Development Studies through the Lens of Critical Law and Economics: Efficiency and Redistribution Revisited in Market Structure Analyses in the South
Abstract
[Abstract: This paper extends the critique of efficiency and disregard for redistribution in mainstream law and economic analyses to development studies. It presents, through the work of Duncan Kennedy on left-wing law and economics, an alternative framework for development that is liberated from the confines of the neoliberal development approach: calling for static allocative efficiency goals, perfect competition and disregard for the redistribution of wealth, income and social power through the modification of private law rules. The analysis shows that once the empty promises of efficiency-talk are exposed, alternative policy frameworks that take equity and redistribution considerations into account can be constructed. These are illustrated by looking into market structure analyses in the ‘South’. The paper aims to show how the tools and methods of economic analysis of law can be used opportunistically to create resistance-from-within-camp, which does not shy away from using the ‘master's tools’ to resurrect heterodox ideas about development and growth.]