Which Economic Model is more Competitive? The West and the South after the Covid-19 Pandemic

China and other East Asian countries were able to deal with the coronavirus pandemic much better than most Western countries. Both the number of infections and the mortality rate were lower than in Western countries by two orders of magnitude. Besides, economic recession associated with the pandemic is likely to be much deeper in the West than in the South. These developments give new arguments to the views that East Asian economic and social model is more viable than the Western model. This paper argues that East Asian model is superior to the other models in the Global South at least in the catch up development and possibly even in the innovations beyond the technological frontier. The crucial features of the East Asian economic model are relatively low income and wealth inequalities, strong state institutional capacity (as measured by the murder rate and the share of shadow economy), high patriotism and trust in the government institutions. In short, the East Asian model is based on solidarity and priority of collective interests more than on guarantees of individual rights and competition.