be done less by investment and more in the form of taxes on agriculture and/or subsidies on manufacturing -- PM = (1 + s) PM* or PA = (1 - t) PA* -- both of which lead to a rise in PM relative to PA.

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