The paper identifies three types of institutions that are particularly important for economic development–institutions for coordination and administration, institutions for learning and innovation, and institutions for income redistribution and social cohesion–and examines how they contributed to the development of different Asian countries. While developing countries can import and adopt some institutions from more developed countries, there is no “best practice” institutional structure that fits every country. Applying this conclusion to the current situation in Asia, it is argued that despite the currently popular argument that Asian countries should remodel their institutions along the Anglo-American line, institutional changes need to be made cautiously and in line with local conditions.
