scholarly journals Production Networks and Trade Patterns in East Asia: Regionalization or Globalization?

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prema-chandra Athukorala

This paper examines the implications of global production sharing for economic integration in East Asia with emphasis on the behavior of trade flows in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. Although trade in parts and components and final assembly within production networks (“network trade”) has generally grown faster than total world trade in manufacturing, the degree of dependence of East Asia on this new form of international specialization is proportionately larger than elsewhere in the world. Network trade has certainly strengthened economic interdependence among countries in the region with the People's Republic of China playing a pivotal role as the premier center of final assembly. However, contrary to popular belief, this has not lessened the dependence of the export dynamism of these countries on the global economy. This inference is basically consistent with the behavior of trade flows following the onset of the global financial crisis.

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Willem Thorbecke

There has been an explosion in the amount of parts and components traded within East Asian production networks. The People's Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as the final assembly point for the goods produced. These goods then flow primarily outside of the region. When the global financial crisis (GFC) occurred, the decrease in Western demand led to a synchronized decline in Asian exports. If more final goods could flow to Asian consumers, it would provide insurance against another slowdown in the rest of the world. This paper uses a gravity model to investigate if emerging Asia is importing fewer consumption goods than predicted. The results indicate that since the GFC, the PRC and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have imported more final goods than expected. Nevertheless, their consumption imports per capita are orders of magnitude lower than those of developed economies. This highlights the need for further growth in emerging Asia.


This book gathers leading economic historians, geographers, and social scientists to focus on the developments in key international financial centres following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and to consider the likely effects of Brexit on these centres. Eleven centres in eight countries are taken into consideration: New York, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich/Geneva, Hong Kong/Shanghai/Beijing, Tokyo, and Singapore. The book addresses three main issues. The first is the hierarchy of international financial centres, in particular whether Asian financial centres have taken advantage of the crisis in the West. The second is the medium-term effects of the crisis, with respect to the volume of business activity (including employment), and the level of regulation, with concerns regarding the risks of regulatory overkill. And the third is the rise of new technology, known as fintech, possibly the most important change in the decade following the crisis, with questions as to whether it will render financial centres, as we know them, unnecessary for the functioning of the global economy, and which cities are likely to emerge as hubs of new financial technology. Finally, the book discusses the likely effects of Brexit on international financial centres, in particular London, Paris, and Frankfurt. The book takes a decidedly interdisciplinary approach, with a general introduction providing a global overview from a historical perspective, and a general conclusion providing a global overview from a geographical perspective. Its focus on the implications for global financial centres is unique among books about the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis.


2008 ◽  
Vol 53 (03) ◽  
pp. 479-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
PREMA-CHANDRA ATHUKORALA

This paper examines the implications of international fragmentation of production for trade patterns of Singapore and the other ASEAN economies, with emphasis on their regional and global economic integration. The analysis reveals that the degree of dependence of these countries on this new global division of labor is much larger compared to the other countries of East Asia, Europe and North America. China has emerged as an important trading partner for ASEAN within regional production networks. Network-related trade in parts and components has certainly strengthened economic interdependence among ASEAN countries and between ASEAN, China and the other major economies in East Asia, but this has not lessened the dependence of growth dynamism of these countries on the global economy. The operation of the regional cross-border production networks depends inexorably on trade in final goods with North America and the European Union.


Focaal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 (78) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marguerite van den Berg ◽  
Bruce O’Neill

Nearly a decade after the global financial crisis of 2008, this thematic section investigates one way in which marginalization and precarization appears: boredom. An increasingly competitive global economy has fundamentally changed the coordinates of work and class in ways that have led to a changing engagement with boredom. Long thought of as an affliction of prosperity, boredom has recently emerged as an ethnographically observed plight of the most economically vulnerable. Drawing on fieldwork from postsocialist Europe and postcolonial Africa, this thematic section explores the intersection of boredom and precarity in order to gain new insight into the workings of advanced capitalism. It experiments with ways of theorizing the changing relationship between status, production, consumption, and the experience of excess free time. These efforts are rooted in a desire to make sense of the precarious forms of living that proliferated in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and that continue to endure a decade later.


2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Patrick Farrell

While the current financial crisis is widely acknowledged to be global, surprisingly little attention has been paid to its effect on one of the largest players in the global economy. China has weathered the crisis extremely well, though its growth has slowed slightly. I will analyze this by looking at China’s purchases of debt, the Chinese holdings of debt in the United States and its growing holdings in Europe, and the policy decisions directing this. This shows an intriguing change in the policy decisions that led to China becoming such a large holder of American debt. China amassed its large holdings of debt from the United States by merit of the strong trade relationship between the two countries, as well as the stability of the U.S. dollar. However, China’s interest in buying up Italian debt and forming stronger bonds with other Eurozone and European countries seems to speak to a different motive. Rather than allowing its reserves of foreign capital to grow over time, as it did with its U.S. debt, China is making a more aggressive move in this case. Thanks to its relative stability during the crisis, I believe this shows us that China is seeking to both ensure the continued security of its economic growth and increase its economic influence, thus using the instability of the global financial crisis to kill two birds with one stone.


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