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This paper investigates the effects of trade regionalism in East Asia from 1995 to 2018, by applying a series of gravity models. An initial, basic gravity model is repeatedly augmented to account for a range of economic, geographical, cultural, and above all institutional factors representing free trade agreements in effect. Unlike previous studies, this investigation distinguishes between the bilateral and multilateral measures of regional trading arrangements. Two interesting findings are reported. First, the results confirm the impact of trade regionalism on the export flows between the economies of East Asia in the period under study. Second, the effects of multilateral trading agreements vary greatly depending on the agreement and on the particular country's range of influence, in particular cases showing no sufficient economic benefits. Overall, the results point to the complementarity of bilateral and multilateral trading arrangements in the region and to the emergence of a certain distinctive model of cooperation and integration in East Asia – which has been underpinned during the COVID-19 pandemic by the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and which will be further verified in the post-COVID character of global trade and regional trading arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glazed tiles were prestigious building materials reserved for embellishing the roofs of royal architectures of ancient states in East Asia. This paper, by studying glazed tiles from the palace precincts of Shangjingcheng, Xigucheng, and Baliancheng, three capital cities of the Bohai state (698–926 ad), aims to expose the vibrant technological and economic interactions among ancient states of East Asia untold in historical chronicles. Although it is well recorded that Bohai maintained intimate political, cultural, and commercial engagements with the Tang empire and the Yamato state, it is obscure what kinds of technology and commodities were involved in these activities. It appears that the bodies of these tiles were produced of local iron‐rich clays, and the glazes were made of compounds of the same clays and lead materials. The glazing technique may have been transmitted from the Tang empire yet modified in response to local circumstances. Lead materials were acquired from various sources, partly from the one for the Huangye sancai wares in the Tang empire, and partly from the one for Nara sancai wares of the Yamato state in Japan. Archaeology is therefore capable of enriching our knowledge of the human past, even in the historical period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force in 2022 as the world's largest free trade agreement. RCEP was concluded, signed and brought into force in the face of major international uncertainty and is a significant boost to the global trading system. RCEP brings Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand into the same agreement with the ten member ASEAN group at its centre. It keeps markets open and updates trade and investment rules in East Asia, a major centre of global economic activity, at a time of rising protectionism when the WTO itself is under threat. The agreement builds on ASEAN's free trade agreements and strengthens ASEAN centrality. One of the pillars of RCEP is an economic cooperation agenda which has its antecedents in ASEAN's approach to bringing along its least developed members and builds on the experience of capacity building in APEC and technical cooperation under the ASEAN Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. There is an opportunity to create a framework that facilitates deeper economic cooperation that involves experience-sharing, extending RCEP's rules and membership at the same time as strengthening political cooperation. The paper suggests some areas that might be best suited to cooperation -- that is confidence and trust building instead of or before negotiation -- and discusses how non-members may be engaged and the membership expanded. Options such as multilateralising provisions and becoming a platform for policy convergence and coordinating unilateral reforms are canvassed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze Russia's efforts, both domestically and internationally, to combat illicit crab harvesting and safeguard its marine resources. A comparison of total crab imports and allowable catch in Russian waters from 1990 to 2022 indicates a peak in shadow activities during the mid-2000s, with a cessation of large-scale illegal fishing observed since 2013. A narrative analysis of institutional shifts reveals that the bolstering of internal oversight, heightened accountability for harvesters, and enhanced global cooperation have been pivotal in fostering these positive dynamics. Concerning trends, however, emerged towards the beginning of the current decade, indicating potential instability within the legal framework of the crab industry. Persistent statistical discrepancies in trade with South Korea, diminishing institutional capacities within Russia to combat shadow activities, and heightened media scrutiny of illicit crab harvesting underscore the need for sustained vigilance in addressing both internal and external dimensions of this multifaceted problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our study, we introduce indicators that quantify the influence of each country in complex trade scenarios involving the exchange of raw materials, intermediate goods, and final products across multiple countries. We systematically employ an agent-based model to simulate the propagation of failures from one node to the entire network. This approach allows for the assessment of the impact of each country and the identification of patterns of interaction in the multi-step trade network. Unlike conventional analyses of trade networks, which depict straightforward single-step import/export transactions, our approach captures the intricate realities of processes like raw material procurement, production, and sales in numerous countries from a macroscopic perspective. The findings of our analysis of trade data spanning from 1990 to 2022 reveal several key insights. Firstly, sensitivity to changes in trade volume leading to global failures within interconnected networks has intensified over time. The potential of failure propagation across countries has increased over time, as has the interconnectedness of countries in the global trade landscape. Secondly, despite the increased sensitivity to changes in global trade volume, many countries have become less vulnerable to the influence of others within their multi-step trade networks. This trend aligns with deglobalization, which is evidenced by events such as Brexit and the surge in protectionist measures; these changes indicate a shift in the balance of influence within global trade networks. Thirdly, the results of our analysis of the relationship between load changes and global failures from a regional perspective reveal an intriguing phenomenon: despite limited direct trade connectivity, the interaction between the Latin American and Sub-Saharan African regions is considerable. This suggests the existence of hidden connections between intermediary countries, such that one region's actions can alter the load sensitivity of another, impacting them in unforeseen ways. Furthermore, intra-regional interactions are diminishing in East Asia, while Europe is experiencing a gradual increase in interactions. These trends reflect evolving regional influence, the dynamics of geographic proximity, and the results of economic integration efforts. Additionally, even though the observed period was not long enough to confirm a long-term trend, the previous trend direction was affirmed to persist despite a temporary decrease in trading and reduced sensitivity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study highlights the complexity of global trade dynamics and the need to consider multi-step trade networks and their potential cascading effects when analyzing trade patterns and vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of exchange rate changes on trade flows among East Asian countries spanning 1990-2021, using pooled mean group estimator, within the framework of panel data analysis. Findings indicate that world income, trade openness, and the real effective exchange rate strongly affect trade balance, and that the real depreciation of exchange rate exerts strong positive benefits on trade flows in the long run. The study also infers that trade openness and real effective exchange rate had strong influence on exports and imports for Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea in the short run. However, the depreciation of their currencies discouraged imports in the long run. More so, world income strongly affects the exports and imports of Hong Kong and Japan, while trade openness is advantageous for all the countries. The study recommends the continuation of the prevailing tradegrowth pattern, and the existing bilateral pegged exchange rate policy with their trading partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protectionist measures often have target countries, and public support for such measures depends on who the targets are. We identify such target effects on protectionist sentiments and examine the effects of information in tempering protectionist sentiments in East Asia. Using an original survey experiment in China, Japan, and South Korea, we test how providing information about the costs of protectionism changes public attitudes toward targeted protectionist measures. We found that providing a target country identity increased public support for protectionism by 8.6%. Providing cost information, on the other hand, reduces support for protectionism by 10%. We also found that information and target effects persist in the presence of the other: Receiving cost information reduces support for both general and targeted protectionism but does not necessarily mute the target effect. Similarly, when reputation and retaliation costs are associated with protectionism, knowing a target country identity still increases public support for protectionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the ]9903, East Asia-including Northeast and Southeast Asia-has led the world in adopting a task-by-task international division of labour or international production networks (IPNs), the core of which consists of niachinery industries. In this regard, how far has India integrated with East Asia? Using international trade data for comparison from multiple perspectives, this article gives an overview of the current position of India with respect to machinery IPNs and information and communication technology (ICT) services. The article shows that India has not yet participated in machinery IPNs in the East Asian region. We argue that ICT services are a source of strength for the Indian economy, and its competitiveness could be utilized effectively by combining new technologies with traditional industries such as manufacturing. India still has huge untapped opportunities for utilizing the mechanics of a new international division of labour to accelerate economic growth, innovation and poverty alleviation. And economic integration with East Asia could work as a trigger to redirect India's industrialization strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate how trade patterns – institutionally intensive exports (IIX) – affect institutional quality in East Asia compared to the rest of the world, and whether the effect changed due to the Asian financial crisis. To examine this, we use panel data of 117 countries for the period 1988–2007. Our fixed effect model estimation reveals that the effect of IIX on institutional quality is negative and significant for East Asia, while the effect is insignificant for the rest of the world. The negative effect in East Asia is more pronounced for the five East Asian countries that were strongly affected by the crisis – South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand – than for other East Asian countries. Furthermore, our results reveal that the negative effect for East Asia does not change significantly after the crisis, both in the short and long term, and that improvement in institutional quality after the crisis is not different from that of the rest of the world. This suggests that the crisis had no significant impact on East Asia's institutional quality or on the effects of IIX on institutional quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the causal relationship between the Internet and economic factors in Asian economies between 1997 and 2017. The economic factors consist of gross domestic product (GDP), foreign direct investment (FDI), imports, and exports. A comparative analysis of East, South, and Western Asia was conducted using a panel vector autoregressive model. The findings show bidirectional causality between FDI and Internet use in South Asia, unidirectional causality from Internet use to FDI in East Asia, and unidirectional causality from FDI to Internet use in Western Asia. Moreover, the findings indicate unidirectional causality from exports to Internet use in East Asia and unidirectional causality from Internet use to exports in South Asia, but no impact in Western Asia. Finally, the results show unidirectional causality from Internet use to GDP in Western Asia. As these results suggest that Internet use has boosted economic performance in Asia, policy makers in the region should improve Internet use with a focus on economic growth, improving transaction efficiency, and facilitating foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a hitherto neglected aspect of the expansion of international trade in nineteenth-century East Asia—that of how ordinary people understood changing trade patterns. Rather than the political debates and imperial competition that have been the focus of existing research, I use the diary of Sim Wŏn'gwŏn (1850–1933), a farmer from Ulsan, southeastern Korea, to assess how knowledge shaped Sim's perception of, and response to, the international grain trade. Sim used his diary to develop an economic world view based on his observation of cyclical, seasonal changes in the weather, harvests, and prices. While this enabled Sim to anticipate some fluctuations, the international rice trade posed a challenge as local market prices began to reflect events beyond Sim's sphere of information. I argue that uneven access to knowledge influenced Sim's participation in international trade, which in turn cannot be understood without reference to Sim's existing understanding of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the "Belt and Road" Initiative, air transport has become the second largest mode of transport after ocean shipping and has contributed more and more to international trade between the countries. To explore the hierarchical characteristics of the aviation network of the "Belt and Road," analyze the relationship between levels, and identify the core layer of the network, k-core analysis based on the "degree" value was designed and performed; the data of airports and air routes were collected to construct the "Belt and Road" aviation network model; then, k-core decomposition was conducted to reduce the size of nodes layer by layer from the outside to the inside, and a network structure model with 19 levels was obtained; the relationship between the coreness and centrality of nodes in the network was investigated, and the changes in the attribute of networks at different levels and the connection between networks were explored; according to the structural characteristics of the network, the "Belt and Road" aviation network was divided into three categories: the core layer, the middle layer, and the detail layer. The results showed that the highest-level network obtained by k-core decomposition was used as the core layer of the "Belt and Road" aviation network, including 53 airports in 37 countries, all of which have high degree centrality and eigenvector centrality; the core layer network exhibits strong "small world" characteristics; there is little difference between the degree values of nodes, and the network has high stability. The status of China's airports in the core layer network is not prominent; the four regional sectors such as East Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East are closely connected regarding air transport. Europe is relatively weakly connected with three sectors: East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia; geographical factors are still the dominant factors determining the status of hub airports along the "Belt and Road." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, signed in November 2020, comes shortly after the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) entered into force and the US-China Trade War escalated. We use a computable general equilibrium model to assess the long-term effects of these three developments on income, trade, economic structure, factor returns and employment across the world, and especially in Asia-Pacific countries. The results suggest that RCEP could generate income gains that will be almost twice as large as those of the CPTPP, and that the two agreements together will largely offset the substantial negative effects of the US-China Trade War for the world as a whole. All three policy developments, but especially RCEP, will deepen East Asian production networks and will raise productivity and increase wages and employment in much of East Asia. At the sectoral level, regional trade in non-durable and durable manufactures will experience the most growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]