Unbalanced Growth: An Espousal

Abstract

We have criticised the idea that development must take place simultaneously in many activities to provide the element of ‘mutual support’ that alone will make it possible to clear the market of the newly produced goods. Having discarded this ‘pure’ theory of balanced growth we must still consider a far less rigorous version, one that insists that if growth is not to be stunted the various sectors of an economy will have to grow jointly in some (not necessarily identical) proportion; no sector should get too far out of line, not because of demand but because of supply or ‘structural’ considerations. For instance, if secondary industry grows, the food and raw material input needed by the workers and the machines will go up; if some of these requirements are imported, then an increase in exports is necessary, etc.