Description: 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.
Brief description: Anne Booth attended Victoria University of Wellington and the Australian National University in Canberra. She subsequently taught at the University of Singapore and returned to the Australian National University as a research fellow in 1979. In 1991, she moved to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, as a professor in the Department of Economics, with reference to Asia. Her chief area of interest has been Southeast Asia with a particular interest in Indonesian economic history in the twentieth century.
Review Quotes: '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