African economies, including Nigeria continued to perform poorly despite the adoption of economic policy
reforms in the 1980s. An explanation for the failure of economic policy reforms was therefore sought from
an institutional perspective. Since active state intervention in the economy was the rationale given for the
economic crisis of developing countries, the conventional case for an active state which rested on the need
to correct for market failure was counterposed with the argument that the economy was best coordinated by
market forces given that the state was not benevolent, omniscient or omnipotent. However, the state has
played an important role in the transformation of late developers while a state-market dichotomy takes no
account of institutional factors.
The widespread adoption of economic policy reforms owed more to an ideological shift in the development
paradigm than to the debt crisis and there was a great deal of controversy about the theoretical foundations
and impact of these reforms contrary to claims of a consensus. An institutionalist political economy which
recognises that the market is not the only institution and that economic transformation requires the positive
use of political power was proposed. Such an approach takes account of history, politics and the institutional
diversity of capitalism. A more nuanced view of state intervention was therefore advocated. The importance
of institutional arrangements in the quest for economic transformation underscored the inadequacy of
structural adjustment which was hampered by the lack of price and institutional flexibility as well as other
institutional constraints.
The Nigerian experience of structural adjustment shows that long term growth prospects were not enhanced
and that the reforms tended to favour the financial sector over the real sector. The failure of economic policy
reforms in Nigeria can be attributed to the continued presence of constraining institutional factors and the
absence of a positive use of political power. / Economics / D. Comm. (Economics)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/18012 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Dipeolu, Adeyemi Olayiwola Kayode |
| Contributors | Smith, J. du P., Du Pisanie, J. A. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | I online resource (ii, 248 leaves) |
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