Singapore's Economic Development
Retrospective essays on the limits of the model and what comes next.
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Linda Lim, an economist at the University of Michigan who has written on Singapore for decades, edited this collection reassessing the country's economic development model. The contributors examine what produced Singapore's growth and whether the model remains suited to its current position.
The subjects covered include the role of state-linked enterprises and of sovereign investment vehicles, the reliance on foreign direct investment and on multinational corporations rather than on domestic entrepreneurship, the labour policy including the large foreign workforce and the compression of wages, the compulsory savings system through the Central Provident Fund, the land and housing policy, and the question of whether Singapore's growth came from factor accumulation rather than productivity improvement, which is the argument Alwyn Young and Paul Krugman made in the 1990s.
The reference has not verified this volume chapter by chapter, and this entry reflects its established scope and the editor's known positions rather than a close reading of the contributions. Lim has been among the more critical Singaporean economists on the sustainability of the growth model, particularly on labour import and on the limited development of indigenous private enterprise.
Key takeaways 6
- Singapore's growth relied on attracting multinational investment rather than on developing domestic entrepreneurship.
- State-linked enterprises occupy positions in the domestic economy that private firms elsewhere would hold.
- Compulsory savings through the Central Provident Fund produced a high national savings rate by removing the choice.
- Large-scale labour import raised output while suppressing wage growth and reducing the pressure to raise productivity.
- The Young and Krugman argument that Singapore's growth came from factor accumulation rather than productivity remains contested.
- Government ownership of land and housing gave the state an instrument for both social policy and macroeconomic management.
Who should read it
Analysts of development models who want a reassessment of the Singapore case, with the caveat that this entry is not verified in detail.
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