The role of social values in the growth of Asian economies: The proximate and the distal

The paper discusses some of the criticisms directed to the use of non‐economic factors in the explanation of East Asia's rapid growth, especially those of the World Bank's publication East Asia Miracle (Oxford, 1993) and then goes on to describe the various social values and other non‐economic forces found in different regions of Asia. It argues that a full understanding of the rapid growth of East Asia, the moderately rapid growth of ASEAN and the slow growth of South Asia must take into account both economic and non‐economic factors. It visualizes the economic factors as comprising the proximate forces in the growth of production, and social values and other non‐economic factors as the distal forces, standing behind the proximate economic factors such as saving, investment, labour input, skills and learning, and governing. These social values are work ethics, thriftiness, esteem and respect for learning and governance. These latter are in turn the product of many forces: geography, climate, history, demography, ethnicity, religion and so on. The paper focuses on the development of various religions and ethical systems of Asia as a major source of social values (Confucianism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, etc.). Finally, policies designed to improve social values are described in various East Asian and South‐east Asian countries. The paper is to be regarded as an initial attempt to study the various non‐economic factors in relation to the economic ones in order to arrive at a comprehensive integrated explanation of differential growth in Asia.