According to Mint's"vent for surplus"theory, development of the economies of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand from the nineteenth century on depended on the natural advantage of large tracts of unused"empty land"with low population density and abundant natural resources of the type...

The development and diffusion of modern varieties of rice and wheat in Asia were induced by changing resource endowments. More productive biological and chemical technologies capable of offsetting the effects of population growth are a necessary condition for simultaneous achievement of growth...