10:30-11:20
In the 1960’s 4 economies started experiencing very fast economic growth. Economic growth is an increase in the total output of an economy. It occurs when a society acquires new resources or when it learns to produce more using existing resources. These 4 economies include South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong. All the Asian tigers had different reasons for how they got to be the economy they are today. The main Theory that I will be talking about is the catch-up effect theory. The catch up theory states that poorer economies grow at an faster rate then richer economies and that every economy will eventually be equal. Throughout this essay I will describe the growth of the Asian Tigers, why they are no longer growing rapidly, what could be able to get them out of the slump they are in now, and I will compare them to China.
Economic growth in the Asian tigers roughly reached an 8% increase. These four economies succeeded in developing much faster then any other economy. These economies started growing after World War 2, around the 1960’s. Each of these economies has different reasons to what led them to experience great economic growth. Lets start with South Korea, Korea was originally blessed with great geography but they were stuck fighting civil wars; that were bringing their economies down. After the Korean War had ended, the U.S started to get worried that communism was spreading amongst the nation. The U.S decided to start helping Korea develop its market. They paid for 70% of South Korea’s exports. This allowed them to sell products on the market for much lower prices than their competitors. They were no longer held back by welfare; South Korea started investing a lot of money into their public school programs. This eventually led to Korea becoming one of the most educated countries in the world. South Korea then became one of