IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/
MyIDEAS: Log in (now much improved!) to save this book chapter

The Impact of the Asian Miracle on the Theory of Economic Growth

In: Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth: Geography, Institutions, and the Knowledge Economy

Author Info

  • Robert W. Fogel

Abstract

This paper, divided into seven sections, considers the development of economic growth theory in light of the spectacular advances of the economies of China, India, and Southeast Asia. Section 1 reviews the debate over the sources of technological change and the measurement of total factor productivity that emerged during the second half of the 1950s. Section 2, "Convergence and Divergence," deals with the closing of the economic gap between the U.S. and other OECD nations that existed after World War II and the increasing economic gap between OECD and Third World nations. Section 3, "The Asian Miracle," describes the new recognition among Western economists that the sustained, very rapid growth in China and Southeast Asia was changing the global economic balance. Section 4, "Endogenous Economic Growth," deals with the work of a group of mainly verbal theorists, including Simon Kuznets and T.W. Schultz, who sought to define social, political, demographic, religious, and ideological conditions that preceded the epoch of modern economic growth, which began in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries. That line of thought was extended by more mathematical economists who studied the invention and modeled the diffusion of new technologies in agriculture (Zvi Griliches) and industry (Edwin Mansfield). Section 5, "Bridges between Two Cohorts of Theorists on Technological Change," compares the work of Griliches, Richard Nelson, and Dale W. Jorgenson, whose quantitative analysis of endogenous technological change spanned the period from the mid-1950s to the new cohort of growth theorists that emerged during the mid- to late-1980s. Section 6, "The Economic Historians," focuses on their investigations of the interrelationships of the evolution of social, economic, and political institutions and on findings about the impact of institutional changes on invention, innovation, the process of technological change, and econom

(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.

File URL: http://www.nber.org/chapters/c12003.pdf
Download Restriction: no

as
in new window

This chapter was published in:
  • Dora L. Costa & Naomi R. Lamoreaux, 2011. "Understanding Long-Run Economic Growth: Geography, Institutions, and the Knowledge Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number cost10-1, September.
    • This item is provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Chapters with number 12003.
    Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12003
    Contact details of provider: Postal:
    National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.

    Phone: 617-868-3900
    Web page: http://www.nber.org
    Email:


    More information through EDIRC

    Keywords:

    Other versions of this item:

    Find related papers by JEL classification:
    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

    References listed on IDEAS
    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:

    as in new window
    1. Paul M Romer, 1999. "Increasing Returns and Long-Run Growth," Levine's Working Paper Archive 2232, David K. Levine.
    2. T. W. Swan, 1956. "ECONOMIC GROWTH and CAPITAL ACCUMULATION," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 32(2), pages 334-361, November.
    3. Robert W. Fogel, 2006. "Why China is Likely to Achieve its Growth Objectives," NBER Working Papers 12122, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Nelson, Richard R, 1991. "Diffusion of Development: Post-World War II Convergence among Advanced Industrial Nations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(2), pages 271-75, May.
    5. Kravis, Irving B, 1970. "Trade as a Handmaiden of Growth: Similarities between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 80(323), pages 850-72, December.
    6. Dwight H. PERKINS, 2006. "China's Recent Economic Performance and Future Prospects," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 1(1), pages 15-40.
    7. James Heckman, 2006. "Contributions of Zvi Griliches," NBER Working Papers 12318, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Abramovitz, Moses, 1990. "The Catch-Up Factor in Postwar Economic Growth," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(1), pages 1-18, January.
    9. Jorgenson, Dale W. & Nomura, Koji, 2005. "The industry origins of Japanese economic growth," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 482-542, December.
    10. Zvi Griliches, 1996. "The Discovery of the Residual: A Historical Note," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 1324-1330, September.
    11. Richard R. Nelson, 1959. "The Economics of Invention: A Survey of the Literature," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 32, pages 101.
    12. Nicholas Crafts, 2004. "Social savings as a measure of the contribution of a new technology to economic growth," Economic History Working Papers 22554, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    13. Mansfield, Edwin, 1975. "International Technology Transfer: Forms, Resource Requirements, and Policies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 65(2), pages 372-76, May.
    14. D. W. Jorgenson & Z. Griliches, 1967. "The Explanation of Productivity Change," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 34(3), pages 249-283.
    15. Temin, Peter, 1997. "Two Views of the British Industrial Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 57(01), pages 63-82, March.
    16. Moses Abramovitz, 1956. "Resource and Output Trends in the United States Since 1870," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number abra56-1, September.
    17. North, Douglass C. & Thomas, Robert Paul, 1971. "The Rise and Fall of the Manorial System: A Theoretical Model," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(04), pages 777-803, December.
    18. Kevin J. Stiroh & Dale W. Jorgenson, 1999. "Information Technology and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 109-115, May.
    19. Kevin J. Stiroh & Dale W. Jorgenson, 2000. "U.S. Economic Growth at the Industry Level," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 161-167, May.
    20. Richard R. Nelson, 1988. "Modelling the Connections in the Cross Section between Technical Progress and R&D Intensity," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(3), pages 478-485, Autumn.
    21. Moses Abramovitz, 1956. "Resource and Output Trends in the United States Since 1870," NBER Chapters, in: Resource and Output Trends in the United States Since 1870, pages 1-23 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    22. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1996. "Some Lessons from the East Asian Miracle," World Bank Research Observer, World Bank Group, vol. 11(2), pages 151-77, August.
    23. Douglass C. North, 1968. "Sources of Productivity Change in Ocean Shipping, 1600-1850," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76, pages 953.
    24. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2000. "The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation," NBER Working Papers 7771, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. M. A. Copeland & E. M. Martin, 1938. "The Correction of Wealth and Income Estimates for Price Changes," NBER Chapters, in: Studies in Income and Wealth, Volume 2, pages 83-134 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    26. Fogel, Robert William, 2000. "The Fourth Great Awakening and the Future of Egalitarianism," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226256627, July.
    27. Robert M. Solow, 2007. "The last 50 years in growth theory and the next 10," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(1), pages 3-14, Spring.
    28. Galambos, Louis, 1997. "Global Perspectives on Modern Business," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(02), pages 287-290, June.
    29. Dougherty, Chrys & Jorgenson, Dale W, 1996. "International Comparisons of the Sources of Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 25-29, May.
    30. Healey, Derek T, 1972. "Development Policy: New Thinking About an Interpretation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 757-97, September.
    31. Swan, Trevor W, 2002. "Economic Growth," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 78(243), pages 375-80, December.
    32. Chaudhuri, Shubham & Ravallion, Martin, 2006. "Partially awakened giants : uneven growth in China and India," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4069, The World Bank.
    33. Mills, Terence C & Crafts, N F R, 2000. "After the Golden Age: A Long-Run Perspective on Growth Rates That Speeded Up, Slowed Down and Still Differ," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 68(1), pages 68-91, January.
    34. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1961. "Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn61-1, September.
    35. Teece, David J, 1993. "The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism: Perspectives on Alfred Chandler's Scale and Scope," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 31(1), pages 199-225, March.
    36. Robert J. Barro, 1989. "Economic Growth in a Cross Section of Countries," NBER Working Papers 3120, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James A. Robinson, 2002. "Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1231-1294.
    38. Robert W. Fogel, 2003. "Forecasting The Demand For Health Care In Oecd Nations And China," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10, 01.
    39. Nelson, Richard R, 1981. "Research on Productivity Growth and Productivity Differences: Dead Ends and New Departures," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1029-64, September.
    40. Clark, Colin, 1976. "Economic Development in Communist China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(2), pages 239-64, April.
    41. Maddison, Angus, 1987. "Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative Assessment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 649-98, June.
    42. Becker, Gary S & Lewis, H Gregg, 1973. "On the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(2), pages S279-88, Part II, .
    43. S. Chandrasekhar, 1968. "How India is tackling her population problem," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 5(2), pages 642-650, June.
    44. David S. Landes, 1994. "What room for accident in history?: explaining big changes by small events," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 47(4), pages 637-656, November.
    45. Robert W. Fogel, 2004. "High Performing Asian Economies," NBER Working Papers 10752, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    46. Roderick Floud & Robert W. Fogel & Bernard Harris & Sok Chul Hong, 2011. "The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number foge10-1, September.
    47. Kim Jong-Il & Lau Lawrence J., 1994. "The Sources of Economic Growth of the East Asian Newly Industrialized Countries," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 235-271, September.
    48. Fogel, Robert W & Engerman, Stanley L, 1969. "A Model for the Explanation of Industrial Expansion during the Nineteenth Century: With an Application to the American Iron Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(3), pages 306-28, May/June.
    49. Harley, C. Knick, 1992. "International Competitiveness of the Antebellum American Cotton Textile Industry," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(03), pages 559-584, September.
    50. David, Paul A, 1985. "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 332-37, May.
    51. Ghemawat, Pankaj, 2002. "Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(01), pages 37-74, March.
    52. David, Paul A, 1990. "The Dynamo and the Computer: An Historical Perspective on the Modern Productivity Paradox," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 355-61, May.
    53. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.

    as in new window


    Cited by:

    1. Gazi Mainul Hassan & Arusha Cooray, 2013. "Effects of Male and Female Education on Economic Growth: Some Evidence from Asia Using the Extreme Bounds Analysis," Working Papers in Economics 13/10, University of Waikato, Department of Economics.
    2. World Bank, 2009. "Mauritius - Investment Climate Assessment," World Bank Other Operational Studies 3185, The World Bank.
    3. Rao, B. Bhaskara & Cooray, Arusha & Hassan, Gazi Mainul, 2011. "Growth effects of education with the extreme bounds analysis: some evidence from Asia," MPRA Paper 32279, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

    Access and download statistics

    When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:12003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ()

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

    If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis using RePEc data.