Are the Kaldor-Verdoorn Laws Applicable in the Newly Industrializing Countries?

The Kaldor-Verdoorn "laws," the focus of this work, are a set of stylized facts which attempt to describe growth in an economy. This paper tests these stylized facts using macroeconomic data from newly industrializing countries. Results show that high rates of growth of manufacturing do not translate to high productivity rates in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Mauritius, but they do so in South Korea. A negative relation exists for Malaysia. This work questions the operation of Kaldor's laws in the context of globalization and suggests a revision of the laws. Copyright 1999 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd