Poverty and global recession in Southeast Asia: [papers originally presented at a Conference on Poverty, Food and Global Recession in Southeast Asia on 25-26 March 2009 and a Public Seminar on 27 March 2009, conducted by ISEAS in Singapore

Financial crises after financial crises have occurred, but for many countries the last one, the 2008-09 global recession, was the deepest since the 1930s great depression. This book started with an objective to understand the impact of high inflation on poverty and food security in Southeast Asia. However, the global economy moved quickly into recession in 2008. Global recession has also come to Southeast Asia. Anticipating that the impact of global recession would be more severe than that of high inflation, we refocused the title of the book to Poverty and Global Recession in Southeast Asia. This book attempts to contribute a better understanding of poverty and food security in Southeast Asia during the recent global recession, considering both recent developments and the previous major crisis of 1997-98

Poverty and global recession in Southeast Asia -- Contents -- Tables -- Figures -- Message -- Foreword -- Preface -- Contributors -- I. Introduction -- 1. Poverty and food security in uncertain Southeast Asia -- 2. Impact of world recession on rural poverty and food security in Southeast Asia: lessons from the 1997-98 Asian crisis -- 3. Global economic crisis and social security in Southeast Asia -- II. Who are the poor? -- 4. Education and employment of the poor in Laos -- 5. Regional disparities, income inequality, and poverty: a cumulative causation from Malaysia's experiences -- 6. The mobility game in Singapore: poverty, welfare, opportunity, and success in a capitalist economy -- 7. Poverty in democratizing Indonesia -- III. Economics and politics of food -- 8. The political economy of rice and fuel pricing in Indonesia -- 9. The price of rice and politics of poverty in the Philippines -- 10. The impact of high food prices and the global economic downturn on food security in Cambodia -- 11. Do the world energy price shocks explain Thailand's rice price turmoil? -- IV. Impact of global recession and coping mechanisms -- 12. Impact of the 1997-98 financial crisis on employment, migration, and poverty: lessons learnt from Thailand -- 13. Impact of global recession on wage inequality in Singapore -- 14. The urban poor during the global financial crisis and economic downturn in Vietnam -- 15. High cost of living and social safety nets for low income groups in urban Sarawak, Malaysia -- Index.

Financial crises after financial crises have occurred, but for many countries the last one, the 2008-09 global recession, was the deepest since the 1930s great depression. This book started with an objective to understand the impact of high inflation on poverty and food security in Southeast Asia. However, the global economy moved quickly into recession in 2008. Global recession has also come to Southeast Asia. Anticipating that the impact of global recession would be more severe than that of high inflation, we refocused the title of the book to Poverty and Global Recession in Southeast Asia