{"id":271328,"date":"2010-02-01T09:23:30","date_gmt":"2010-02-01T14:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"tag:http:\/\/www.economist.com,2009:21004575"},"modified":"2010-02-01T09:23:30","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T14:23:30","slug":"a-clean-slate-for-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/271328","title":{"rendered":"A clean slate for Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANCUR OLSON wrote that over time, interest groups accumulate within a power stucture, making the political system more corrupt and the economy more sclerotic. In the absence of some sort of disruptive event\u2014an invasion, say\u2014to destabilise the existing political system, the economy would fall behind its peers. I think this is a little too pessimistic, in that it discounts the ability of technological innovation to perpetually challenge power structures, but the idea that disruptive events which destabilise existing institutions can be viewed as opportunities is a good one.<\/p>\n

Tyler Cowen writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I’m not suggesting that the future gains will, in moral terms, outweigh the massive loss of life and destruction, but still the future Haiti might have a higher growth rate and a higher level of gdp per capita.  Here’s how.<\/p>\n

In the previous Haitian political equilibrium, the major interest groups were five or six wealthy families<\/a> and also the drug trade, plus of course the government officials themselves.  None had much to gain from market-oriented, competitive economic development…<\/p>\n

Enter the rebuilding of Haiti.  Contract money will be everywhere.  From the World Bank, from the U.S., from the IADB, even from the DR.  That contract money will be significant, relative to the financial influence of either the main families or the drug trade.<\/p>\n

There exists (ha!) a new equilibrium.  The government is still corrupt, but it is ruled by the desire to take a cut on the contracts.  Ten or twenty percent on all those contracts will be more money than either the families or the drug runners can muster.  The new government will want to bring in as many of these contracts as possible and it will (maybe) bypass the old interest groups.  Alternatively, the old interest groups will capture the rents on these contracts but will be bought off to allow further growth and openness…<\/p>\n

You will see this in how the port of Port-Au-Prince is treated.  Previously the rate of corruption was so high that the port was hardly used.  If the port becomes a true open gateway into Haiti (if only to maximize contracts and returns from corruption), that means this scenario is coming true.<\/p>\n

The surviving Haitians, in time, might be much better off.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One way or another, things will work differently, post-earthquake. I wonder, though, whether the new government will have the wherewithal to capture rents from these contracts. Maintaining the post as a “true open gateway into Haiti” may well be beyond its abilities for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANCUR OLSON wrote that over time, interest groups accumulate within a power stucture, making the political system more corrupt and the economy more sclerotic. In the absence of some sort of disruptive event\u2014an invasion, say\u2014to destabilise the existing political system, the economy would fall behind its peers. I think this is a little too pessimistic, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4534,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}