Do you have a citation for your statement that economists opposed deregulation? That doesn’t sound like the default economics position — nor does not realizing that technology can transform poverty.
I’m not challenging you randomly here — usually the criticism of mainstream Western economists (especially those working with development) is that they overprescribe deregulation and underestimate the benefits of maintaining government revenue.
Economists != western economists! Western Economists did not care about the Indian telecom markets in the 90s and hardly carry any weight in Indian politics even now. India has enough economists unfortunately who can make a hash of things without help from Western economists ;)
I’m not challenging you randomly here — usually the criticism of mainstream Western economists (especially those working with development) is that they overprescribe deregulation and underestimate the benefits of maintaining government revenue.