Organizer: ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute

Description:

This webinar will consider relationships between economic growth, structural change, poverty incidence and income inequality, using data for Thailand covering the period since 1981. In the process, it tests two famous empirical propositions regarding economic growth in Asia. Simon Kuznets hypothesized that in a growing economy, income inequality would first rise and then decline. Paul Krugman hypothesized that Asian economic growth was almost entirely attributable to growth in the total quantities of factors of production used, rather than increases in their productivity. He described this process as ‘perspiration’ rather than ‘inspiration’. The data for Thailand support Kuznets but not Krugman.

The Speaker:

Peter Warr is John Crawford Professor of Agricultural Economics, Emeritus, at the Australian National University. He studied at the University of Sydney, the London School of Economics and Stanford University, where he received his PhD in applied economics. His current research is on the relationship between economic policy and poverty incidence in Southeast Asia. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and is a Distinguished Fellow and Past President of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.

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