Early MPS development economists prescribed agricultural export specialization over industrialization for poor countries

Evidence

While Benham conformed with Mötteli’s caveat about specific local circumstances in the developing world requiring exceptions from any generalized approach, he nevertheless went on to make “some sweeping generalizations in order to bring out … some fundamental conclusions, namely that the main road to economic progress for underdeveloped countries is to increase their output per worker in agriculture and to specialize on producing for export those goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage” (Benham 1951, 1). Benham argued that industrialization strategies failed to understand that, historically, industrializing Britain was dependent on the preceding improvement of agriculture. In contrast to the British experience, contemporary developing countries were held to immediately benefit from international trade if they specialized in traditional production for export. Benham rejected diversification strategies (from agriculture to industry), especially if they increased protectionism. He even cast doubt on widely propagated education efforts (alphabetization campaigns, etc.) because they “would be very expensive” and because it is not “clear how a general non-technical education would have any immediate effect on output” (Benham 1951, 5). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1280

Categorization

• XREF: This reprises the classical comparative-advantage doctrine (Ricardo) and prefigures the later ‘export-oriented growth’ debates, contrasting with dependency theory. Connects to the reader’s frame on how the neoliberal network converged on trade orthodoxy. — connects to: Export-oriented monocrop farming traps debt-burdened farmers in spirals ending in suicide — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 285; The MPS constituted an early intellectual network of development economics — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1289; Early neoliberal development economics reproduced colonial division of labor while anticipating export-oriented trade strategies — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1282 (+2 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The MPS’s early development discourse openly embraced colonial staples economics — a lineage worth sitting with: the same network that fought planning at home prescribed a very traditional export-agriculture path for the Global South.

Broader Connections

• Early neoliberal development economics reproduced colonial division of labor while anticipating export-oriented trade strategies #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1282
• The late-1970s neoliberal export-oriented development paradigm was conceived in the 1950s #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 159
• French development economics inherited colonial premises about exporting African cash crops #expands (0.80)
• The MPS constituted an early intellectual network of development economics #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1289