Monitor | To get rich, poor states must ignore the Washington rule book
A new book argues that in East Asia, there are nations that protect their industries and prosper and those that heed others' advice and fail
The line of latitude at 20 degrees north neatly bisects East Asia.
Skirting Thailand's northern border, and passing eastward between the Philippines and Taiwan, it divides the region into two distinct economic zones.
To the north, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan - three places that long ago achieved developed-country wealth levels. More recently, China has emulated their development, stunning the world with three consecutive decades of rapid growth.
South of the 20th parallel, however, economic development has lagged behind. Although in 1950 Indonesia and the Philippines boasted similar incomes per head as Korea or Taiwan, today their levels of gross domestic product per capita - even after adjusting for differences in purchasing power - are less than a quarter of those enjoyed by their northern neighbours (see chart).
Over the years commentators have suggested all sorts of possible reasons for this divergence, from cultural proclivities to climactic differences.
Joe Studwell has a different explanation. In his new book, How Asia Works, the founding editor of China Economic Quarterly argues that in the 1980s and 1990s governments in Southeast Asia made the mistake of accepting the policy recommendations of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.