Pathways to Economic Development

This innovative book integrates ideas from sociology, economics and political science to analyse economic development. In doing so, it sheds new light on the process of successful development in East and Southeast Asia and, at the same time, indicates the underlying problems which led to the financial crisis in the region during the late 1990s.Richard Grabowski examines economic development from an historical perspective, discussing the Industrial Revolution in England and the economic development of Japan as well as the experiences of East and Southeast Asia. The central theme concerns the conditions underlying and supporting market exchange and discusses how these conditions evolve through time. The author analyses three main paths of economic development: government directed learning as in South Korea, the experience with development groups in Southeast Asia and concludes that the third and most successful development path is that based on broad rural development driven by rapid agricultural growth. This allows integrated markets to develop and creates an economy conducive to technical innovation via learning-by-doing. Pathways to Economic Development will be welcomed by development economists and political scientists as well as those interested in Asian studies.