Can historical economic growth patterns be traced in South and Southeast Asian countries as the classical theory suggests?

Muhammad Tashfiq Huq () and Masaru Ichihashi
Additional contact information
Muhammad Tashfiq Huq: Hiroshima University
Masaru Ichihashi: Hiroshima University

Journal of Economic Structures, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-27

Abstract: Abstract According to the classical theory of economic development, as in Akamatsu’s flying geese model, many countries should exhibit similar development patterns from agriculture-based sectors to processed or labor-intensive industries as a long-run trend. This paper identifies some common development patterns in 6 Asian lower-income developing countries (LIDCs) to confirm Flying Geese model for South and Southeast Asia, using three periods of the input‒output table with a novel decomposition technique derived from a conventional method. Our results show that labor-intensive and light manufacturing sectors, along with some high-value-added service sectors, are the most promising sectors in these countries. Food, basic metal and textiles in manufacturing and construction, electricity and transport in service are commonly growing in most countries. Among our targeted Asian countries, only Vietnam has been developing many diversified sectors in manufacturing from traditional labor-intensive sectors to highly technology-oriented sectors. This means that Vietnam might achieve an advanced stage faster than other Asian countries. In addition, we have found some prospective accelerating sectors in these countries with our novel decomposition technique, such as manufacturing and recycling, basic metal, and rubber. These findings indicate that these countries have started to diversify industries from their traditional sectors, which resembles the flying geese model.

Keywords: Structural change; Input–output analysis; Economic Development in Asian Economies; Flying geese model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B31 D57 L16 O14 O47 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40008-025-00355-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:jecstr:v:14:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1186_s40008-025-00355-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40008

DOI: 10.1186/s40008-025-00355-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Structures is currently edited by Shigemi Kagawa and Kazuhiko Nishimura

More articles in Journal of Economic Structures from Springer, Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().