Profile Major Works Resources

Bela Balassa, 1928-1991.  

 

Hungarian international trade theorist and development economist at the Johns Hopkins University. 

Bela Balassa was raised in Hungary, obtaining a law degree at the University of Budapest in 1951.  He proceed to work as a planner at a construction trust in Mikolsc.  However, on orders of the new Communist authorities,  Balassa was internally deported for two years to cotton fieldwork in rural eastern Hungary, before returning to his planning job. Balassa participated in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, and fled to Austria after its failure. 

Armed with a Rockefeller grant, Balassa moved to the United States in 1957, and received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1959.  Balassa stayed on as an assistant professor at Yale.  In the mid-1960s, Balassa rapidly produced a series of famous papers on international trade, e.g. PPP differentials (the "Balassa-Samuelson effect") (1964), revealed comparative advantage (1964), effective protection (1965), etc.

Balassa became professor of political economy at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1966.  Proximity to Washington DC allowed Balassa to also simultaneously serve as a researcher and policy consultant at the World Bank.  It around this time that Balassa turned his focus to development economics.  Balassa was one of the earliest proponents of the "neo-liberal" school of economic development, promoting trade liberalization, privatization, etc., as the path for poor countries to grow.  Balassa thus presages the rise of the "Washington Consensus" of the 1980s, with outward orientation and government non-intervention as development strategy.  Balassa led several country missions and research programs for the World Bank.

 

  

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Major Works of Bela Balassa

  • Hungarian Experience in Economic Planning, 1959.
  • "Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill", 1959, WWA.
  • "John Stuart Mill and the Law of Markets", 1959, QJE (May), p.263
  • The Theory of Economic Integration, 1961.
  • Trade Prospects for Developing Countries, 1964
  • Editor, Changing Patterns in Foreign Trade, 1964
  • "The Purchasing Power Doctrine: A reappraisal", 1964, JPE,  (Dec), p.584
  • "Trade Liberalization and 'Revealed' Comparative Advantage", 1965, Manchester School (May), p.99.
  • "Tariff Protection in Industrial Countries: An evaluation", 1965, JPE, (Dec), p.573
  • Economic Development and Integration, 1965
  • "Whither French Planning?", 1965, QJE.
  • "Planning in an Open Economy", 1966, Kyklos.
  • "Trade Creation and Trade Diversion in the European Common Market", 1967, EJ  (Mar), p.1
  • Trade Liberalization among Industrial Countries, 1967
  • "Effective Protection, Domestic Resource Cost of Foreign Exchange and the Equilibrium Exchange Rate", with D. Schydlowsky, 1968, JPE.
  • "The Economic Reform in Hungary", 1970, Economica (Feb), p.1
  • "A 'Stages Approach' to Comparative Advantage", 1971, in Adelman, ed. Economic Growth and Resources.
  • "Industrial Policies in Taiwan and Korea", 1971, WWA.
  • The Structure of Production in Developing Countries, 1971.
  • European Economic Integration, 1975.
  • "Reforming the System of Protection in Developing Countries", 1975, World Development.
    "Reforming the System of Incentives in Developing Countries", 1975, World Development.
  • "The 'Effects Method' of Project Evaluation", 1976, Oxford Bulletin of Econ & Stat
  • Policy Reform in Developing Countries, 1977
  • "Exports and Economic Growth: Further evidence", 1978, JDevEc.
  • "The Changing Pattern of Comparative Advantage in Manufactured Goods", 1979, REStat
  • "The French Economy under the Fifth Republic, 1958-1978" 1980, in W.G. Andrews & S. Hoffman, editors, The Fifth Republic at Twenty.
  • "The Process of Industrial Development and Alternative Development Strategies", 1980, Essays in International Finance.
  • Industrial Development Strategy in Thailand, 1980 (WB report)
  • "The Newly-Industrializing Developing Countries after the Oil Crisis", 1981, WWA.
  • The Newly Industrializing Economies in the World Economy, 1981.
  • Turkey: Industrialization and trade strategy, 1982 (WB report)
  • Development Strategies in Semi-industrial Economies, 1982.
  • Morocco: Industrial incentives and export promotion, 1984 (WB report)
  • "The Economic Consequences of Social Policies in the Industrial Countries", 1984, WWA.
  • "Exports, Policy Choices and Economic Growth in Developing Countries after the 1973 Oil Shock", 1985, JDevEcon.
  • Change and Challenge in the World Economy, 1985.
  • "The Determinants of Intra-Industry Specialization in United States Trade, 1986, Oxford EP.
  • "Intra-Industry Trade among Exporters of Manufactured Goods", 1986, in Greenaway and Tharakan, editors, Imperfect Competition and International Trade,
  • "Intra-Industry Specialisation: A cross-country analysis", 1986, European ER.
  • Toward Renewed Economic Growth in Latin America, with G. Bueno, P. P. Kuczynski and M. H. Simonsen, 1986
  • Japan in the World Economy, with M. Noland, 1988
  • "Public Enterprise in Developing Countries: Issues in privatization", 1989, in M. Neumann and K.W. Roskamp, editors, Public Finance and Performance of Enterprises.
  • New Directions in the World Economy, 1989
  • "Policy Making for Economic Development",  Indian Economic Review.
  • Policy Choices for the 1990s, 1993
HET

 
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Resources on Bela Balassa

 

 
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