Capitalizing on Globalization

This paper reviews the challenges facing Asia as it seeks to cope with and capitalize on globalization. It asks how the Asian model of economic development needs to be modified in order for the region’s economies to grow and prosper in an increasingly integrated and intensely competitive global environment. Doing so, it argues, will entail modifying institutions for managing innovation, for managing poverty, and for managing volatility. The paper concludes by asking whether the capacity to adapt existing institutions is best developed at the national, regional, or global level and whether initiatives to address the challenge at these three levels are properly regarded as substitutes or complements.