• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.129-168
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• 2016

The Asia-Pacific region is not typically seen as one geographic or socio-economic space. Yet, 58 regional economies occupying the space of 28 million square kilometers from Turkey in the West, Russian Federation in the North, French Polynesia in the East and New Zealand in the South belong to the Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP). This commission provides a forum for member states that "promotes regional cooperation and collective action, assisting countries in building and sustaining shared economic growth and social equity". In 2013, ESCAP's members adopted the Bangkok Declaration to enhance efforts towards deeper regional economic integration. Yet this document neither proposes a concrete modality or modalities of achieving deeper integration, nor provides a sense of distance of individual countries to a "perceived" integrated Asia-Pacific.This paper aims to comprehensively quantify recent integration efforts of economies in the Asia-Pacific region. We provide an "index of integration effort" based on twelve metrics that measure the relative distance of a given economy to the region as an economic entity. Generally, we find that while the region has trended towards becoming integrated in general, both the level of integration and integration effort are inconsistent among Asia-Pacific economies. We discuss potential applications and extensions of the index in developing our perspective of the region's economic and social dynamics.

• 한국항만경제학회지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.177-202
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• 2003

Balassian Approach of regional economic integration has been mainly aimed at improving conditions for regional trade since 1960s. After the financial crises of the late 1990s, however, the theoretical approach to regional integration will have to be a different one as regionalism have to offer enhanced protection against crises. The aim of this paper, above all, is to provide a theoretical framework for the emerging new monetary regionalism. Regions that wish to strengthen their co-operation in monetary and financial affairs today have the option of monetary regionalism without trade agreement. East Asian region will become an increasingly important domain within which to explore enhanced protection against financial crises. And as Korea seems to play a crucial role in building regional integration among ASEAN＋3(Korea, China and Japan) countries, alternative policy for Korean economy to be the North-east Asian Economic Base need to be schemed on the basis of Balassian as well as monetary regionalism.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제17권1호
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• pp.55-79
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• 2013

The objective of this article is to explore the economic relationship between China and the surrounding dynamic Asian economies. It delves into China's influence over the Asian economies and whether this relationship is a market-led or de facto symbiosis. The three principal channels of regional integration analyzed in this article are trade, FDI and vertically integrated production networks. They are essentially based on the activities of the private-sector in these economies. China methodically expanded and deepened its economic ties with the regional neighbors. At the present juncture, China's integration with the surrounding Asia is deep. Another issue that this article explores is the so-called China "threat" or "fear" in Asia. It implies that China is crowding out exports of the other Asian economies in the world market place. Also, as China has become the most attractive FDI destination among the developing countries, it is apprehended that China is receiving FDI at the expense of the Asian economies. These concerns were examined by several empirical studies, and the inference is that they are exaggerated. This article concludes that the private-sector business activities in China and other rapidly growing Asian economies were (and are) instrumental in bringing together the production structures and real economies. The result is both convergence and integration among the dynamic Asian economies. Over the years China and its Asian neighbors has developed a close and symbiotic economic relationship and a de facto regional integration.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.163-186
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• 2014

This paper argues that the formation of regional integration frameworks can be best understood as a dominant state's attempt to create a preferred regional framework in which it can exercise exclusive influence. In this context, it is important to observe not only which countries are included in a regional framework, but also which countries are excluded from it. For example, the distinct feature of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is its exclusion of China, and that of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is its exclusion of the United States (US). An exclusion of a particular country does not mean that the excluded country will perpetually remain outside the framework. In fact, TPP may someday include China, resulting from a policy of the US "engaging" or "socializing" China rather than "balancing" against it. However, the first step of such a policy is to establish a regional framework from which the target country of engagement is excluded.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.385-415
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• 2013

Inter-regional free trade agreements (FTAs) - notably between Asia and Latin America - are growing in numbers and complexity. There is an absence of an agreed methodology for empirical assessments on the content of FTAs and little research. This paper proposes a framework to assess liberalization in FTAs in goods and services and new trade policy issues relating to regulatory barriers. Next, it applies this framework to studying the 22 Asia-Latin America FTAs in existence. The findings suggest that Asia-Latin American FTAs have laid the foundations for inter-regional integration by liberalizing the trade in goods and services and reducing some regulatory barriers. Deepening FTAs and adopting structural reforms will enhance Asia-Latin American integration in the future.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.333-359
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• 2013

Two mega-regional negotiations are changing the landscape of Asia Pacific trade policy: an Asian track centered on ASEAN (the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership or RCEP), and a Trans-Pacific track centered on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) among 12 economies, including the United States, which Korea is expected to join. Modeling results suggest that both would generate substantial benefits for Korea and the global economy. From Korea's viewpoint, the agreements would establish new FTAs with China, Japan and smaller economies, improve the utilization of FTAs by permitting the regional cumulation of inputs, and help to upgrade some Korean FTAs to more rigorous standards. By participating in these agreements, Korea could also help to guide them toward inclusive, high-quality regional outcomes. As one of the region's most open and agile economies, Korea has a large stake in regional integration and would be well advised to pursue both tracks.

• 유통과학연구
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.33-38
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• 2016

Purpose - This study purposes to analyze the impact of regional economic integration and macroeconomic on Indonesian FDI inflows. Research design, data, and methodology - Data were collected from bilateral relation between Indonesia and 21 home countries whose dominant share FDI to Indonesia from 2005 to 2013. Analysis method was conducted by panel gravity modeI to find the impact of regional economic integration and macroeconomic on Indonesian FDI inflows. Results - The empirical results show that GDP of the home country and Indonesia have a positive impact on Indonesia FDI. Distance and home country real interest rate have a negative impact on Indonesia FDI. Economic integration of European Union (EU) and Indonesia's cooperation with Japan in ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) have created impact of investment creation on Indonesia FDI, unfortunately, economic integration of ASEAN has created impact of investment diversion on Indonesian FDI. Conclusions - In order to increase FDI inflow to Indonesia, Indonesia government should improve the physical and social infrastructures to drive the productivity and economic efficiency. It will increase the GDP and also attract more investors. Low interest rate policy should be considered.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제27권4호
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• pp.303-325
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• 2023

This paper examines how APEC has transformed itself into an international forum for the vision of regional integration. It aims to quantify the documentation produced by the international organization and provide quantifiable evidence that aligns with prior knowledge rather than relying solely on intuition. For this purpose, I use various text mining techniques to extract multi-dimensional features from the text of APEC Leaders' Declarations from 1993 to 2023. In terms of interest and expectations for APEC as a forum, it is found that members have experienced two major peaks and troughs over the last three decades. It is found that the change point coincides with the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and the tensions between the United States and China since 2017. To explore more various aspects of economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, this study also considers how consistently APEC has been an international forum for addressing issues, which members are active, and how members have clustered based on their views of APEC.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권8호
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• pp.661-670
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• 2020

This paper investigates the influence of the economic integration exemplified by the Eurasian Economic Union on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Kazakhstan corporate sector. Using data collected from 204 small-, medium-, and large-sized Kazakh companies, the researchers analyzed the collected data with percentile. Findings of this study show that small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially in the tertiary sector of the Kazakh economy, are not that much affected by regional integration, whereas large firms have been significantly impacted. The originality of the paper is threefold. First, the research explores the entrepreneurial ecosystems in its focus on geographic location or digital technologies that came across mainly from the ICT space. This is becoming pervasive across mechanical systems, communications, infrastructure, and the built-up environment. Second, the originality of the paper lies in focusing on the entrepreneurial ecosystems' influence on the business processes by clearly understanding the regional, national, and international trends in different markets. Third, the paper is first of its kind to contribute an updated perspective on the entrepreneurial ecosystem's influence on economic integration to the policymakers of Kazakhstan. Policymakers will gain expertise on how to manage network effects while planning investment projects, as well as transactions, modes, and fixed nodes, acquisition, and greenfield investments.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• 제20권1호
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• pp.37-65
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• 2016

This research intends to investigate the progress made in East Asian bond market integration thus far. Price-based measures (AAD indicator and beta-convergence measure), quantity-based measures and econometric techniques (co-integration test, error correction model based Granger causality test) are employed in the analysis. Even though East Asian government bond markets have become more integrated since 2001, the differentials among the markets still remain significantly high. The bond market integration process seems slow. The convergence of bond markets sped up in 2003 and after the 2008 world financial crisis, implying the important role of government policies in integrating the regional bond markets. East Asian bond market integration may need more government-directed measures.