The term Four Asian Tigers or East Asian Tigers refers to the economies of Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea. They are also known as Asia's Four Little Dragons. These countries and territories were noted for maintaining high growth rates and rapid industrialization between the early 1960s and 1990s. In the early 21st century, with the original four Tigers at fully developed status, attention has increasingly shifted to other Asian economies which are experiencing rapid economic transformation at the present time. The four Tigers share a range of characteristics with other Asian economies, such as China and Japan, and pioneered what has come to be seen as a particularly "Asian" approach to economic development. Key differences include initial levels of education and physical access to world markets (in terms of transport infrastructure and access to coasts and navigable rivers, which are essential for cheap shipping).

The Four Asian Tigers pursued an export-driven model of economic development; these countries and territories focused on developing goods for export to highly-industrialized nations. Domestic consumption was discouraged through government policies such as high tariffs. The Four Asian Tigers singled out education as a means of improving productivity; these nations focused on improving the education system at all levels; heavy emphasis was placed on ensuring that all children attended elementary education and compulsory high school education. Money was also spent on improving the college and university system.

Since the Four Asian Tigers were relatively poor during the 1960s, these nations had an abundance of cheap labor. Coupled with educational reform, they were able to leverage this combination into a cheap, yet productive workforce. The Four Asian Tigers committed to egalitarianism in the form of land reform, to promote property rights and to ensure that agricultural workers would not become disgruntled. Also, policies of agricultural subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products were implemented as well.

The common characteristics of the Four Asian Tigers are:

• Focused on exports to richer industrialized nations
• Trade surplus with aforementioned countries
• Sustained rate of double-digit growth for decades
• Non-democratic and relatively authoritarian political systems during the early years
• High level of U.S. treasury bond holdings
• High savings rate
• The ranks of GDP (by nominal) List of countries by GDP (nominal) of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore are 12th, 21st, 36th, and 44th as in order.
• A high degree of what is referred to as economic freedom. Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea are 1st, 2nd, 26th, and 36th respectively on the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom published in 2007.