Journal of Economic Perspectives
ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)
The World Bank's East Asian Miracle: Too Much a Product of Its Time?
Journal of Economic Perspectives
(pp. 127–48)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
The 1993 publication of a World Bank book on the East Asian Miracle explained the extraordinarily rapid growth of Japan and seven other economies of East Asia (at 5 percent a year) between 1965 and 1990 as grounded in those economies' adherence to market "fundamentals"—sound macro management, "shared" growth policies, investment in human capital—combined with an "export push" which fostered the technological learning that drove those countries' high total factor productivity growth. The Bank authors dismissed "industrial policy" as central to their growth and cautioned against other developing countries adopting industrial policy in the absence of strong government institutions. Was the book too much a product of its post-Soviet, neoliberal era? Considering what we know now about the state of governance in developing countries, might industrial policy help boost growth in at least some developing countries?Citation
Birdsall, Nancy. 2025. "The World Bank's East Asian Miracle: Too Much a Product of Its Time?" Journal of Economic Perspectives 39 (4): 127–48. DOI: 10.1257/jep.20251449Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- E23 Macroeconomics: Production
- F14 Empirical Studies of Trade
- F33 International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions
- L52 Industrial Policy; Sectoral Planning Methods
- O10 Economic Development: General
- O25 Industrial Policy
- O47 Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence