Entrepreneurship, Social Mobility, and Income Redistribution in South India

Development economists have been preoccupied with the problem of increasing the size of the GNP pie to the relative neglect of its distribution. Despite the recent disenchantment with the viewpoint that all classes share in the benefits of industrial growth, empirical data on the distribution of income, business opportunity, and economic power are in short supply. Many of the studies on entrepreneurship and economic development, when they are not apologetics for ruthless capitalist exploitation as Paul Baran suggests, extol the achievements of the capitalist entrepreneur without examining class origins and monopoly advantage. Joseph Schumpeter sees entrepreneurs, irrespective of class origin, as heroic figures, with the dream and will to found a private kingdom, to conquer adversity, to achieve for its own sake, and to experience the joy of creation. For Gustav Papanek (1967), the private entrepreneur, who is frugal, diligent, far-sighted, remarkably able, and willing to take political risks, is in large part responsible for the success of Pakistan in achieving rapid industrialization.