How Does My Country Grow? Economic Advice Through Story-Telling

Written by a former World Bank economist, How Does My Country Grow? distils growth policy lessons from the author's first-hand experience in Poland, Kenya, India, and Russia, and his contributions to the economic policy debates that followed the emerging market crises of 1997 to 2001, extending up to the global financial crisis of 2008-09. Based on living and working in the field, the author argues that country economic analysis is in effect a separate, integrative branch of economics that draws upon but is distinct from academic economics. The country stories recounted, reinforced by the emerging market experience since the 1980s, point to a canonical growth policy package built around three interconnected elements: the intertemporal budget constraint of the government; the micropolicy trio of hard budgets, competition and competitive real exchange rates; and managing volatility from external, but especially domestic, sources. This package is underpinned by good governance, which finds its most immediate expression in the management of the public finances. While the discussion is tilted towards developing countries, the insights have considerable relevance for advanced economies, many of which today are in the throes of their own growth-cum-sovereign debt crises.

Brian Pinto is Chief Economist, Emerging Markets, at GLG Partners LP. Previously, he worked at the World Bank for almost 30 years, where his focus was predominantly on transition economics, sovereign debt, and economic growth. He lived in Poland at the start of its momentous reforms (1990-92) as well as in Russia, witnessing first-hand its 1998 crisis and subsequent recovery (1998-2001). His publications, inspired by live country experiences, have appeared in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, the Economic Journal, Journal of International Economics, The Review of Economic Studies, and other professional journals. A book he edited jointly with Joshua Aizenman, Managing Economic Volatility and Crises: A Practitioner's Guide, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2005. Brian holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and degrees from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Loyola College, Madras University, India.