Research Agenda

With the successful conclusion of the first stage of the project, a systematic consolidation of different approaches regarding the developmental-state concept (Johnson 1982, 1995; Evans 1995, Haggard 2004) has been achieved. On the basis of the New Institutional Economics an analytical framework could be developed which allows to identify the conducive prerequisites and central elements of the state economic policy leading to economic successes of the East Asian development model.

Empirically this framework has been applied to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in a comparative way.
 See Developmental States in Central Asia

At the second stage, the project aims at shedding more light on the role of the state in promoting economic growth. Therefore, different perspectives have been chosen. First, the range of possible formal and informal instruments for state intervention in the economy is to be differentiated and integrated into the analysis of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
 See State Interventions in Developing Economies

Second, the formal institutional settings regarding different state elites’ strategies to promote either institutional predictability for economic development or uncertainty for stabilising the political order are to be analysed.
 See Institutional Uncertainty and Economic Development

This is complemented, third, by an analysis of the influence of Islam on forms of economic activity in Central Asia.
 See Islam and Economic Development in Central Asia

Regionally, the investigated Central Asian cases will be expanded by Kyrgyzstan and Georgia. Georgia’s economic policy is far from a state-capitalist approach but, at first glance, economically successful. Belonging to the post-communist region, Georgia is included in the sample as a contrasting case for a comparative analysis of the state- economy nexus.
 See Developmental State in Georgia