This paper proposes a stylized (hence very partial) explanation of the experience of those economies which, like the East Asian newly industrializing economies, managed to create an economic take-off, characterized by a rapid expansion of manufactured exports, and to maintain for many years a...

This paper argues that the single most important factor that explains East Asia's development success was its fast structural transformation toward industrialization, manufacturing in particular. Workers moved out of agriculture into manufacturing, and the sector diversified and upgraded its...