ABSTRACT
Introduction Growth policy refers to the various government policies that influence the economic growth of a country. Some of those policies are explicitly geared toward promoting growth while others impinge upon growth even though they serve other objectives. For example, many governments in developing countries try to foster domestic savings and thus promote investment and the accumulation of physical capital as an explicit means of stimulating growth. Indeed, high savings and investment rates induced by supportive government policies were one of the key ingredients of the East Asian Miracle. On the other hand, heavy investment in public education aims to impart literacy, numeracy, and other basic knowledge to as much of the population as possible. Educating the youth is in and of itself a key policy objective in all countries. At the same time, a better educated population and hence labor force contributes to a higher stock of human capital and hence higher growth. Growth strategy refers to a country’s constellation of policies that directly and indirectly affect economic growth. In fact, many developing countries have 5-or 10-year national economic plans that specify a target growth rate and a collection of policies – i.e., growth strategy – to achieve the target.
