Growth in East Asia: What We Can and What We Cannot Infer From It

It is now widely accepted that many countries in East Asia achieved a remarkable record of high and sustained economic growth. This achievement is possibly one of the most important economic developments in the past generation. Explaining East Asia’s success is extremely important, for at least two reasons. First, such an explanation might show the way to replicate this success in other regions of the world. Second, even if East Asia’s success is not replicable elsewhere, there is an urgent intellectual need to solve the puzzle of the phenomenal East-Asian growth rates. After all, not being able to explain such an important economic phenomenon would be a major defeat for the economics profession.