Jan Luiten van Zanden

Daan Marks

Based on new datasets, this book presents an economic history of Indonesia. It analyses the causes of stagnation of growth during the colonial and independence period, making use of new theoretical insights from institutional economics and new growth theory. The book looks at the major themes of Indonesian history: colonial exploitation and the successes and limitations of the post 1900 welfare policies, the price of instability after 1945, and the economic miracle after 1967. The book not only discusses economic change and development – or the lack thereof – but also the institutional and socio-political structures that were behind these changes. It also presents a lot of new data on the changing welfare of the Indonesian population, on income distribution, and on the functioning of markets for rice, credit and labour. Concluding with a discussion on whether the poor profited from the economic changes, this book is a useful contribution to Southeast Asian Studies and International Economics.

1800-2010

An Economic History of Indonesia

The most intriguing question about Indonesia's economic development during the twentieth century is why the country's growth performance has been so erratic and displayed such a high degree of discontinuity. This is connected with the fundamental question about the nature of long-run economic development in Indonesia. So far the economic historiography of Indonesia has been less systematic than what the available source material would permit. Indonesia is exceptionally well endowed with rich statistical sources, which carry the potential of supporting a rigorous and systematic quantitative approach to vital questions concerning the economic growth performance in the long run. This book takes such an approach and presents new estimates for the long-run growth of the Indonesian service sector, and analyses the role of the various service sectors in economic development. Linking empirical and theoretical analysis in a creative fashion, Daan Marks provides a rich and original contribution to our understanding of the economic history of Indonesia. He shows that the service sector has played a crucial role in Indonesia's economic development. Or in other words, to fully understand Indonesia's economic development path sevices need to be accounted for.

Daan Marks

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