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This paper presents five major paradoxes and anomalies that characterise recent economic phenomena in the world, viz. (i) the paradox of growth and stability, (ii) the immiserizing effects of structural adjustment, (iii) the paradox of growing unemployment in a framework of full employment goals, (iv) the growth of market imperfections while pursuing a strategy of creating perfectly competitive markets, and (v) the paradox of the World Trade Organization trading system. The paper argues that despite the fact that anomalies and paradoxes have in the past been fertile ground for research the five paradoxes discussed here have not so far received the attention of analysts and of policy makers that they deserve.

The Asia-Pacific Development Journal (APDJ) is published twice a year by the Macroeconomic Policy and Development Division of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

The primary objective of the APDJ is to provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge, experience, ideas, information and data on all aspects of economic and social development issues and concerns facing the region and to stimulate policy debate and assist in the formulation of policy.

The development experience in the Asian and Pacific region has stood out as an extraordinary example of what can be achieved when policymakers, experts, scholars and people at large harness their creativity, knowledge and foresight. The Asia-Pacific Development Journal has been a proud partner in this process, providing a scholarly means for bringing together research work by eminent social scientists and development practitioners from the region and beyond for use by a variety of stakeholders. Over the years, the Journal has emerged as a key United Nations publication in telling the Asian and Pacific development story in a concise, coherent and impartial manner to stimulate policy debate and assist in the formulation of policy in the region.

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