ABSTRACT
In this paper, the pressing problem of unemployment in the contemporary developing world is studied from an historical perspective of transition growth, i.e. the process representing the termination of economic colonialism and the initiation of modern growth. This problem is investigated for a particular type of LDC, namely, the open dualistic labour surplus economy. The post-war (1950–70) experience of Taiwan and Korea were analyzed from this viewpoint—emphasizing the fine differences as well as the family resemblance among these countries. As ex-Japanese colonies, both these countries shared a relatively strong agricultural infrastructure and the open dualistic and labour surplus characteristic at the beginning of the transition in the 1950s. However, as we show, Taiwan had an initially more favourable set of institutional and economic conditions in agriculture.
