The newly industrializing countries (NICs) of East Asia have undergone rapid economic expansion over the past twenty vears. Unlike NICs elsewhere in the Third World, those in the Pacific basin-South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong-have managed to achieve almost full employment, a relatively egalitarian distribution of income, and the virtual elimination or poverty. In this collection of essays, nine development specialists explore the Asian NICs' exceptional ability to capitalize on the favorable economic environment of the 1960s and then to adapt flexibly to worsening conditions in the 1970s and 1980s.

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This book should be on the shelves of a wide group of scholars and policymakers. It complements a growing literature on public choice and alerts the economic policymakers and development economists that economic decisions cannot be made in a political vacuum.... The collection of essays in this book offers delightful reading.