With the Taiwan experience as background, the major theme of this conference is to examine prospective economic development of Taiwan in the 1990s and beyond, together with discussions of the economic development of other countries in the Pacific Rim. Scholars from the United States like Lawrence R Klein (Pennsylvania), Gustav Ranis and John C H Fei (Yale), Lawrence J Lau (Stanford) and Hugh Patrick (Columbia); Chikashi Moriguchi, Mitsuo Saito, Shinichi Ichimura and Hisao Kanamori from Japan; and many others including Dr Samuel C Shieh, President of the Central Bank and Dr Shirley Kuo W Y, Chairperson of the Council for economy, contributed papers. Special guest speakers included President Lee Teng-Hui and Premier Hau Pei-Tsun.

This book is a compilation of papers written jointly by the staff and students of the Applied Economics Division of the Nanyang Business School. It is unique, in that all the works included are the result of an extensive, equal and mutually beneficial collaboration between the students and staff. At the same time, they embody the highest level of technical and analytical rigor, and will be immensely relevant and useful to readers interested in East Asian economic issues. In particular, this volume will prove valuable for anyone interested in both the microeconomic and macroeconomic developments affecting Singapore and ASEAN.

Eighteen papers from a June 1996 conference on China and the Asian Pacific Economy held in Brisbane, Australia--presented here in revised form--consider the possible future roles of the Chinese economy in the Asia Pacific region. The contributions place the Chinese economy in the context of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) process, and propose that the integration of the economies of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan (the so-called Greater China phenomenon) has resulted in a Chinese emphasis on the northern part of APEC. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

East Asia's rapid economic growth and the crisis of 1997 have caught the world's attention. As the Asian miracle has turned to meltdown, the critical question has become whether growth will resume. Based on research and conferences at ICSEAD in Kitakyushu, Japan, this book brings together the work of Asian economic development experts. It considers the forces behind the East Asian growth miracle, the process of growth, the effect of saving, and the effect of foreign direct investment and multinationals. Taking an optimistic view, the authors conclude that rapid growth may resume in East Asia once the crisis has been resolved. The authors argue that a growth process links East Asian countries to each other and to the industrial world, and that growth reflects a process that combines capital formation and technical and institutional change. The 1997 crisis grew out of excessively rapid boom and must be handled before growth will resume. But, the authors conclude, once the crisis has been resolved, the linked process of growth supported by appropriate policies, high levels of savings and investment, and foreign investment will allow growth to resume, although perhaps with a different geographic center of gravity.

This book by a distinguished academic and a professional economist from the World Bank clearly demonstrates the significant role played by the real estate sector in inducing the Asian crisis; the linkage of the real estate sector to the general economy; the causes of real estate booms and subsequent busts; and the economic costs of real estate price volatility. The book also includes suggestions for moderating such volatility in the future.

Chapter 14. Conclusion: Toward Efficiency and Stability in Asian Real Estate Markets -- About the Editors and Contributors -- Index