ABSTRACT

However, the central plank of the argument in Case C is the re-designing of the investment strategy for the rural sector and involves breaking away from the logic underlying the postulated dependence of y* on n. If this link could be broken, it might become possible to retain relatively high aggregate growth targets in any revised plan without jeopardising the self-imposed distributional constraints. Here it should be emphasised that in reality, agriculture supply bottlenecks are seldom absolutely rigid. However, this margin of supply response is already built into the target, n. But, in the case of the DTYP, it has been argued that n does not include the resource-generating effects of the monetisation - of hitherto self-sufficient, autarkic sub-systems in the rural sector - released through the device of inflationary deficit financing. This seems to have lent some respectability to an otherwise thoroughly discredited ruling-class instrument of financing development from the incomes of the poor. Especially in such an economically fragmented economy as Ethiopia, this dangerous option is more likely to result merely in higher inflation. Indeed, to the extent that the price elasticity of n is low (and it would rarely exceed 0.2-0.4 even in the long run), the scheme would be relying more on forced savings than on increased supplies.