State-Business Relations and Economic Development in Africa and India

When the state and business interact effectively they can promote a more efficient allocation of scarce resources, appropriate industrial policy and a more effective and prioritised removal of key obstacles to growth, than when the two sides fail to co-operate or engage in harmful collusion. This book, based on original empirical research undertaken in Africa and India, addresses what constitutes the effectiveness of state-business relations, what explains their formation and evolution over time and whether effective state-business relations matter for economic performance. The authors use both quantitative and qualitative methods and interdisciplinary methods drawn from economics, management studies and political science in the analysis of state-business relations. Analysing the effects of state-business relations on economic performance at both the macro and micro levels, the book concludes that where effective state-business relations are established either through formal or informal institutional patterns and relationships the growth effects are generally positive. Establishing, sustaining and renewing effective state-business relations are political processes. The better organized the business community and the government are for purposes of such relations, the more effective state-business relations will be in negotiating growth enhancing policies. Where these relations are established, consolidated and have the means formal or informal for review, reform and renewal, they also contribute to one of the key dimensions of building or stabilising effective states. The book will be of interest to reserachers in the fields of development studies, management, economics and political science.