Transferable lessons? Re‐examining the institutional prerequisites of East Asian economic policies

Abstract

Competing theories of East Asian economic policy share the assumption that a highly capable, coherent economic bureaucracy, closely connected to, but still independent of, the business community, has been an essential institutional prerequisite for successful policy formation and implementation. In East Asia these institutional prerequisites were constructed in a variety of concrete forms with great difficulty and imperfect results. As long as the idea of ‘transferable lessons’ is understood as an invitation to indigenous innovation that takes advantage of the underlying analytical logic of East Asian institutions, other countries can reap important benefits from East Asia's experience.