India_Policy: Data (1)</a>

Evidence for the global failure of
Statism and Dirigisme

Adam Smith mentioned that around 1750: "in manufacturing art and industry, China and Indostan, though inferior, seem to be not much inferior to any part of Europe" (cited in Coale, W.A. and Phyllis Deane (1965). "The Growth of National Incomes," in Habakkuk, H.J. and M.Postan (1965). The Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Volume VI. The Industrial Revolution and After: Incomes, Population and Technological Change. Cambridge University Press).

Even if one allows for the negative influence of the British between 1750 and 1950 (appx.), it remains to be seen why India fared among the worst performers in the past 50 years in its economic development.

Table 1a: Per Capita Income comparison, 1950

	Per capita GDP in USD
USA	8,648
India	582
Number of times the US income was greater than India's income at the time of independence	14.8 times

Source: World Bank Tables on CD-ROM

Table 1b: Per Capita Income comparison, 1995

	Per capita income in USD	Per capita income in PPP terms
USA	25,860	25,860
India	appx. 310	1,290
Number of times the US income is greater than India's income now	83 times	20 times

Source: World Development Report, 1997.

Table 2: Changes in per capita GNP of developed (capitalist) and less developed (noncapitalist) countries over the past 250 years (GNP per capita in 1960 dollars)

	Presently developed countries	Presently less developed countries
Around 1750	180	180-190
Around 1930	780	190
Around 1980	3000	410

Source: Heilbroner, Robert L. (1988). Behind the Veil of Economics: Essays in the Worldly Philosophy. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, page 54.

Table 3: Growth in real per capita GDP in selected countries, 1960-1990.

Country

International Rank

Percent per year

South Korea

1

6.7

Singapore

2

6.5

Taiwan

4

6.2

Japan

5

5.3

Thailand

8

4.4

Indonesia

13

3.8

Egypt

31

2.9

Brazil

34

2.7

Germany

38

2.6

U.S.

53

2.0

Nigeria

56

1.9

India

61

1.7

Source: Robert Summers, Alan Heston, Bettina Aten, and Daniel A. Nuxoll. 1995. Penn World Tables. Mark 5.6a. Philadelphia: Center for International Comparisons, University of Pennsylvania.

Please also note that those nations which followed capitalism, essentially, and focused on economic growth, automatically had the lowest population growth rates, as well as the greatest drop in poverty. To do this they did not have to violate human rights as was done by China.

Tables 4: Population: How much of a problem?

Table 4a: Relative share of people of "undivided India," (including
Pakistan, Bangladesh and India) in world population

	World	India	Share
1750	791	170	21.49
1800	978	186	19.02
1850	1262	222	17.59
1900	1650	285	17.27
1950	2517	439	17.44
1990	5295	1078	20.36
2025	8473	1882	22.21
Source: Data on world population till 1900, from Agarwala, 1972:2
Data on India's population from Lal, 1988:35
Data on world population from 1950, including data on
	Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc., from World Resources Institute, 1994.

Table 4.b: Relative share of people of India, 1901-2025, in world population

	World	India	Share
1900	1650	235	14.24
1950	2517	358	14.22
1990	5295	846	15.98
2025	8473	1394	16.45
Source: Data on India's population from 1901, from Ministry of Home Affairs, 1974:3
Other data from World Resources Institute, 1994.

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Evidence for the global failure of Statism and Dirigisme

Evidence for the global failure of
Statism and Dirigisme