AbstractsEconomics

Developing countries all over the world face many issues in their paths of reaching developing and becoming more stable in terms of having a powerful and beneficial government and being competitive on the international market. Issues with troubling infrastructures, corruption, uneven development, poor division of labor etc. have been on the forefront of the academic discussions when attempting to theorize about how best to achieve development in a low-income country. This paper is concerned with a country that faces exactly these issues; Bangladesh. Bangladesh has a very large population, considering its relatively small size in land. Much of the workforce are located in the agricultural sector, with very low wages and demand for work, and the industrialization and movement towards the urban areas and the manufacturing sector has not happened on a fast enough pace. The noteworthy factor in the development of Bangladesh is that the country is actually experiencing growth. However, with poor institutions and a corrupt government and financial sector, the country does not seem to improve its condition in a beneficial way for the larger part of the population. This paper tries to uncover many aspects of the issues that Bangladesh is facing with a theoretical standpoint of Neo-liberalism and Development theory respectively, to get some contrasting views on how a developing country like Bangladesh might achieve its goals of development and industrialization. It is highly concerned with the structural issues that Bangladesh has, both hard and soft infrastructure, and how the country would possibly benefit from improving exactly this. In analyzing the country of Bangladesh, this paper reaches the conclusion that Bangladesh cannot develop properly by focusing on a single aspect, but that improvements are needed in several sectors and a general movement of the workforce is required in order to acquire a positive and stable economy. Advisors/Committee Members: Søborg, Henrik (advisor).