Economic Change in Modern Indonesia
Colonial and Post-colonial Comparisons

An accessible examination of Indonesia's economic history from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century from a comparative perspective.

Anne Booth (Author)

9781107109223, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 February 2016

270 pages, 49 tables
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

'Anne Booth has once again written an authoritative, comprehensive economic history of Indonesia. … there is much to recommend here. Scholars of Indonesia will greatly appreciate Booth's balanced and commanding evaluation of key economic debates in Indonesia to which the book's second half is devoted. For those with less prior knowledge of the country and who are looking for an incisive introduction, a careful reading of Economic Change in Modern Indonesia will be richly rewarding.' James S. Davidson, Journal of Southeast Asian Economies

Indonesia is often viewed as a country with substantial natural resources which has achieved solid economic growth since the 1960s, but which still faces serious economic challenges. In 2010, its per capita GDP was only nineteen per cent of that of the Netherlands, and twenty-two per cent of that of Japan. In recent decades, per capita GDP has fallen behind that of neighbouring countries such as Malaysia and Thailand, and behind China. In this accessible but thorough new study, Anne Booth explains the long-term factors which have influenced Indonesian economic performance, taking into account the Dutch colonial legacy and the reaction to it after the transfer of power in 1949. The first part of the book offers a chronological study of economic development from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, while the second part explores topics including the persistence of economic nationalism and the ongoing tensions between Indonesia's diverse regions.

1. Introduction: Indonesia's three watersheds
2. The colonial legacy
3. Occupation, liberation and the challenges facing the new republic, 1942–66
4. Suharto's economic record: successes and failures
5. The 1997/98 crisis and its legacy: dropping out again?
6. The SBY years: building a new Indonesia?
7. Economic nationalism, economic rationalism and the development of private business after 1950
8. Trends in poverty and income distribution: the Suharto era and beyond
9. The changing role of government from the colonial era to the post-Suharto years
10. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Asian history [HBJF]