Jeffrey Sachs' Differential Diagnosis for Building an Economy

Submitted by diaskeaus on Wed, 03/22/2006 - 03:41
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  1. POVERTY TRAP
  2. Poverty mapping
  3. Proportion of households lacking basic needs
  4. Spatial distribution of household property
  5. Spatial distrubution of basic infrastructure (power, roads, telecoms, water, and sanitation)
  6. Ethnic, gender, generational distribution of poverty
  7. Key risk factors
  8. --Demographic trends
  9. --Environmental trends
  10. --Climate shocks
  11. --Disease
  12. --Commodity price fluctuations
  13. --Others


  15. ECONOMIC POLICY FRAMEWORK
  16. Business environment
  17. Trade policy
  18. Investment policy
  19. Infrastructure
  20. Human capital


  22. FISCAL FRAMEWORK AND FISCAL TRAP
  23. Public sector revenues and expenditures by category
  24. --Percent of GNP
  25. --Absolute levels in comparison with international norms
  26. Tax administration and expenditure management
  27. Public investment needs to meet poverty reduction targets
  28. Macroeconomic instability
  29. Overhang of public sector debt
  30. Quasi-fiscal debt and hidden debt
  31. Medium-term public sector expenditure framework


  33. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
  34. Transport conditions
  35. --Proximity of population to ports, international trade routes, navigable waterways
  36. --Access of population to paved roads
  37. --Access of population to motorized transport
  38. Population density
  39. --Costs of connectivity to power, telecoms, roads
  40. --Arable land per capita
  41. --Environmental impacts of population-land ratios
  42. Agronomic conditions
  43. --Temperature, precipitation, solar insolation
  44. --Length and reliability of growing season
  45. --Soils, topography, suitability for irrigation
  46. --Interannual climate variability (hurricanes, etc.)
  47. --Long-term trends in climate patterns
  48. Disease ecology
  49. --Human diseases
  50. --Plant diseases and pests
  51. --Animal diseases


  53. GOVERNANCE PATTERNS AND FAILURES
  54. Civil and political rights
  55. Public management systems
  56. Decentralization and fiscal federalism
  57. Corruption patterns and intensity
  58. Political succession and longevity
  59. Internal violence and security
  60. Cross-border violence and security
  61. Ethnic, religious, and other cultural divisions


  63. CULTURAL BARRIERS
  64. Gender relations
  65. Ethnic and religion divisions
  66. Diaspora


  68. GEOPOLITICS
  69. International security relations
  70. Cross-border security threats
  71. --War
  72. --Terrorism
  73. --Refugees
  74. International sanctions
  75. Trade barriers
  76. Participation in regional and international groups
Author Comments: 

Jeffrey Sachs is an economist, and he designed this list to gauge economic poverty levels, but it will also help you in developing your own economy. These are important facets of a society that are important to think about, so you can brainstorm on these topics to have a better idea of how your society is organized.

lukeprog05/25/2006

What do you think of William Easterly's criticisms of Sachs?

diaskeaus05/26/2006

I have enormous respect for Easterly. Two years ago I read his book, "The Elusive Quest for Growth," and my thinking about social reform and economic policies was drastically changed, and I recommend that book to everyone I know who is interested in the subject.

Sach's approach to dealing with poverty seems (I will give him the benefit of the doubt for being an intelligent man) irresponsible and in general, assuming that man in power has a greater capacity to do good than evil. I do not agree with Sachs, and much of his book angered me that he would write such, pardon the term, drivel. I initially bought the book because of his influence he apparently has with it. Similar to Amartya Sen's book, "Development as Freedom," which in my opinion, is totally oblivious to the issue of intra-cultural concerns regarding even the concept of freedom as being a western concept. Both Sachs and Sen seem to be in the same camp, of believing that a unilateral power in the UN to make change in relieving debt, controlling the population of African babies through the use of birth control, and increasing the power of UN intervention on a worldwide scale, is going to bring positive change. To me, this seems juvenile, as if we decided to ignore historical fact and dwell on balmy idealism.

I always enjoy Easterly, and especially appreciated the link to his argument, so thank you. I used Sachs Differential Diagnosis for this particular list because it seems to me to be a good world-building technique. If one were to fill in the blanks from the diagnosis during the process of creating a world, many questions would be answered that might not normally have come up, revealing a much deeper civilization and a very interesting place to visit. Although it could be said that Sachs is writing from a bias, and therefore his diagnosis is tainted, I think good can come out of it.