Realities of South East Asian Development

Abstract

Economists working on developing countries have all too often taken refuge from the difficulties of a global analysis of a particular economy by studying in depth one aspect or one industry. No doubt, this micro approach helps to preserve academic credentials untarnished, but it does little for, and is often positively harmful to, the teaching of development economics. It is, for a number of reasons, more difficult to teach the problems of growth in developing countries than for the mature industrial countries of the Atlantic economy. For one thing the economic literature available is meagre in quality not seldom dubious in quality. At best there will be a collection of essays on one single economy: each article compartmentalized and usually unrelated to the others or to a common theme. No region's post-war economic development is more poorly documented than that of Southeast Asia, and any book that attempts to provide a coherent analysis of the whole area must at least be welcomed for making an attempt. Such a volume has recently been published by Professor David Fryer : Emerging Southeast Asia: a Study in Growth and Stagnation.