CHANGING LABOR-MARKET CONDITIONS AND ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT IN HONG-KONG, THE REPUBLIC-OF-KOREA, SINGAPORE, AND TAIWAN, CHINA

In the newly industrializing economies (NIEs) of Hong Kong, the Republ ic of Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan (China), the entire working populat ion has benefited from labor market institutions. The East Asian NIEs attained and maintained generally full employment, improved their job mixes, raised real earnings, and lowered thier rates of poverty. This article reaches two principal conclusions. First, labor market conditi ons continued to improve in all four economies in the 1980s at rates r emarkably similar to their rates of aggregate economic growth. Second, labor market repression was not a major factor in the growth experien ces of these economies in the 1980s. It thus appears that labor market repression is neither necessary nor desirable for outward-oriented ec onomic development.