Economic Dynamism, Openness, and Inclusion

by Hian Teck Hoon

As Singapore progresses from a newly-independent nation to a more mature economy, the economic challenges it faces have evolved. In the 50 years following Singapore's independence, the country tackled economic challenges relating to a fledgling nation, that included launching onto a path of economic take-off, and managing workers' wage aspirations without rising unemployment. It met those challenges, successfully transiting from relative poverty in the 1960s to relative prosperity today. As the country enters the next phase of its economic development, having now surpassed the US standard of living as measured by real GDP per capita, it faces another set of How to transit from catch-up growth arising from technological diffusion from frontier economies, to generating indigenous innovation? How to face the problem of a shrinking local workforce? How to manage a shift in job preferences with rising wealth and educational attainments? This volume provides a theory of Singapore's economic development. With a coherent theory capable of explaining how Singapore got to where it is, the book analyses how the future might look like for the Singapore economy. With its forward-looking analysis, this book is valuable to students as it weaves macroeconomic data together with growth theory and highlights the interaction of economic forces with social influences and political institutions. It also serves as a good reference for other emerging economies that, like Singapore, want to avoid the middle-income trap, and for researchers interested in analysing the economic possibilities for current and future Singaporeans.

157 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

Reviews

[Neil H · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short book on Singapore's industrial and institutional development for business. What are the qualities that has forged our excellent growth trajectory, how during recessions and global downturns we have adroitly extended tripartite decisions to enable employment and inflation to be a goal not just for employees, but businesses. What are the critical plateaus of the business environment being so plugged into the global network economy and how we are limited to monetary risks if the authorities dabble into the interest rate and currency exchanges.

My feedback is despite the different chapters, much of the observations and reiterations bleed into each other too often.