Learning From The Asian Tigers: Lessons In Economic Growth

Since the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, Asia has begun the race for economic supremacy at the global level. The so-called “Four Asian Tigers” are those countries which have continually experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the last half of century and comprise the high growth and income economies of Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan. These East Asian countries were largely considered as economic models since their growth rates of real per capita gross domestic product in the period 1960-1995 reached around 6% per year. As economic growth represents the outcome of specific issues, the paper aims to identify and present the main factors that contributed to the meteoric growth of the Asian Tigers by focusing on the economies of three of them, namely Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. The methodological approach was based on a quantitative method. The paper argues that important lessons related to economic growth could be drawn from the valuable experience of these countries. Also, it identifies and presents some of the most important factors, such as the developmental state and the rapid industrialization, that highly contributed to their impressive economic growth.