Economic Success of Chinese Merchants in Southeast Asia

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvi

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-2

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   2. Introduction

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 3-41

3. Empirical Studies of Chinese Mutual Aid (Pang 帮) and Economic Organizations in Singapore and Malaysia

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 43-43

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   2. Chinese Mutual Aid (PANG 帮) and Economic Organizations: General Background

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 45-66

   3. Marketing of Pontian Smallholders’ Rubber: Mutual Aid Arrangements Among Hokkien Dealers

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 67-101

4. The Ethnically Homogeneous Middleman Group and the Chinese Family Firm: Theoretical Approaches

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103

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   2. Coasean Foundations of a Unified Theory of Western and Chinese Contractual Practices and Economic Organizations

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 105-120

   3. A Theory of the Ethnically Homogeneous Middleman Group: An Institutional Alternative to Contract Law

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 121-136

   4. The Economics of Symbols, Clan Names, and Religion

      • Jack L. Carr, Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 137-161

   5. Personal versus Impersonal Trade: The Size of Trading Groups and Contract Law

      • Robert Cooter, Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 163-172

   6. Cognitive and Classificatory Foundations of Trust and Informal Institutions: A New and Expanded Theory of Ethnic Trading Networks

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 173-189

   7. The Role of Culture and Institutions in Promoting Middleman-Entrepreneurship in Less-Developed Economies

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 191-213

   8. The Co-evolution of Markets, Entrepreneurship, Laws, and Institutions in China’s Economy in Transition: A New Institutional Economics Perspective

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 215-247

   9. The Socio-Economic Functions of Kinship and Ethnic Ties in the Establishment and Growth of the Tan Kah Kee Family Firm in Singapore: A Transaction Costs Approach

      • Janet Tai Landa, Janet W. Salaff

      Pages 249-276

5. Economic Success of Chinese Merchants in Southeast Asia: Identity, Cooperation and Conflict

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 277-277

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   2. The Bioeconomics of Homogeneous Middleman Groups as Adaptive Units: Theory and Empirical Evidence Viewed from a Group Selection Framework

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 279-303

   3. Sows, Cows, and Coase: The Conflict of Cultures

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 305-331

   4. The Law and Bioeconomics of Identity, Ethnic Cooperation and Conflict in Plural Societies of Southeast Asia: A Theory of Chinese Merchant Success

      • Janet Tai Landa

      Pages 333-353

6. Back Matter

   Pages 355-371

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This book provides an original analysis of the economic success of Overseas Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia: The ethnically homogeneous group of Chinese middlemen is an informal, low-cost organization for the provision of club goods, e.g. contract enforcement, that are essential to merchants’ success. The author’s theory - and various extensions, with emphasis on kinship and other trust relationships - draws on economics and the other social sciences, and beyond to evolutionary biology. Empirical material from her fieldwork forms the basis for developing her unique, integrative and transdisciplinary theoretical framework, with important policy implications for understanding ethnic conflict in multiethnic societies where minority groups dominate merchant roles.

• Economics of identity
• Ethnically homogeneous middleman groups
• Institutions
• Inter-ethnic conflict
• Middleman diasporas
• The economics of trust

“This book, examining Bangladeshi labour migration to Singapore, contributes significantly to our understanding of the growing phenomenon of migration within Asia. … In this book, author Mizanur Rahman departs from the economic narrative that is dominant in the migration literature to explain the drivers of Bangladeshi migration and instead relies on social and cultural explanations in his analysis. The strength of this book is that it is based on extensive fieldwork by the author, conducted over close to two decades.” (Mathew Mathews, Journal of Contemporary Asia, April, 2018)​

• Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, Canada

  Janet Tai Landa

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