ABSTRACT
With this chapter attention is turned to a series of empirical studies that take issue with those who have found evidence to support the dependency/world-system approach. Robert W. jackman concerns himself with the impact of dependence on economic growth in developing nations. Specifically, he wants to test the proposition that the so-called “Matthew effect” is a function of a nation’s position in the world economy. He reviews the literature that has supported dependency/world-system and finds two major flaws. First, Jackman argues, insufficient attention has been paid to testing the relative merits of the modernization versus dependency/world-system approaches. Second, he argues that the theory itself is ambiguous on the question of the relationship between dependency and growth. Jackman finds that although the gap between rich and poor nations is in fact widening, the gap between the West and the wealthiest of the Third World nations is narrowing. Moreover, the Matthew effect appears to be very weak. Jackman also finds that the initial level of foreign investment in a Third World country has an inconsistent relationship to growth, but contrary to the findings of the dependency/world-system research, growth in foreign investment actually speeds economic growth in the Third World.
