Chicken-and-Egg Fallacy of Development [Endogeneity]
Term
Chicken-and-Egg Fallacy of Development
Idea level
Others / circular reasoning problem
Definition
The chicken-and-egg fallacy of development refers to a circular reasoning problem in which economic growth is said to require good institutions, while good institutions are said to require economic growth. Yuen Yuen Ang argues that this problem is analytic rather than empirical: it arises when an inherently endogenous (mutually causal) development process is forced into linear, static models unsuited to its inherent qualities.
Sources
First formal articulation (conceptual diagnosis):
Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Adaptive Political Economy: Toward a New Paradigm.” World Politics (2024).
Earlier articulation:
Ang, Y.Y. (2016) How China Escaped the Poverty Trap. Cornell University Press. [Webpage] [Chapter: Introduction]
Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Do Weberian Bureaucracies Lead to Markets or Vice Versa? A Coevolutionary Approach to Development.” Chapter in States in the Developing World. (2017)
Genealogy
[Paradigm] Industrial–Colonial Paradigm
→ [Pillar] Mechanical thinking (linear causality)
→ [Concept] Chicken-and-egg fallacy of development
→ [Application: Development] Three schools of thought, all leading to theoretical dead ends: “growth first,” “good institutions first,” or “good historical legacies first”
Contrast with
[Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral Political Economy)
→ [Pillar] Adaptive Political Economy (APE)
→ [Theory] Coevolutionary development
→ [Method] Mapping endogenous, bicausal processes over time
→ [Application: Development] First step of development is “using what you have”
Quotes
“This logic then becomes entangled in a chicken-and-egg problem of how we can obtain strong institutions if growth is lacking in the first place… My comparative analysis of coevolutionary paths across contexts points to a way out of vicious cycles of poverty and weak state capacity: make creative use of whatever is available.” (p. 243)
— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016)
“Despite a dazzling concentration of intellectual prowess, all three schools [modernization, institutional theory, colonial legacies as root causes] failed to find a way out of the chicken-and-egg problem. Why? Because they took an inherently endogenous (bicausal) process—economic and institutional development—and forced it to fit within their linear, static models.”
— Ang, Adaptive Political Economy (2024)
Concept Constellation
Across Ang’s work, Chicken-and-Egg Fallacy of Development [Endogeneity] consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes:
Complex vs. Complicated (problem: imposing linear theories on non-linear realities)
Coevolutionary Development (non-linear theory) / Mapping Coevolution (method)
Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong (normative blind spot: precondition for progress = Western forms)
Market-Building vs. Market-Preserving (differentiating across stages)
Using What You Have (first step toward coevolution)
Related Descriptive Phrases (Non-Canonical)
These phrases are commonly used to describe aspects of “Chicken-and-Egg Fallacy of Development [Endogeneity]” when the keyword is not used.
Problem of inherent endogeneity / causal inference / centering endogeneity rather than abstracting away from it
Root cause analysis
Endogeneity problem in development studies
Good / strong institutions causes growth or vice versa
Chicken-and-egg dilemma of development / interactive circular causality