Struggle, Reform, Boom and Bust

Since Papua New Guinea’s independence in 1975, economic growth has been slow but volatile, with major changes in economic structure and policies, as well as in politics and governance. This economic history, written to commemorate the fiftieth year of independence and the first to be produced in some 15 years, divides the half century since independence into four periods: the relative stability but also early struggles of the seventies and eighties; the crises and reforms of the nineties; the boom of the 2000s; and the quiet bust of the 2010s. Two chapters cover each period’s major economic, policy, institutional and political developments. The final three chapters provide an overall assessment of economic performance and policies since independence and link them with its politics and institutions. The book combines painstaking documentation with original analysis to reveal both the strengths and weaknesses of the PNG economy, and theorises that the country’s hyper-politics and insecurity have combined to produce, and are reinforced by, a weak but stable state, and low and increasingly resource-dependent growth. Data-driven, frank, insightful and engaging, Struggle, Reform, Boom and Bust is written by an expert team of economists from the University of Papua New Guinea and The Australian National University under the leadership of Professor Stephen Howes, Director of the ANU Development Policy Centre. It is an essential resource for anyone interested in the economy of Papua New Guinea, as well as an important contribution to the literature on the challenges and institutional determinants of post-colonial development.