This paper provides a survey and a brief critical review of the literature on the widely used gravity models of trade, as a prelude to the justification of its use with the stochastic frontier methodology. The important papers on the theoretical foundations of the gravity model are reviewed and...

The Asia Pacific region, and especially East Asia, has experienced rapid economic integration without the hard politics of legally binding economic and political treaties, unlike Europe where integration has been institutionled. The soft politics and marketled integration in East Asia set...

Asia has emerged from the global financial crisis as an important stabilizing force and engine of global economic growth. The establishment of the G20 gives Asian economies the global forum that they have needed to both represent their interests in global governance and to deliver on...

A frontier of potential trade is constructed for trade flows from a world trade matrix of trade determinants to compare East Asian trade performance with that of South Asia. The results suggest that East Asian trade, led by ASEAN, is outperforming the world while South Asia lags behind...

Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) into China is an important aspect of one of the largest bilateral economic relationships in the world. The bilateral FDI is analysed using an FDI model combined with stochastic frontier analysis to explain the determinants of FDI, measure the performance...

Up to this point, Taiwan has had discriminatory trade and investment policies towards China, severely limiting economic engagement across the Straits. Not having free and open trade with China, one of the largest and most important parts of the East Asian economy, has resulted in Taiwan...

Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) into China is analysed using an FDI model that accounts for different modes of FDI as well as third country effects and adds to existing literature by incorporating a new measurement of political distance. Political closeness between countries is shown to...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement aims to be a high quality, 21st Century economic agreement that furthers economic integration in the Asia Pacific. In late 2011 it remains unclear whether the TPP will turn out to be a stepping stone or stumbling block towards regional or global...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement aims to be a high quality, 21st Century economic agreement that furthers economic integration in the Asia Pacific. In late 2011 it remains unclear whether the TPP will turn out to be a stepping stone or stumbling block towards regional or global...