An economy caught in networks of favouritism between business and political elites tends to allocate capital toward politically connected firms rather than the most productive ones. Such an economy can grow rapidly for a period by directing resources into a handful of protected sectors, but this pattern eventually collides with the need for broad-based innovation and competition that sustained growth into a high-income economy actually requires. Many economies that grew fast through state-directed, connections-based investment have found themselves stalling once the easy gains from resource reallocation were exhausted.

Which one of the following is the most logical corollary of the above passage?