総合開発と公共事業
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概要
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(1) It has been well known how important a role the social overhead capital by the government had played in the economic development of Japan since the Meiji Era; and now by this fact, the underdeveloped countries in Asia are learning many lessons from the experiences of Japan. 'Public investment' and 'public works' are not synonyms, but it is needless to say that public works are the important component of public investment. The purpose of this article is to examine the relation between economic development and public works by studying the historical transition of public works and the history of their doctrines. At the same time, it is hoped that the role of public works in economic development and the many problems about them are made clear. In this article, a historical approach is made because the political aims at public works have been varying in each country; and even in one country, her changes have depended upon the stages of her economic development. (2) There are four characteristics, or types in public works; that is, (1) the type of public utilities, (2) of relief for unemployment, (3) of contra-cyclical policy, and (4) of exploitation investment. Although the type of modern Japan is relating to the forth one, it is also necessary to learn several merits from the other types. Public works started with the characteristics of public utilities to begin with. Adam Smith considered the public works such necessary eviles as what cannot be done, or what is not suitable to be done by private enterprises. He considered them as the means of facilitating the commerce of the society and of promoting the instruction of the people, that is to say, of creating external economy by cutting the cost of production and the betterment of social welfare. In his thought, the embryo of the exploitation investment and welfare state can be seen. The idea of public works expenditure to relieve for unemployment can be seen in the works of T.R. Malthus. Although he considered the unproductive expenditure by government and public works as the means to fill the lack of effective demand, he could not discover the condition what decides the amount of effective demand, which was pointed out by J. M. Keynes. The expenditure of this type can be seen in the early New Diel; the public works in Japan before the war had the strong characteristics of this type of relief for the unemployed, which was begun since about 1920, especially 1929, but they had many faults of its low-efficiency as well as of its timing and of its regional allocation. It is due to the fact that the social security system has not been established in Japan. New Diel was a typically contra-cyclial fiscal policy, and Keynesian Theory has to be evaluated as he has made this theoretical basis clear by the multiplier-analysis. We have made the general consideration about the works of J. M. Keynes, A.H. Hansen, P. A. Samuelson, S. M.Fine, etc. There are many questions, however, in applying the public investment theory of Keynesian type to the underdeveloped countries. In these countries, the problem of filling the Inflationary Gap is more important than that of Deflationary Gap. They have no room for unproductive investment which means the waste of labor. On the contrary, the problems of the investment allocation itself as well as the rate of investment are most important. (3) In considering exploitation investment, innovation as well as stabilization of economies are required as the roles of the government. In any country, investment should be planned at first for the economic development; in the case of underdeveloped country, government investment should be done, because the incentive to private investment is lacking. Autonomous investment corresponds to this, and it is important to apply the theory of economic development by J. A. Schumpeter, that is to say, to consider the government as the innovator. Schumpeter points out that the innovation springs up as a group; and it is necessary to select such a type as to reduce the results of exploitation to the people's welfare in order to obtain their co-operation. In this case, it is also necessary to minimize the social resistance-social tension. The problem of gap between production effect and income effect of investment, however, does not occur so long as our consideration is relating to a national economy at large; but when we deal with the regional economy, the process of investment expenditure varies according to the regional conditions. The theory of regional multiplier makes this relationship clear; in this case, the leakage can be found not only in the marginal propensity to saving but also in the marginal propensity to import from the other regions. Consumer goods as well as capital goods required for the development program offset the multiplier effect. In addition, the gap between regional income produced and that distributed should also be considered as the leakage, which reduces the value of regional multiplier, while the other regional income increases by this program. Now, it should be noted that the social overhead capital by public works is necessary to fill the gap between the shortage of regional demand and the excess capacity of production. It is essencial to secure the increase of productivity and the terms of trade favorable; thus it is clear that the public works program have the effect of re-allocation of investment as well as the reconstruction of industrial structure. Many difficulties relating to the development program of colonial type and that of resources mobilization should be overcome by the more effective execution of multiple purpose economic development, of which the characteristics should be discussed from the viewpoint of increasing the regional welfare. The intervention of government required by the side of labor or regional people, is necessary in order to secure socio-economical co-ordination. It also means the requirement or resistance by the side of labor against the request of capital; and it may be noted that by this reason, the socio-economical approach has been applied to the theory ofdevelopment. As to the statistical approach on public works in Japan, it has been made by Mr. Koichi Emi and Mr. Henry Rosovsky, which should be rightly appreciated.
- 1958-10-00