Why Guyana's self discovery is the missing link in its development strategy

The paper attempts to indentify the constraints to growth in Guyana using the Hausmann et al (2005) methodology. Although Guyana suffers from low domestic savings and high interest rate spreads, the paper argues that high cost of finance is a non-binding constraint on entrepreneurial activity. The paper concludes that market failures such as information externalities is a binding constraint on growth in Guyana. It explains the country’s static economic structure and why the composition of its export basket has not changed in 46 years. The paper recommends non-competitive policies to stimulate structural transformation and to internalise the information externalities.