Japan's Economic Dilemma: The Institutional Origins of Prosperity and Stagnation / Edition 1

by Bai Gao

Overview

After decades of seemingly unsurpassable growth and prosperity, Japan's economy declined in the 1990s. The reversal stunned observers: How could the economy have reversed itself so abruptly? Bai Gao's illuminating analysis of Japan's economic story demonstrates how the same economic institutions could produce both remarkable successes and a prolonged slump. In Japan's Economic Dilemma, Gao describes tensions within the Japanese economic system that created a bubble in the 1980s, yet became unsustainable and led to a stagnant domestic economy in the 1990s. Those who have been following the lively debate over "What became of the Japanese Miracle?" will appreciate Gao's historical perspective and multilayered analysis. Bai Gao is an associate professor in the department of sociology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He was a visiting scholar at Tokyo University and taught at Hitotsubashi University and Yokohama National University. He is the author of Economic Ideology and Japanese Industrial Policy (Cambridge, 1997), which received the 1998 Hiromi Arisawa Memorial Award in Best Books in Japanese Studies from the Association of American University Presses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521793735
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/27/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.71(d)
Lexile:	1440L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction; 2. Three theoretical issues; 3. The rise of the coordination and stability principles; 4. Coordination, excessive competition, and the high growth; 5. Stability, total employment, and the welfare society; 6. The roads toward the bubble; 7. The crisis of the welfare society; 8. Epilogue.

Editorial Reviews

"Offers valuable insights..." American Journal of Sociology

"The reader of this book will profit from the author's vast knowledge and his in-depth analysis of the Japanese economy. He also makes good use of the Japanese literature. The explanations given are valuable for students of economic growth in Asia and the world alike.... this is an excellent book that deserves attention from economists, sociologists and social policy experts.... Its account of the structural and institutional explanations for economic growth and stagnation are highly relevant to the world situation today." Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

"Japan's Economic Dilemma makes a significant contribution to the comparative literature on Japanese political economy. Whether one agrees with its arguments and assessments or not, its theoretically innovative and historically grounded study of the private sector institutions that manage corporate governance and social stability adds an important, and often neglected, dimension to our understanding of the challenges that confront the Japanese economy." American Political Science Review

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