This paper examines the changing relationship between trade policy, production networks, and economic growth in Asia. It traces East Asia’s rise to the coveted “Factory Asia” league with rapid growth over several decades through trade policy anchored on outward-oriented industrialization...

European economic integration fascinates and inspires for the way it brought peace to a continent torn by violent and long-standing rivalries. The lessons from Europe, however, cannot be applied directly as the degree of the European Union’s supranationality is unthinkable elsewhere. This...

Cross-border production networks have been playing an increasingly important role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries’ trade in recent years, but micro-level studies are rare. This paper uses firm-level data from the two most active ASEAN countries in production...

This paper assesses the nexus between changes in governance structures—at national and cooperative international levels—and evolutionary processes of economic integration in light of regional policy targets in Asia. The analysis highlights the importance of improved governance as an...

When the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) formally adopted the principle of “open regionalism” (OR) in its trade liberalization in 1991, many were optimistic that this approach suggested the bloc as a stepping stone toward global free trade. This optimistic view was reinforced by the...

This paper proposes a decomposition of the likely effects of a “deep” regional integration arrangement for a small country. It is based on a steady-state general equilibrium model which allows to capture the long-term effects of a variety of factors, including the reduction of non-tariff...

Adherents to the “natural trading partner” hypothesis argue that forming a PTA is more likely to raise welfare if member countries already trade disproportionately with each other. Opponents of the hypothesis claim that the opposite is true: welfare is likely to be higher if member countries...

The East African Community (EAC) has fast-tracked its plans to create a single currency for the five countries making up the region, and hopes to conclude negotiations on a monetary union protocol by the end of 2012. While the benefits of lower transactions costs from a common currency may be...

Political motives, geography, and the uneven distribution of gains trumped the traditional efficiency gains across Africa.s Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The small, sparsely populated, fragmented, and often isolated economies across Africa make a

The article considers specific features of national models of economic development of European countries and marks out exogenous and endogenous factors of their transformation. It analyses in detail exogenous factors of transformation, which include processes of globalisation, namely such forms...