Context Specificity of Economic Research: The Example of Corruption Research in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Area studies have focused their epistemological interest on one particular geographical area, however defined, and have often approached their objects of interest from various disciplinary or even interdisciplinary angles. Economics has contributed to area studies for a long time by providing area-specific analyses that combined sound economic reasoning with in-depth knowledge of the region. Area studies find their common ground in the area they study, not primarily in the issues studied within these areas or in the methodological approach they take. As a consequence, there is no Southeast Asia-specific economic methodology—the analytical tools in economics, whether theoretical or empirical, are not restricted to a particular geographic (or cultural, political, economic, social) area; they are applicable to the object of study regardless where it is placed.

This chapter is a strongly abbreviated and refocused version of Kis-Katos and Schulze (2013) “Corruption in Southeast Asia—A survey of recent research.” Asian Pacific Economic Literature 27 (1): 79–109. It was written while the second author was visiting the Arndt-Cordon Department of Economics (ACDE), Australian National University. Günther Schulze is very grateful to ACDE for their outstanding hospitality. This research has been supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant number 01UC0906. Helpful comments by Antonio Farfán, Hal Hill, Mikko Huotari, Johann Graf Lambsdorff, Emma Masterson, Judith Müller, Ross McLeod and Bambang Sjahrir are gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies.