East Asian Experience on Growth and Equity

This article succinctly summarizes the growth experience of the four East Asian tiger economies (Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan) and three Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) states (Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). The crisis of 1997–98 had come to pass and the economies have returned to growth but not at the same tempo as in the earlier times. Several of the economies have experienced significantly reduced levels of poverty and visible inequalities. The degree of income inequality (measured by the Gini coefficient), however, stays more or less constant, with the level being especially low in economies that have taken steps to keep it low. A number of lessons and implications can be drawn from the experience of East Asia. Examples are the importance of an investor friendly economic climate, an efficient public sector; explicit advocacy of family limitation; ensuring the building up of infrastructure ahead of time; and minimising visible inequality and inequali...