第二次世界大战以来,整个世界都出乎意料地和史无前例地出现了高速经济增长,现在,这已是公认的事实了。在十八世纪产业革命以前,国民收入的增长微乎其微,即使在从十九世纪直至第二次世界大战期间,超过2％的人均国民收入年增长率也极为罕见,而且极少能持续太久。在五十年代和六十年代,北美、西欧和其它高收入国家的生活水平提高得很快,而且有些国家的生产率和收入水平已赶上(有的甚至超过)美国。在十九世纪末就已开始实行工业化(正如俄国和一些中、东欧国家那样)的日本,是这个“追赶”过程中最后和最引人注目的一名参加者。许多原来属于殖民地和新殖民地的 Since the Second World War, the entire world has surprisingly and unprecedentedly enjoyed rapid economic growth. This is now a generally accepted fact. Before the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century, the growth of national income had been minimal, and it was rare that even over 2 per cent of the annual growth rate of national income per capita, even from the nineteenth century until the Second World War, would rarely last too long. In the fifties and sixties, living standards in North America, Western Europe and other high-income countries increased rapidly, and in some countries the productivity and income levels have caught up (even more than) the United States. Japan, which began industrialization at the end of the nineteenth century (as Russia and some Central and Eastern European countries) was the last and most prominent participant in this “chase”. Many originally belonged to colonies and neo-colonies