Comparing Andrei Shleifer, Amartya Sen, And Jean Dreze

Andrei Shleifer, Amartya Sen, and Jean Drà ¨ze all try to understand what makes countries rich and what makes them poor. Shleifer thinks that what makes a country rich, and subsequently its people rich, is the free market and the economic success that follows it. Alternately, Drà ¨ze and Sen believe that what makes a country rich, a whole country with its entire population, is state intervention and regulation of the economy. This differing on opinion is the fundamental difference in the work by Shleifer and Drà ¨ze and Sen. In many ways the arguments within the book An Uncertain Glory work to refute Shleifer’s claim made in The Age of Milton Friedman. As is evident by the lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality rates, as well as†¦show more content†¦When discussion inflation, Shleifer, when discussing a book he read, says that studies have shown that inflation under 40% do not hinder economic growth. In regard to capital controls Shleifer says that they off er no real benefits, and that the case of Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis may actually have hurt the country as the controls promoted corruption and assisted the Prime Minister. Shleifer discusses the success of the free market economic policies in his paper. He talks about the wonders the policies have done to the economies of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China. In Eastern Europe, after the fall of the Soviet Union, governments there enacted smaller government budgets and smaller taxes. These policies have works to reverse the negative economic trend of the Soviet era, and turned into positive economic growth. In Chili, the policies their have allowed for a massive economic growth, and an overtaking of Argentina. The government in Chile also has ambitions, such as entering the economic playing field of Australia or New Zealand â€Å"Such talk might be ambitious, but it shows where free market policies got the Chileans† (CITATION). China is a massive economic success. The policies their brought hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and changed the world. Yet many people argue as to how this happened. Shleifer talks about how some people say it was the state