Thursday, October 30, 2008

Old Policies Don't Simply Die

In an interesting paper of The Political Economy of Controls: American Sugar, by Anne Krueger, the closing paragraph reads:
"...at the very least, economists advocating government intervention in markets would be well advised to recognize that the measures they advocate will, once enacted, have a life --including supporters-- of its own.."
I think this is why the series of measures introduced by well intended Indonesian economists decades ago --rice price stabilization and import restriction, fuel subsidies, to name a few --, are still fiercely defended by many supporters regardless their irrelevancy to the current situation.

1 comment:

  1. Sayangnya, orang2 tersebut berada di lingkungan sekitar anda sendiri.
    Bagi saya, niat baik tanpa akal sehat akan kacau. Akal sehat tanpa niat baik, juga akan sia-sia...

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