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  • © 2019

The Creation of the East Timorese Economy

Volume 2: Birth of a Nation

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Interweaves political and economic analysis and the interaction between political and economic factors
  • Serves as a case study of the problems facing resource-rich underdeveloped economies
  • Written in such a way as to allow for a wider readership

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History (PEHS)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. A Poor Young Nation

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 1-33
  3. From Independence to Turmoil

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 35-75
  4. Political, Economic, and Social Developments 2007–18

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 77-135
  5. Population Growth and Job Creation: The Search for a Modern Sector

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 137-198
  6. The Agricultural Sector

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 199-263
  7. Oil and the Resource Curse

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 265-313
  8. Conclusions and a Look to the Future

    • Mats Lundahl, Fredrik Sjöholm
    Pages 315-332
  9. Back Matter

    Pages 333-400

About this book

Very little has been written on the economy of East Timor since the country’s independence in 2002, and no comprehensive account exists of the economic history of the country. The former cannot be properly understood without a knowledge of the historical process that created the present-day situation. This research monograph is the first book to combine a historical analysis of the creation and development of the economy of East Timor from the earliest times to the present, and an analysis of the main contemporary problems facing the East Timorese economy. 


Volume II offers a detailed analysis of the economy of East Timor, of politics, fiscal policy and social progress. It pays particular attention to structural problems: employment generation and the lack of a modern sector, the modernization of agriculture and the management of the oil deposits in the Timor Sea. The first volume, available separately, considers East Timor from a chronological perspective, as a Portuguese colony, and a country occupied by Indonesia up to national independence in 2002. 


This book will appeal to economists, political scientists and social scientists in general as well as practitioners, since it focuses on down-to-earth problems that need to be solved for the economy to develop. The book can also be read by students both at the undergraduate and graduate levels and could be used for case studies in development.  


Authors and Affiliations

  • Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden

    Mats Lundahl

  • Department of Economics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Fredrik Sjöholm

About the authors

Mats Lundahl is Professor emeritus of Development Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, where he held his chair between 1987 and 2013. He has published widely in professional journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, Journal of Latin American Studies, Human Organization and Comparative Economic Studies. He is also the author or editor of sixty-six books. The most recent one published by Palgrave Macmillan is The Economics of the Frontier: Conquest and Settlement (with Ronald Findlay, 2017).

Fredrik Sjöholm is Professor of International Economics at Lund University and affiliated researcher at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics. Sjöholm has published a large number of articles on globalization in international journals including the American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Journal of International Economics, Journalof Development Economics, Economic Geography and European Economic Review. He has also edited two books on Southeast Asia, including Multinational Corporations in Indonesia and Thailand: Wages, Productivity and Exports (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006).



Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access