ABSTRACT
Over the past 40 years, East and Southeast Asia has been the most dynamic region in the world. Its rapid pace of development has surprised economists and policy makers, challenging them to explain the mechanisms of growth-economic, political, and cultural-that have energized developments in East Asia. Most of the countries in the region began as poor countries with few resources-even Singapore, today among the richest, was little more than a backwater in the early 1950s. Today, some of the East Asian countries have achieved advanced country living standards, and others are on the way.
