Accounting for Recent Economic Growth in South-East Asia

Abstract

This paper identifies the major factors explaining GDP growth in a number of South-East Asian countries during the eighties and early nineties. Estimates of the contribution of technological change, increases in the endowments of labor and capital, movements in the terms of trade, and changes in domestic output prices are reported for Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand. Partial results for Indonesia and Malaysia are also shown. We use an index number approach which has a tight theoretical foundation, being based on the GNP/GDP function approach to modeling the production sector of an open economy.

JEL Classification: O11, O41, C43, F11