Understanding Economic Development and Institutional Change: East Asian Development Model Reconsidered with Implications for China

This paper presents a coherent framework to characterize the dynamics of economic development and institutional change in the East Asian Development Model. In the early stage of development, due to market incompleteness, a government with high autonomy and capacity can promote economic development through interlinked and relational arrangements (e.g., industrial policy). In later stages, market completion will usually unravel interlinked and relational contracts, and lead to a rule-based society. The paper shows that the appropriate role of government and institutions are functions of the stage of development. In particular, relation-based governance is suited to investment-led development, while rule-based governance is suited to innovation-led development. The paper ends up with some implications for China’s development and institutional change.