Asian Development: Economic Success and Policy Lessons

While the world’s attention has been focused on the spectacular economic success of Japan and Korea, the less developed countries of Asia have often been neglected. Asian Development closes the gap. In nontechnical style and with minimal mathematics, it presents an in-depth perspective on the economic development of fourteen countries in East, Southeast, and South Asia.
Asian Development is mainly a story of success. Though some problems remain, Asian countries have shown remarkable resilience in responding to sharp changes in the international economy-oil shocks, world recession and inflation, exchange-rate and interest-rate fluctuations, and rapid technological change. The authors conclude that their ability to adjust to changing external conditions is closely related to intelligent governmental policies. Looking back they comment: In the past, growth of the United States and Japan pulled up the growth rates of the smaller economies in the region. Looking forward, they predict: In the future, increasingly it will be the growth of the Asian developing countries that acts as a catalyst to growth in the more advanced economies.