ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some key stylized facts of agricultural and rural development in Southeast Asia since the 1970s. It summarizes research on poverty and income distribution in Southeast Asia, and presents a synthesis of the main findings. The chapter relates these findings to the evidence on economic growth and structural transformation in several Southeast Asian countries, and contrasts the Southeast Asian experience with that of Taiwan and South Korea. It discusses lessons the Southeast Asian experience may have to offer African countries. The chapter explores the growth and distributional experiences of the major agricultural economies of Southeast Asia in detail in order to bring out both the differences within the region, and the differences between Southeast Asia and other parts of East Asia such as Taiwan. It also discusses both the successes and the failures of the Southeast Asian experience, and points out both the positive and the negative lessons the region offers.
