Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Economics

The Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Economics offers new insights into the rapidly-developing economies of Southeast Asia. Despite widespread initial deprivation, Southeast Asia has achieved and sustained a remarkable rate of growth, in the course of which tens of millions have successfully escaped severe poverty. Though the economies of the region vary in many dimensions, integration into the wider East Asian network of production and trade is a notable common feature, one that continues a centuries-long history of engagement with global trade. A second striking feature is the pace and extent of transformation in the structure of production and in sources of household income in the region, which has undergone remarkably rapid industrialization and urban growth. However, the search for sustained and sustainable growth through and beyond middle-income continues to confront pressing economic and policy challenges.

This Handbook offers a timely and comprehensive overview of Southeast Asian economic development. Organized according to the logic of chronological and thematic unity, it is structured in these sections:

• Growth and development over the long term
• Food, agriculture and natural resources
• Trade, investment and industrialization
• Population, labor, and human capital
• Poverty and political economy
• Twenty-first century challenges

This original Handbook, written by experts in their fields, is unique in the breadth and depth of its coverage. Its forward-looking perspective renders it relevant both now and in the future. This advanced level reference work will be essential reading for students, researchers and scholars of Asian Studies, Economics and Southeast Asian studies.

Growth and development over the long term

1. Southeast Asia’s Long Transition

2. The Commodity Export, Growth And Distribution Connection In Southeast Asia, 1500-1940

3. A Century Of Growth, Crisis, War And Recovery 1870-1970

4. Lucky Countries? Internal And External Sources Of Southeast Asian Growth Since 1970

Food, agriculture and natural resources

5. The Dynamics Of Agricultural Development And Food Security In Southeast Asia: Historical Continuity And Rapid Change

6. Natural Resources, The Environment And Economic Development In Southeast Asia

Trade, investment and industrialization

7. Global Production Sharing And Trade Patterns In Southeast Asia

8. Foreign Direct Investment In Southeast Asia

9. Regional Trade Agreements and Enterprises in Southeast Asia

Part 3: Population, labor, and human capital

10. The Population of Southeast Asia

11. The Determinants And Long-Term Projections Of Saving Rates In Southeast Asia

12. Education In Southeast Asia: Investment, Achievements And Returns

13. Internal And International Migration In Southeast Asia

Poverty and political economy

14. The Contribution Of Economic Growth To Poverty Reduction

15. The Political Economy Of Policy Reform: Insights From Southeast Asia Twenty-first century challenges

16. Dual-Burdens In Health and Aging: Emerging Population Challenges In Southeast Asia

17. Southeast Asian Commercial Policy: Outward-Looking Regional Integration

18. Macroeconomic Policy And The Global Financial Crisis

19. Twenty-First Century Challenges

Ian Coxhead is Professor and Chair of the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He is a specialist in economic growth and development, international trade, labor markets and human capital, and household welfare and income distribution, with a strong regional emphasis on Southeast Asia.