Abstract

RAMIREZ BONILLA, Juan José. Economic opening, productivity and income distribution: South East Asia experiences. Méx.cuenca pac [online]. 2015, vol.4, n.11, pp.53-88. ISSN 2007-5308.

This article analyzes three aspects of industrialization in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand: economic openness, sectorial productivity and income distribution. Economic openness is considered as sine qua non condition for attracting foreign direct investment and promoting exports of manufactures as well as for the degree of vulnerability of an economy to external shocks. In the context of economic liberalization, industrialization has been determined by the logic of manufacturing of transnational corporations; consequently, productivity (and international competitiveness) depends on the degree of concentration of financial resources. In this perspective, the increasing concentration of income is both cause and effect of competition in international markets; the dynamics of income concentration, however, can be mitigated by public policies to meet the needs of the population; Malaysia and Thailand show the effectiveness in reducing poverty to minimal levels, while Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, the Philippines also recorded significant progress in this field.

Keywords : economic openness; productivity and international competitiveness; income distribution; social policies and poverty reduction.

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