SSC 141a
Assignment 3
British English
Can one tame a tiger?
- The extensive growth of South East Asian Economies -
Introduction
A tiger economy is a name given to a region or country which undergoes a heavy and fast economic growth. This usually also leads to rising living standards. This term was first applied to South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Since the 1960's, these four countries are known as the East Asian Tigers. Later on more Tiger Economies emerged, but this essay will focus mainly on the first four. Even though the countries do not share their borders, together they can be considered as an economic region, for they share a lot of characteristic and they have gone to similar developments at the same time.
All tigers were relatively poor during the 1960's. Due to this factor, they had the comparative advantage of cheap labour. In this essay the competitiveness of the East Asian Tigers today will be elaborated on. This will be done by analyzing the positive and negative production assets, the economic sectors, the economic model and the basic market characteristics. The main question that will be tried to answered is whether the Tigers will maintain their reputation as really fast growing economies. This figure shows the extensive growth of Korea and Taiwan's GNP (gross national product) per working-age person and their TFP (total factor productivity).
Positive/negative assets
Climate
The whole of South East Asia has a very uniform temperature regime. Except for in some highlands and some regions all up in the North, South East Asian temperatures seldom fall below 26°C. The most determining factor of the climate in South East Asia is, however, the rainfall. This rainfall is influenced by two air masses moving across South East Asia, and where these two Air Masses meet, a zone roughly along the Equator, which is commonly called the Intertropical Convergence Zone is formed. In this zone there