A Brief History of Asia's Sustained Growth

This book explores Asia’s remarkable economic transformation by examining four key nations—Japan, Korea, China, and India. It presents how these countries sustained high economic growth, leading to prosperity.

The book analyses the four economies through the four pillars: (a) free and open markets, (b) accountable government and effective policies, (c) education and human capital development, and (d) saving and investment, leading to capital accumulation. The analysis reveals that the experiences of the four countries are highly divergent. Against common knowledge that the Asian miracle was based on export-driven, government-led and infrastructure investment strategy, these countries achieved high economic growth by building the four pillars of their own which reflected their history, culture and initial economic situation. Noting that the present global economic environment makes a copy-and-paste tactic impossible for developing economies to follow, the book offers broader insights on institutional reform and the timely exploitation of critical opportunities which will be of interest to other developing nations.

Written by an experienced economist and policymaker, this concise book will appeal to students and researchers of development economics, political economy, and Asian studies. It will also appeal to general readers interested in learning more about global economics and history.