Costs And Benefits Of Economic Integration In Asia

Costs and Benefits of Economic Integration in Asia brings together authoritative essays that identify and examine various initiatives to promote economic integration in Asia.

This book aims to trigger a wider examination of Asian economic integration. It looks at the institutional progression of regional economic integrations in countries in Asia, including Japan, Korea and China; it also looks at India's participation in the Asian market, and how it will affect other East Asian countries.

Regional economic integration has become a key force in international commercial policy in the 2000s. Europe has traditionally embraced regionalism; the United States became actively involved in preferential trading arrangements only in the 1980s. While Asia has been late in accepting formal regional economic integration accords, all Asian countries are now in the process of creating various free-trade areas and other forms of economic integration programs, and some are already in place. This volume analyzes the regionalism trend from an Asian perspective. It considers the lessons from, and the economic implications of, various economic integration programs in the OECD (mostly the EU but also NAFTA), as well as the proposals for closer economic integration in the region itself. Chapters deal with both real and financial integration issues. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: East Asian Economic Regionalism: Progress and Challenges (1,660 KB). Contents: Introduction (M G Plummer & E Jones); East Asian Economic Regionalism: Progress and Challenges (M Kawai); Sequencing Regional Integration in Asia (R Pomfret); ASEAN+3: Is an Economic Community in Their Future? (J Angresano); Stock Market Performance in ASEAN: Is Institutional Integration Warranted? (R W Click & M G Plummer); The Institution of a Single Currency Area: Lessons for Asia from the European Monetary Union (S Rossi); Deep Integration and Its Impacts on Non-Members: EU Enlargement and East Asia (H Lee & D van der Mensbrugghe); Small Change: A Critical Examination of the Economic Relationship Between South Asia and the European Union (J W Moses and Maggi Brigham); The Effects of North-South Regional Trade Policies: A Comparison of Mediterranean Countries with ASEAN (N P(r)ridy); Reconciling the Tensions Between Regional Integration and Cohesion (M Farrell); Lessons for Asia? Legitimacy and Quasi-Democratic Mechanisms in European and American Market Integration (C Parsons & J D Richardson). Readership: Academics, policymakers, professionals and students interested in applied international economics and Asian economic integration.

This book claims that de jure economic integration is in progress in East Asia, after the advancement of de facto integration. The book contains new international trade theory, spatial economics, data-work empirical studies, and field studies on various scenarios of de jure economic integration.

Increasing numbers of free trade and economic partnership agreements have been concluded among many countries in East Asia, and economic integration has progressed rapidly on both a de facto and de jure basis. However, as the authors of this book argue, integration may intensify regional inequalities in East Asia and so this process has attracted much attention of late. Will it actually succeed in achieving greater economic growth or will it in fact cause growing regional disparity? This book presents a clear picture of East Asian integration, focusing on various aspects including: the structure of intra-regional trade industrial location patterns especially of multinational enterprises the formation of industrial agglomeration the development of political and institutional frameworks for integration. Economic Integration in East Asia addresses these issues from the perspectives of both spatial and neoclassical economics. As the book highlights, if the regional disparities continue to grow, this may constitute a fatal obstacle to deepening integration and the growth potential of East Asia. With its focus firmly on recommendations for the future, this book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of development, Asian studies and economic geography as well as development specialists in government and international organizations involved in East Asian integration.

This comprehensive Handbook provides an in-depth analysis of the nature of East Asian economic integration alongside thoughtful insights into contemporary issues, such as agricultural development, structural transformation and East Asian trade, alongside skills and human capital development policies of ASEAN. Contributors also provide detailed explanations on trade, poverty and Aid for Trade, institutional reforms, regulatory reform and measuring integration.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) aims to achieve greater integration between the ASEAN region and its six free trade agreement (FTA) partners (India, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Korea). The RCEP is the only agreement to include three economies which are among the seven biggest economies of the world—China, Japan and India. The book opens with an introduction to the current status of economic integration and factors that would affect it and looks at key issues like non-tariff barriers, evolving investment regulations in China (in the context of FTAs), connectivity initiatives to integrate the region, rules of origin in the context of value chain integration in selected sectors as well as region-specific aspects of South Asia and South East Asia which would shape the regional economic architecture going forward. With an attempt to cover key imperatives, the book concludes by noting primary impediments to easier trade and investment flows in the region, highlighting possible policy recommendations to improve economic integration.

Economic Integration in South Asia: Issues and Pathways is one of the volumes of the series titled, Imagine a New South Asia, presented by ActionAid International Asia. This volume envisions a new South Asia, free from human deprivation and poverty, where countries will become successful, proud and inclusive societies. This book demonstrates how South Asian countries can learn from the best practices in the region as well as from their failures, and also by trying to emulate the successful strategies of introducing egalitarian education and health systems of East Asia, China and Southeast Asian countries. Rich in analysis and research, this volume seeks an alternative people-centred perspective, and takes into account all those voices that have so long been unheard in policy-making processes through reviews of case studies. Not only will the findings of this volume be useful in conducting campaigns for appropriate policy and mindset changes, but these will also, eventually, make the emergence of a highly integrated South Asia truly possible.