Political economy of development of Myanmar under the military regime

53 p.The decline of the Myanmar economy in the late 1990s and well into the 21st century is one of the most significant stories for students of economic growth and Southeast Asia. When the military regime transformed the economy into a marketoriented system from a command system and opened up its trade regime in the late 1980s, hopes were high for future growth of the Myanmar economy. Indeed, the reforms bore fruit initially with the economy growing up significantly from one with negative growth rates to positive ones. However, the economy happened to decline in the late 1990s and well into the 21st century. This paper seeks to understand this decline and explain why it happened by pinpointing four major factors which must have caused it, namely lack of economic freedom, mismanagement of the macroeconomy, existence of rampant corruption and negligence of human resource development.Master of Science (International Political Economy