The Chinese Correlation
Shooting the breeze with a friend in Tokyo about why some Southeast Asian countries are richer than others, he offered his own favorite explanation: the concentration of ethnic Chinese. All else being equal, the more Chinese a country has, the richer it becomes, he claimed, because of the entrepreneurial drive of these immigrants. Our friend, who is Jewish, recalled the saying of a Thai king about a century ago that the Chinese are the Jews of Asia (or should one say that the Jews are the Chinese of Europe? The king said it at that very anti-Semitic point in history as an insult, but since Chinese almost universally regard Jews with admiration and even envy, today they would undoubtedly take it as a compliment). Even if one puts aside the idea that there is something in the genes or the culture that makes Chinese naturally get rich — after all, the bulk of the world’s Chinese turned their backs on money-making for 50 years — there is the idea that the people of a diaspora will gravitate toward trading and finance.
Anyway, we decided to take a look at the numbers. Here’s the breakdown, figures courtesy of Wikipedia (population) and the CIA factbook (per capita GDP):
Burma: 3% Chinese, $157 per capita GDP
Cambodia: 1.2% Chinese, $341 per capita GDP
Laos: 1% Chinese, $396 per capita GDP
Vietnam: 3% Chinese, $518 per capita GDP
Philippines: 2% Chinese, $1,021 per capita GDP
Indonesia: 3.1% Chinese, $1,100 per capita GDP
Thailand: 12% Chinese, $2,845 per capita GDP
Malaysia: 25% Chinese, $5,003 per capita GDP
Singapore: 76.8% Chinese, $24,620 per capita GDP
So it’s not a perfect correlation, but it would appear to be significant — and it gets better once you get out of the lower depths, where bad government policy has obviously been a bigger controlling factor. Anyone out there who can calculate the coefficient, please send it in, so we can see just how much one percentage point of Chinese population is worth in U.S. dollars.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:27 am
per 1% in USD
Burma $52.33
Cambodia $284.17
Laos $396.00
Vietnam $172.67
Philippines $510.50
Indonesia $354.84
Thailand $237.08
Malaysia $200.12
Singapore $320.57
AVG in USD $280.92
August 25th, 2006 at 8:10 am
Interesting theory, but there are, say 2.7% Chinese according to the 1990 US Census, whereas the American GDP is $40,100. I think there are other factors involved…
August 28th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
My dear Chinese husband likes to believe this about his people. But I argue:
% Chinese GDP per head
China 91.9 $6800 (PPP)
Source: CIA World Factbook
Furthermore, DH is currently not breaking any GDP per head records.
August 28th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Interesting theory. I would add in Hong Kong.
August 29th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Or rather, the richer you are, the more Chinese immigrate? It’s a correlation, after all, it could be either way.
September 7th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Thomas Sowell argues in _Black Rednecks and White Liberals_ that perhaps there is a “something” in Chinese culture that becomes a comparative advantage when it is taken to non-Chinese societies. Whereas the “something” is not a comparative advantage in China because “everyone”/many people possess it. If you’re the only guy in America that can make blue-and-white pottery, you’re going to be a lot more popular than you would be in China, where everyone knows how to make it.
December 24th, 2006 at 5:11 am
“% Chinese GDP per head
China 91.9 $6800 (PPP)
Source: CIA World Factbook”
actually, chinas GDP per capita is around 1000USD-2000USD. not 6800, it’s just that in china because they are so poor their purchasing power within china is higher, like a gallon of milk is 1USD compared to say 3$ in the US. not to mention, nealy 50% of chinas entire wealth is concentrated in the top 5-10% of citizens,