Essays on economic development: Considering state planning and market-based growth (East Asia, Japan, Ireland)

What are the difficulties with State economic development planning? Can State development planning overcome the economic calculation and public choice incentive problems? The first essay demonstrates the insurmountable theoretical difficulties confronting State planning and applies the analysis to East Asian countries. We find that the planning that occurred slowed economic development and that high levels of economic freedom can explain East Asian growth. The second essay examines interventions and planning in the Japanese economy from 1985 through 2000 and finds that the government caused and prolonged the recession through monetary and fiscal interventions. The causes of Ireland's economic growth are explained in the third essay. We demonstrate that EU structural funds subsidies did not cause the growth. The shrinking role of government in the economy created an institutional environment with high levels of economic freedom that promoted growth.