Dva najbolj znana indijska ekonomista, nobelovec Amartya Sen (79), profesor na Harvardu, in Jagdish Bhagwati (79), profesor na Columbia University, sta se v času, ko se desetletje trajajoča hitra rast Indije naglo ohlaja, javno sporekla glede učinkovitosti razvoja v Indiji. Sen pravi, da je Indija v času rasti premalo investirala v šolstvo in zdravstvo, saj je rast ključno odvisna tudi od socialne infrastrukture in ne zgolj od fizične. Na drugi strani pa Bhagwati trdi nasprotno, da je treba ljudem dati le službe in denar in bodo nato sami investirali v izobrazbo in zdravje. Tipično razhajanje med socialno-keynesianskim na eni in tržno-fundamentalnim pogledom na razvoj na drugi strani. Preseneča pa ostrina njune debate.

In the book, Mr. Sen argues that India, almost alone among emerging Asian nations, has failed to invest substantially in the health and welfare of its people. This failure could doom its economy and people, he says, because a country’s future growth depends just as much on its social infrastructure as its physical state.

India’s economy grew nearly 8 percent annually in the past 10 years, second only to China among major economies. This improved incomes for hundreds of millions and created a growing middle class that in recent years has thronged Delhi’s streets in protests about corruption and gang rapes. Meeting the growing expectations of this middle class has become a potent political issue.

But Mr. Sen argues that India’s growth has failed to translate into substantially better lives for hundreds of millions of others. He points out that countries like Bangladesh, which have grown far more slowly and have much lower income levels, have performed better on key indicators like life expectancy.

“Living conditions in the poorer half of India are not much better, if at all, than in the poorer half of Africa,” Mr. Sen wrote.

…

This argument is one that Mr. Bhagwati and his co-author on “Why Growth Matters,” Arvind Panagariya, denounce as not only mistaken but dangerous, since they view money spent on government programs as largely wasted.

Mr. Bhagwati, who is also 79, is one of the world’s great trade economists, but he has lived in the shadow of Mr. Sen’s Nobel for much of his professional life, and it clearly irks him. If his written criticism of Mr. Sen’s work is shrill, his verbal criticism is downright nasty.

“My impatience with him is that he is obfuscating things constantly,” Mr. Bhagwati said in one of his less incendiary descriptions.

To Mr. Bhagwati, India’s myriad problems have less to do with poor health and literacy than a poor investment climate. Give people jobs and money and they will invest in their own education and health, he said.

Vir: New York Times

Bhagwatija poznam, večkrat sem ga poslušal na konferencah in njegove knjige uporabljam pri svojih predavanjih o zunanji trgovini in globalizaciji. Sena ne poznam, razen iz učbenikov o gospodarskem razvoju. Toda v tej debati sem bolj na strani Sena. In sicer ne samo, da se mora družbeni razvoj preliti v blaginjo celotnega prebivalstva prek izboljšanja javne fizične in socialne infrastrukture, pač pa da je pogoj za vzdržno rast prav razvitost socialne infrastrukture (enak dostop do kvalitetnega šolstva in zdravstva). Le dobri in enaki štartni pogoji za vse ter kvalitetne javne storitve lahko na dolgi rok omogočijo vzdržno in stabilno rast.