Boom-or-bust commodities and industrialization in pre-World War II Malaya

• 成果类型: Article; Proceedings Paper
• 署名作者: University of Glasgow
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050702001651
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 1074-1115
• 关键词: sector

摘要

This article links the terms of trade, money supply, labor market, and money and credit markets to explore a puzzle in Malayan economic history: why, despite rapid growth and high per capita income, did pre-World War 11 Malaya industrialize so little? A range of data is drawn together to show how for Malayan manufacturers economic boom was accompanied by precipitate deterioration in the real exchange rate, while in a slump credit contracted sharply and with it the size of the Malayan market for manufactures. Analysis of Malayan experience maybe relevant for understanding slight industrialization elsewhere in Southeast Asia.