Globalization and Deregulation

Book excerpt: Globalization and Deregulation makes a contribution to the literature on economic change by exploring the institutional transition from state-led import substitution to deregulation and globalization in the world's most populous democracy-India. It proposes a largely internally driven 'tipping-point' model of economic change, which is in sharp contrast to the 'punctuated equilibrium' model of sudden exogenous shocks that drive transformations. Indian economists have provided excellent arguments about the need for change and have described changes that have occurred. This literature is essential for understanding how new economic ideas are born. But it does not explain the process of economic change, which is a political process. The best accounts of India's political economy explain why the institutions of government intervention within a closed economy were locked in a closed economy model. These accounts reveal why the dominant interest groups made political demands with substantial fiscal consequences. They do not engage with the issue of change. This book fills that gap by seriously engaging with India's economic history and the literature on institutional change. It is a contribution both to India's economic history and to systematic ways of thinking about economic change.