This paper synthesizes major findings from eight selected East Asian (China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) country studies regarding the relationship between growth of the economies in the last decade and the distributions of income in those countries. It discusses different patterns of economic growth and income distributions, their sources and the impact of some economic policies on income distribution as well as the policy responses to emerging situations in these countries. It brings out the existence of a non uniform relationship between economic growth and income inequality, emphasizing the need for country specific and contextual approaches in gaining an understanding of diverse aspects of such phenomenon.

October 29, 2006.