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The core hypothesis of this paper is that, despite adverse economic effects of custom, tradition, command economies and their aftermath, implementation of well-considered macroeconomic policies has rapidly generated successful economic transition—and conversely. The hypothesis has been tested for Russia, East Germany, selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and in the Western Hemisphere. Key factors of behavioral economics have helped to explain results that are often different from those of neo-classical analysis. It has been shown that relations between the presently evolving global economy and national macroeconomic policies have had fundamental effects on the propensity of economic entities to utilize positive incentives for optimal economic outcomes.

This paper presents a detailed estimate of GDP for the Philippines from 1902 to 1940, and analyses factors accounting for changes in growth rates during that era. A crash program in agricultural modernization produced a doubling of rice and corn yields between 1910 and the late 1920s. As a result, the Philippine GDP growth rate in the first two decades outstripped all other nations in East and Southeast Asia. However fiscal constraints appeared by the late 1920s, causing this and other infrastructure projects to be curtailed. An overvalued peso emerged after 1930 and this, alongside a slowdown in productivity caused the rate of Philippine GDP growth to fall behind that of neighboring countries including Japan, Korea and Taiwan. These developments in the later years of the colonial period seriously compromised the transition to economic independence in 1946.

This paper examines the empirical relationship between financial development and economic growth in nine emerging economies in South-East Asia. The sample period varies across countries but covers at least 25 years. The main finding is that financial development matters for economic growth and that causality runs from financial structure to economic development. This result indicates that in developing countries a policy of financial reform is likely to improve economic growth.

The study seeks to analyse and evaluate the Burmese approach to development that priortizes economic growth over democratization. This approach presumes that socio-political stability and discipline must be established first by the strong state to achieve economic growth at whatever human cost. The study shows that more than three decades of stability and discipline maintained by force in Burma by the consecutive military regimes have not generated economic growth for the people. The main argument of the study is that the macroeconomic policies and liberalization measures of the present Burmese military regime were ostantatious and ineffective due to the fact that they were undertaken with the primary objective of enlarging the economic base of power to sustain its illegitimate rule. The conclusion of the study is that the Burmese case fails to establish that the use of economic growth as an overriding goal over democracy is a precondition of economic growth. ( JEL : 047, 053, C32)

For some time now, large economic areas, as defined by Free Trade Areas, have become topical. Traditional economic analysis emphasized global allocation as well as areas of discrimination. From the viewpoint of a different reference system-natural geographic zones-larger economic areas (LEAs) are analyzed using three criteria: (a) regulation of the international division of labor; (b) regional centers for the growth potential of the world economy; and (c) economic policy cooperation within LEAs.

This study compares productivity change in China and the United States during 1952–1979 and analyzes economic and trade relations between China and the U.S. The principal conclusion of the analysis is that in both countries growth in capital input was the most important source of economic growth during the decades of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and that productivity change was the least important source of growth. Second, the study assesses China's economic growth during the reform period (1979–1990) in China. It finds that economic growth after reform was more rapid than before reform in China and the contribution of productivity growth was larger. Finally, the study discusses some implications of these growth patterns for U.S.-China economic and trade relations.