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The Economics of Failed, Failing and Fragile States

Productive Structure as the Missing Link

August 2007

Erik S. Reinert, Yves Ekoué Amaïzo, and Rainer Kattel

The world is experiencing an important number of countries which are qualified as failed, failing or fragile States. One of the characteristics of poor countries lies in both the unhealthy governance provided by whatever is qualified as State and a lack of productive structure. This paper is an attempt to contribute to the improvement of the traditional and mainstream economic orthodoxy which usually denies poor nations the adequate time and economic protection to promote their industrialization process. Based on selected time series statistics, it becomes obvious that there are strong correlations between a particular type of national economic production structure and the propensity of a Nation-State to fail and to diverge from industrialized countries.

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