This volume offers a rousing defense of pro-free-trade policies and their benefits for developing countries. Through cross-country evidence and detailed case studies, Arvind Panagariya demonstrates the need for trade openness for sustained growth and poverty alleviation.

Using Maddison's data, we compare levels and growth rates of real GDP per capita between Korea and Taiwan, along with Japan, and 53 other countries in the world, covering the prewar and postwar periods (1901-92). Both countries, along with Japan, experienced very rapid growth in both periods,...