Search

The evolution of Taiwan's political economy seems paradoxical. From the 1960s to 1980s, Taiwan went through economic transformations that have been called an “economic miracle.” This was followed by a successful democratic transition from the late 1980s to mid‐1990s that might be considered a “political miracle.” In the early 1990s, Taiwan could be regarded as a success story and a model for developing nations. Yet, Taiwan was soon to “enter troubled waters” marked by growing conflict and threat from China (PRC), fears about the “hollowing out” of its previously vaunted economy, and vicious polarization and gridlock in its domestic politics. We argue that many of the challenges facing Taiwan derive from unanticipated and unintended costs of its previous successes. In particular, what worked to promote successful economic and political development at one point later became counterproductive in the changed circumstances created by the country's rapid developmental trajectory. Our basic research questions, hence, are whether the challenges currently facing Taiwan's political economy can be explained by the country's past pattern of development and, if so, whether these linkages appear to be connected to success or failures in Taiwan's history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa's largest trade partner, China, criticised for exchanging resources for manufactures, has promised to increase imports and optimise the structure of trade with Africa. Using a gravity model of China's imports for the years 1995-2009, we explore potential dynamics for this promise, uniquely accounting for market economy recognition and Taiwan recognition. The former is associated with increased imports, while the latter effect is ambiguous and statistically insignificant. Comparison of projected against actual imports across three growth-path-aligned economic geography typologies - resource-rich; landlocked and resource-poor; coastal and resource-poor - sets out China's imports trends in an abstract framework of African export potential. We find not only 'under' importing across a majority of resource-poor countries. We also find that current trade policy is the least applicable to these comparatively poor exporters' trade with China. If the latter are to serve a broader catalytic role in Africa's regional industrial transformation as compared to the role of coastal and resource-poor countries in regional economic transformation in Asia and Latin America, China-Africa trade and investment policies may need additional thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the transitional processes of Taiwan's innovation system over the past half century, evolving from being rooted in traditional industries to attaining development in a virtuous cycle of development. Our approach is inspired by the Arena of Development theory and acknowledges the system of transformation failures, in which we highlighted the types of failures that might impede economic progress and how they were overcome in the evolutionary targeting of Taiwan's industrial development. Our findings demonstrate that the success of Taiwan's economic transition is targeted on, and evolves with, a series of macrolevel policies in the early phase of development; mesolevel institutional mechanisms to attain the industrial emergence settings; and, in pursuit of the virtuous cycle of development, the microlevel collaboration platform. We attribute the success of Taiwan's industrial system to this series of systematic government interventions. This study provides novel and salient normative principles that guide transformational policymakers in governing transitional processes of innovation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present paper, an integrated cash flow model is developed to examine the relative impact of tax incentives, financial subsidies, and macroeconomic variables on the profitability of industrial investments. It allows for the variables in the model to interact with each other. An application of the model is carried out for Taiwan, which has implemented a variety of fiscal incentives over the past 40 years. The principal policy conclusion is that trade and macroeconomic policies are much more important than income tax incentives or subsidized finance policies in determining the success of Taiwan's industrialization process. The effects of all of the fiscal incentives are found to be much smaller than those of the trade policies or the fundamental trends in macroeconomic variables such as the movement of the real exchange rate and the real wage rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explains the effectiveness of state intervention in achieving economic development in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan prior to the Asian financial crisis. Overview of the conventional model of the development process; Influence of public investments in education and infrastructure on economic growth; Role of the traditional agricultural sector in industrialization.

Explores the industrial policy of Hong Kong and Taiwan. Compatibility between free trade and industrial policy; Re-industrialization of Hong Kong; Performance of the textile industry.

The article reports that the legitimate government of China, the Nationalist Government which has its seat on the island of Formosa (Taiwan), has now completed its land reform, one which is in striking contrast to the bloody and ineffective one put into effect on the mainland by the Soviet Communist regime. The first phase of the program was introduced in 1949 when the Legislative Yuan of the Chinese Government decreed the reduction of land rent to a maximum of 37.5 per cent of the annual main crop. This measure enabled tenant farmers to increase their incomes by 3 0 per cent. The second phase, which began in 1951, was the sale of public land to tenant farmers. The third phase was begun by the law enacted on Jan. 20, 1913, which provides for the purchase of excess land holdings from owners and for its resale to bona fide tillers. The government is selling the lands acquired to tenant farmers, who will pay, altogether, the equivalent of two and one-half times the annual principal crop yield in ten yearly installments.