Economic growth in all developing countries is guided, and often accelerated, by generally intrusive policies implemented by governments intent on playing an active role in furthering development. As economies have grown and become more complex, however, even small market distortions are magnified, and the tendency is to rely more heavily on the market for continued growth. In this volume, leading experts in economic development examine the variety of issues that arise as governments in some of the newly industrializing countries of Southeast Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, grapple with this difficult process of liberalization. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1991.

Liberalization - economic policy reforms to render economies more market-orientated - is a central issue in most countries of the world. This important contribution to the literature of liberalization analyzes theoretical issues and experiences of reform. Existing approaches to evaluating the effects of reform are reviewed, difficulties of measuring liberalization are discussed, the complex ways in which reforms can impact on individuals and groups are illustrated, and the importance of political concerns are addressed. The final four chapters offer detailed case studies of Pakistan, Mozambique, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Can knowledge of financial policies in developing countries over four decades help the socialist economies of Asia and Eastern Europe become open market economies in the 1990s? In all these countries the loss of fiscal and monetary control has often resulted in high inflation that undermines the liberalization process itself. In the second edition of The Order of Economic Liberalization, Ronald McKinnon builds on his influential work on the liberalization of financial markets in less developed countries and outlines the progression necessary to move from a "repressed" to an open economy. New to this edition are chapters that contrast the gradual Chinese approach to liberalizing domestic and foreign trade with the "big bang" approach followed by some Eastern European countries and republics of the former Soviet Union. Financial control and macroeconomic stability, McKinnon argues, are more critical to a successful transition than is any crash program to privatize state-owned industrial assets and the banking system.

This book examines the dynamics shaping the economic process of economic liberalisation in Indonesia since the mid-1980's. Much writing on the process of economic liberalisation in developing countries views economic liberalisation as the victory of economic rationality over political and social interests. In contrast, this book argues that economic liberalisation should not be understood in these terms, but rather in the way that political social interests shape processes of economic reform in both a positive and negative sense. Specifically, Rosser argues that economic liberalisation needs to be understood in terms of the extent to which economic crises shift the balance of power and influence within society away from coalitions opposed to reform and towards those in favour of reform. In the Indonesian context, the main coalitions that need to be examined in this respect are the politico-bureaucrats and the conglomerates who have generally opposed reform and mobile capitalists who have generally supported reform. Based on extensive original research, and providing much new material, the book considers the politics of economic policy-making in Indonesia in a range of sectors including the capital market, intellectual property law, the banking industry, and the trade and investment sectors. Analysing why the nature of economic policy in Indonesia has varied over time, this study argues that there is nothing inevitable about a transition to a fully-fledged liberal market order in Indonesia, and outlines possible future scenarios for the country's political economy.

The purpose of this book is to provide a systematic and policy-focused analysis of Korea's development performance from a historical perspective. The book begins with post-war reconstruction efforts and extends to recent developments in the Korean economy. Through a comprehensive analysis of Korea's development performance over the last six decades, the book examines in detail how development strategies and policies evolved over time, what were their consequences and underlying factors, and what lessons can be drawn from the Korean experience. A wide range of issues are discussed, including the role of government, capital accumulation, growth and structural change, industrial development and concentration, economic liberalization, human resource and technology development, social development and income distribution. The important features of the Korean development model are highlighted to draw lessons from the Korean experience.