This paper discusses the development of four production sectors of the economies in Southeast Asia since the end of the Second World War: agriculture, non-renewable natural resources, manufacturing, and services. First, although Southeast Asia has experienced sectoral transformation toward...

This paper provides narrative background on economic and political development of the 11 countries in Southeast Asia. It shows that post-World War II development experience, economic policies, and current economic performance in each country have deep historical roots, at least back to the...

This paper explores episodes of financial crises and recessions experienced by the economies in Southeast Asia: the global debt crisis and the commodity price collapse in the 1980s, the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s, and the burst of the dot-com bubble and the global financial crisis in...

This paper provides background on sovereign wealth funds in Southeast Asia: Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund (PT), Singapore's GIC and Temasek, Malaysia's Khazanah and 1MDB, and Vietnam's State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC). These funds are diverse in their...

This paper analyzes macroeconomic growth of the economies in Southeast Asia since the end of the Second World War. It argues that there appears a convergence in development strategy among the economies in this region in recent decades. With few exceptions, every economy in Southeast Asia has...

Large private enterprises in the ASEAN-5 economies have been, and remain, dominated by firms that share four common characteristics: (1) their ownership and control are concentrated among a handful of prominent business families; (2) most of these families have Chinese origins; (3) each family...

This chapter discusses natural disasters and their impacts on economic development of Southeast Asia. Natural disasters generally lead to capital decumulation, have impacts on total factor productivity, and involve vulnerability of people living in the economy. Their effects could persist in the...

This paper uses civil conflicts in Southeast Asia to illustrate the economic causes and consequences of the conflicts on the economy. It argues that the causes of conflicts in this region are consistent with what predicted by theories that link economic growth and inequality to the motives and...

State owned enterprises (SOEs) are a pervasive form of firms across most economies in Southeast Asia. Their historical origin, development, and performance are diverse but reflects political and economic development in each country. Conforming with predictions from economic literature, SOEs in...