Some Small Countries Do It Better: Rapid Growth and Its Causes in Singapore, Finland, and Ireland

Countries worldwide are endeavoring to imitate the industrial prowess of the East Asian pacesetters. However, building a portfolio of tradable goods and services, and raising the levels of investment in these activities, has generally defied the best policy efforts. Bringing investment ratios on par with East Asian averages has proven to be particularly challenging.

The developmental experience of Singapore, Finland, and Ireland (Sifire) offers a different approach to rapid and sustained growth. The focus of these countries, rather than being tightly bound to investment, concentrates on building human capital in order to attract technology-intensive foreign direct investment and to enable domestic firms to compete in global markets for highvalue products and services. This recipe for rapid and sustained growth is well suited for the large number of small, resource-poor countries and of especial relevance in the competitive global environment of the 21st century.

The book provides a succinct and accessible analysis of growth that will be of particular interest to development practitioners and policy makers, as well as to academics and students.