This book charts the period before Taiwan's post-war economic miracle took hold (1949-1965) and proffers that it was the Kuomintang Government's endorsement of property rights reform and institutional change that enabled Taiwan to transform from an impoverished command economy to a market-based economy, which in turn led to Taiwan becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Using first-hand interview material with key government officials from the period, and analysis of hitherto unused Chinese-language archives, this book is empirically very rich. It also gives the reader insights into Taiwan's developmental experience and the direction in which, under different circumstances, China's post-war development might have proceeded.

Taiwan's Economic Transition will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the economic and political history and development of Taiwan. More broadly it will also appeal to scholars and students of China's historical and contemporary development.

Ramon H. Myers is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Washington. After joining the Hoover Institution, Myers became a member of the U.S. Wheat Studies Delegation to the People's Republic of China in May–June 1976; served as a consultant to the Food Agricultural Organization, Rome, Italy, from November 1979 to January 1980; and taught as a visiting professor of economics at National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1990–91.

The author of more than one hundred journal articles and book reviews, he was also the associate editor of the Journal of Asian Studies and edited Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i (Studies in Ch'ing History). In 1980, Garland Publishing issued a forty-four volume series that Myers selected and edited entitled The Modern Chinese Economy.