Book Description

The purpose of this book is to examine the performance of Guyana's economy during the era of dirigisme and the period of economic liberalisation with emphasis on a market economy, using all available micro-and macro-data. In a much broader and meaningful sense, this book deals with the socio-economic progress of Guyana from the 1960s, with heavy emphasis on the market reforms, because this is the dominant and interesting story for policy lessons in the Third World. This book also focuses on what has happened to poverty, inequality, and other social indicators during the reform period. Until now, there has not been any systematic examination of the effects of the economic reforms in Guyana on unemployment, wages and industrial activity; poverty and inequality; farmers' response to price liberalisation; education and health indicators; ethnicity and growth; and governance, crime and corruption. These issues and more are the subject matter of this book. The book refers to those aspects of Guyana's history and recent political events that bear directly on economic policy and the performance of the economic system.