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This paper discusses major conceptual and empirical issues relevant to the exchange rate policies of East Asian ecnomies. Given the high degree of economic integration, intraregional exchange rate stability remains an important objective in East Asia. But the current uncoordinated practice of each economy managing exchange rates or maintainging a de facto dollar peg is not optimal for this purpose. The paper suggests that the region's governments take a coordinated action to shift the anchor of nominal exchange rate policy from the US dollar alone to a common basket of the US dollar, The Japanese yen, and the Euro, Which would be more reflective of the average structure of foreign trade and direct investment. At least initially, each economy is gree to choose its own formal exchange rate arrangement, be it a fixed exchange rate regime, a crawling peg or a managed float with wide margins, as long as it chooses the common basket as the reference. Such an arrangement is a pragmatic policy option for East Asia until greater political and institutional development create an environment condcive to a more robust framework of monetary and exchange rate policy coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia has experienced a rapid mortality decline in recent history. Its life expectancy at birth has increased by about 30 years in the last half century. This paper analyses data collected from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Mainland China, and Taiwan. It provides a systematic examination of long-term mortality trends, their age patterns and sex differentials. While mortality transitions in these populations took place in different times and under different political systems, levels of socio-economic development and living environment, changes in their age patterns of and sex differentials in mortality have shown certain regularities. Through decomposing changes in life expectancy by age and major causes of deaths, the paper also sheds light on the relationship between epidemiological transition, changing age patterns of mortality and improving life expectancy in these populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is rising as the fastest growing largest economy and thereby leading a market-driven economic integration in East Asia. At the same time, nationalism is also rising and constraining East Asian countries from forming a state-driven regional community. This paper examines the political economy of interdependence and nationalism that is taking place in East Asia. Simply put, its central theme is that the degree of interdependence, especially between China and other countries, is deepening, and as a result, is pulling East Asia toward regional integration, but due to the rising tide of nationalism, it is far short of forming an actual community. In order to build a community, therefore, such economic trend must be propelled by political leadership and will. In elaborating on this thesis, the paper analyzes the trade and production networks centered on China, the efforts to promote regional integration in ASEAN + 3, the nationalist rivalry between Japan and China in negotiating FTAs, and the difficulties in achieving Sino-Japanese reconciliation. Finally, the paper proposes a Northeast Asian Forum among Japan, South Korea and China while the US remains as a stabilizing force in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continued integration of international economies is an unfolding process that has accelerated in recent years and that is believed to have the potential to impact on the structure of the spatial economy. The process is of interest from the viewpoint of the transport scholar, because a relevant question is whether, and if so to what extent, the economic changes implied by integration can be guided and influenced by transport infrastructure and services. A number of studies have been conducted, in particular in a European setting, that examine the potential links between accessibility and economic activity. The objective of this paper is to analyse the relationship between intermodal network accessibility and the spatial distribution of economic activities in an east Asian setting. To this end, a multivariate framework based on the use of spatial statistical models is proposed that furthers the methodological possibilities of accessibility analysis. The empirical findings suggest that, once contextual factors are considered, the influence of accessibility as an explanatory factor of the spatial distribution of economic activity in the region becomes very much diminished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent developments in the relationship between East Asian countries and prospects for further cooperation are discussed, together with analysis of the driving forces for proliferation of free trade areas (FTAs) and preferential trade arrangements(PTAs), as well as the different types of arrangements. The evolution of the key features of such economic cooperation agreements are outlined and the challenges and issues facing more extensive East Asian economic integration are reviewed. The paper concludes with recommendations for bringing about a viable, effective East Asian economic community that will benefi t member countries and contribute positively to global trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the shift in East Asia from a focus on multilateral trade liberalization through the WTO to a pragmatic approach since 1999 favouring bilateral and regional FTAs while continuing to support the WTO system. It is argued that such FTAs are a second-best option compared to WTO agreements. However, while economists may seek the ideal solution, governments will focus on the politically attainable, especially as new multilateral agreements require lengthy negotiations beyond the life span of governments. As the WTO negotiating process has become bogged down, even once sceptical governments in East Asia are turning to FTAs. It is contended that such FTAs could form a lattice network within and across regions. In this context, the paper discusses the underlying security rationale for the conclusion of FTAs, highlighting the nexus between security interests and international economic policy in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes an empirical assessment of Dollarization versus regional currency union as options for the economies of East Asia, South America and Central America. We use summary indicators of bilateral integration to examine the determinants of real exchange rate volatility within each region and between each region and the United States. While Europe is characterized by a high degree of regional integration, there is evidence of increasing integration in East Asia and persistently low integration in the Americas, especially as compared to the levels of bilateral integration vis-à-vis the United States. Our estimates confirm the patterns of regional integration above and reveal substantial regional differences as to the determinants of real exchange rate volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that regional economic integration can be compatible with concern for the environment in rapidly industrializing parts of the developing world, but that this compatibility would be aided by reconceptualizing the collective decision-making process in regional economic communities in a manner that employs a plural subject concept of the decision-making agent. The focus of the paper is the environmental challenges faced by the East Asian members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The plural subject concept is applied to the problem of environmental 'super-externalities' faced by members of APEC. The argument of the paper distinguishes between two concepts of trust, one associated with non-cooperative game theory and instrumental rationality, and one associated with an alternative form of rationality, termed deontological rationality, developed in connection with the idea of the plural subject. Cooperation in connection with the former is highly fragile, but cooperation in connection with the latter offers promise on account of the role it creates for obligations upon APEC members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given its potentially global significance and the attention that there tends to be towards things that go wrong, it is hardly surprising that most of the literature dealing with economic events in East Asia during recent years has concentrated on the crisis period of 1997 and 1998. This work has sought to gain a better understanding of why such crises occur and how best they can be handled if and when they do. Less attention has been paid to the more recent post crisis period. To what extent and within what time frame did countries in the region recover from the crisis, and, if there has been a recovery, can it be sustained? Drawing on the available evidence, this paper attempts to answer these questions. By implication, however, it also has something to say about the vulnerability of the region to subsequent crises and briefly considers what needs to be done to reduce this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using stock daily data for Thailand and the four Asian Tigers, this paper provides clear evidence that currency depreciation affects adversely stock returns and/or increases market volatility over the period of the Asian crisis 1997–1999. The implication is that international investors and fund managers who plan to invest in the East Asian newly emerging stock markets have to evaluate the stability of the foreign exchange markets before taking action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Monetary Fund has been in the spotlight over recent years, particularly in the context of its involvement in the East Asian economies following the 1997-98 crisis. Various reports on aspects of the international financial system have made recommendations for reforming the IMF. Having provided a brief historical and empirical background, this paper identifies the underlying issues in the ongoing debate: does the world still need the IMF, should the Fund be an adjustment or lending institution, what should be its relationship with private capital markets, should it be a crisis averter, crisis lender or crisis manager, does it have a long term lending role in developing countries and is there too much overlap with the World Bank, do Fund programmes work and what is the future for conditionality, should the Fund's organisational structure be reformed, and how should the Fund be financed? The paper distinguishes between areas of consensus and dissent and briefly assesses the chances of reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent crises in East Asia and Latin America have raised questions about the conduct of macroeconomic policy in developing countries. But what is the scope for macroeconomic management in developing countries? Should international financial institutions that assist developing countries rely heavily on it? This paper investigates these issues. It concludes that, while the scope for tight macroeconomic control may be limited in some countries, appropriate structural reform could make the traditional macroeconomic policy tools more effective in the long run. This finding has important implications for reforming the International Monetary Fund. Although conducting macroeconomic policy is not a piece of cake, it should not prove to be an impossible mission if it is accompanied, or even preceded, by measures to strengthen the supply side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient East Asia is the second oldest "protobeilic area" and pristine state system of international relations within the global international system, after West Asia (ancient Near East). In a previous study Cioffi-Revilla and Lai (1995) reported the first findings on the origins and evolution of war and politics in ancient China (Legendary, Xia [Hsia], Shang, and Western Thou [Chou] periods), Ca. 2700 B.c. to 722 B.C. In this paper we make public an expanded data set (N = 104 cases, 12 variables; version 2.0), explaining our sources, measurements, and data quality control procedures. The new data set will permit investigators to test hypotheses about warfare distributions, ethnic and protracted conflicts, time series, periodicity, system dynamics, and structural relationships (e.g., war-polarity theories). This new long-range data set should also promote a new stage in comparative analyses of the universal and particular properties of warfare and international systems, both cross-polity and longitudinally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores permanent, unanticipated shocks in the yen-dollar exchange rate in a perfect-foresight, infinite-horizon, representative-agent model for an open, semismall economy that produces a single good, imports intermediate inputs and investment goods from Japan and competes with Japan in external markets. Therefore, the model captures some of the features of the developing countries of East Asia. External debt is constrained by a country-risk premium that depends on the level of external debt. The capital stock is maintained and incremented by an endogenous mixture of Japanese and home goods. An appreciation of the dollar against the yen is neutral for external indebtedness and the trade account in the long run, but raises the capital stock, consumption and hence welfare in the long run; the home currency depreciates against the dollar but appreciates against the yen. Whether a cycle of current account surpluses followed by current account deficits or vice versa is generated depends on the initial response of the shadow value of external debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the proclamation of a mobility turn in the 2000s, scholars have populated the field with invaluable insights on what it means to move, and what the politics of movement are. One particularly useful thread revolves around the issue of infrastructures, which have generally been taken to mean the manifest forms of moorings and fixities that help order and give shape to mobilities. Yet, while significant inroads have been made in delineating the morphologies of transport infrastructures, mobilities research has been relatively reticent about the organisational structures, orders and arrangements that give rise to another key mobile phenomenon of our time — international migration. In this editorial introduction, we lay down some groundwork on the productive and political nature of infrastructures that likewise affect and inform the way (im)mobilities are contingently created and parsed in migration. Looking through the prism of East and Southeast Asia and its migration infrastructures, we take advantage of the ‘new’ infrastructural configurations in an emerging empirical context to point to some directions by which mobilities researchers can more rigorously interrogate ‘migration’ as another socially meaningful and specific form of mobility that exceeds a mere displacement of people or change in national domicile. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education reform is increasingly based on emulating the features of ‘world-class’ systems that top international attainment surveys and, in England specifically, East Asia is referenced as the ‘inspiration’ for their education reforms. However, the extent to which the features identified by the UK Government accord with the situation within East Asia is problematic. This paper examines the relationship between the English representation and the ‘reality’ of East Asian education systems, using school autonomy as an illustrative example. We focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, which are cited extensively to legitimate policies providing greater autonomy for schools in England. We argue firstly that the English representation has been largely discursive and inaccurate; has failed to recognise the variations across the region; and has been selected to endorse the Government’s ideological preferences. Secondly, the scope, form and nature of school autonomy vary markedly, and are operationalised in each society in ways reflecting the prevailing sociopolitical priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While rejecting arguments that locate the blame for the East Asian economic crisis in simplistic notions of `crony capitalism', this paper supplements analyses which have focused on the role of international finance capital. It does so by suggesting that there were real internal causes of the crisis in the countries most affected and that these were intimately associated with asymmetrical state institutional capacities to mediate between the domestic and international economies. Noting that the symptoms of crisis in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong were quite different from those in Korea, the paper suggests that these differences were not coincidental. Rather they are traceable to these asymmetric state capacities. Inter alia, the paper explores the role of Overseas Chinese conglomerates and state actors in the development of structurally weak economies in the Southeast Asian countries, and asks whether the `fundamentals' of the real economies in question (including Korea) were indeed robust, as some commentators have argued. Analysing recent data on innovation and terms of trade, the paper answers in the negative. Throughout, the paper emphasizes the substantial institutional differences between the East Asian crisis countries so as to combat accounts be they orthodox or radical - which advance monadic explanations for the turmoil. In so doing it insists that part of the explanation of why the crisis emerged in Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, etc., must involve an appreciation of why it has not (or at least not yet) emerged in Taiwan and Singapore. The paper, however, is not merely an account of the differing internal causes of the crisis. Ultimately it is a discourse on the uneven presence and differing forms of `developmental states' in the region, and on their past, present and future possibilities for effective economic governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the conference titled "Biography in East Asia, 1400-1900" that was held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from June 27-29, 2013. Topics include the life story of Yue Fei, biographies of Korean loyalism, and the connection between biography and literature. The event featured speakers including Leo Shin, Kenneth Hammond, and Grace Fong.

This paper evaluates the findings from a study of the expatriate staffing practices in twenty Australian business enterprises which have a physical presence in the East Asian business region. Results of the study suggest the need for expatriate staffing practices that, (a) use multiple selection techniques and sources, (b) understand and communicate the expatriate role clearly, (c) provide systematic training for the role and its environment, (d) acknowledge different performance expectations, (e) are career focused for the individual and the organization, (f) ensure effective compensation and, finally, (g) enrich the role to ensure appropriate decision-making authority and organizational learning. Implications of the factor constructs identified would confirm the need for a stage-interdependent perspective to expatriate appointments: that is, recognizing that each stage of an expatriate appointment, i.e., prior to, during and following an appointment, is effectively linked to each of the respective stages. In addition, that the expatriate appointment is matched to a firm's international business strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of Confucianism, an influential cultural belief and ethical philosophy in East Asia, on business strategy. Employing a large-scale archival dataset of Chinese public firms covering 2007 to 2020, we provide evidence that Confucianism is positively associated with analytical-oriented strategies. Our empirical findings remain intact after accounting for alternative Confucianism measures, controlling formal institutions and religions, instrumental variable methods, and other approaches to addressing endogeneity and robustness issues. Cross-sectional analyses further reveal that the documented effect is more evident for non-state-owned firms, firms with executives lacking overseas experience, and those operating in higher economic policy uncertainty. Overall, our study sheds light on how traditional culture, an important dimension of informal institutions, shapes corporate strategic decisions in emerging markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, research on traumatic stress and treatment-seeking behavior has primarily focused on Western populations. Despite experiencing similar levels of symptomatology, mental health service utilization appears lower among East Asian populations. Stigma toward mental health services may be one barrier to treatment-seeking, especially among individuals who have experienced potentially traumatic events; however, previous research has been primarily conducted in the United States. Less is known about predictors of treatment-seeking attitudes among populations residing in East Asia, particularly college students. The present study examined the relationship between trauma, mental health services stigma, and treatment-seeking attitudes among undergraduate students in Southwestern China. Self-report measures of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology, mental health services stigma, and treatment-seeking attitudes were administered. We hypothesized that students with greater severity of traumatic symptoms would endorse more positive attitudes toward treatment-seeking if they reported lower levels of mental health services stigma. Mental health services stigma was a strong predictor of negative attitudes toward treatment-seeking, whereas neither trauma exposure nor traumatic symptomatology were associated with treatment-seeking attitudes. The significant association between mental health services stigma and treatment-seeking attitudes underscores the importance of destigmatizing mental health to encourage treatment-seeking among the Chinese college student population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A decade of mobilities research has responded to the key question of how a ‘world on the move’ can and should be studied, including in terms of futures thereby brought into view and possibly shaped into being. What happens, however, if we shift our focus from the ‘worldon the move’ to the ‘worldon the move’, with all the cosmopolitical diversity this highlights? This paper explores this question regarding the parallel research programme of methodological cosmopolitanism, inspired and instigated by the work of Ulrich Beck. We examine how mobilities research and methodological cosmopolitanism illuminate, support and contrast with each other as paradigms of social science for the twenty-first century. We argue for two major changes in this regard: moving from ‘methods’ as tools for objective knowledge-gathering to partial but directed and knowledge-enablingdialogical interventions; and from ‘data’ as given ‘facts’ to the construction of new, promisingboundary-crossing connections. These reorientations resonate strongly also with methodological directions from mobilities research, but in complementary and (productively) different ways. In particular, both relate to a shift of methodological imperatives, specifically regarding dynamic, interactive and power-attentive forms of social knowledge-making orphronesis, a situated practical wisdom. We illustrate these points in brief with insights from our own methodologically cosmopolitan research on key contemporary cosmopolitized issues, undertaken as part of Beck’s ‘cosmopolitan climate change’ (CosmoClimate) project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Maritime security in East Asia is essential to the peace and prosperity of the world. Today, serious problems in this domain have arisen in the region. Resolving these problems is a pressing issue that impacts not just the region, but also the preservation of the peace and prosperity of the entire globe. Despite this urgent need, cooperative frameworks for preventing problems from arising in the first place—as opposed to mere security regimes for deterring conflicts—have yet to be organized. To preserve a maritime security order in East Asia that is based on laws and rules, mechanisms based on mutual trust must be arranged for deterring and preventing conflict. Based on the foregoing, the Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS) has been engaged in research on problems of maritime security in East Asia. In December 2015, IIPS held the High-Level Conference on Maritime Security in East Asia and unveiled the “Yasuhiro Nakasone Proposal on Maritime Security in East Asia” (the “Nakasone Proposal”). This paper will discuss the “Nakasone Proposal” and the background to its formulation, as well as the institute's future endeavors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The following article has been withdrawn from publication in the Taylor & Francis journal. Challenge: Dr Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, "Why Did Trade Liberalization Work for East Asian but Fail in Latin America?". DOI: . Version of Record published online: 06 December 2019. The Editors and Publishers are withdrawing the above article from publication in Challenge as this paper was previously published in Volume 62, Issue 4 of the same journal. Date of original publication: 16 July 2019; . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is obvious that the security environment in East Asia is more unstable and unpredictable. In the South China Sea, tensions over disputed islands initiate a more severe Sino–American rivalry. In the East China Sea, China disputes the control over the Senkaku Islands, and is escalating military activities around those islands. North Korea continues provocative activities including launching of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons tests. This naturally leads to the idea that Japan needs to play a larger role to restore stability in the international order. This paper explores the challenges facing East Asian security in the face of the passage of Japan's new security bills in 2015 and how they impact the future of Japanese security policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For the last ten years, Japan and China have tried to work together toward a “mutually beneficial relationship” based on common strategic interests but have failed to accomplish this for a number of reasons. The two historical neighbors are separated by no more than a strip of water and have come a long way to be the third and the second largest economies in the world, respectively. Along with political economic aspects, relations between the two countries are of critical importance in regional and global security contexts. With that in mind, the following paper will: (1) overview trends in Sino–Japanese relations over the last ten years; (2) look at trends in China's military capabilities and activities and the implications; and (3) discuss key issues and courses of action for Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper studies the roles of co-chairs in international negotiations. This study attempts to fill the research gap by scrutinizing co-chairs' effectiveness, defined as an ability to shape agreement details in one's direction, to better understand chairs' and co-chairs' influence in negotiations. I argue that a co-chair's effectiveness is not a function of resource possession, but is rooted in its resource management, or ability to convert the existing resources into bargaining influence. To validate my argument, I analyze the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) negotiation rounds from 2005 to 2010, focusing on the members' financial contributions and vote shares. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates the stability of the steady-state growth process in East Asian region using a novel panel stationarity test, which allows us to control for (a) unobserved heterogeneity in form and date of potential structural breaks in a trend function, (b) the cross-sectional dependence among countries in the panel bootstrapping methods, and (c) the serially correlated errors. Evidence shows that a large majority of countries exhibit slowdowns in economic growth after their structural breaks and thus could not recover from negative shocks and return original balanced growth path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of the modern Olympics, East Asia is as active an area as Europe. Its involvement can be traced back to the beginning of the modern Olympic Games, as can the closely related Far Eastern Championship Games (FECG). Held in the Philippines in 1913, and following the model of the Olympic Games, the FECG was the first international sports competition to be held in East Asia and it is also the first regional international sports competition recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Due to its great significance in the development of modern sports in East Asia, it has been referred to as the ‘Oriental Olympics’ and the ‘Modern Asian Games’. This paper tries to understand the relationship between the FECG and the development of East Asian society. It points out that the FECG has played a critical role in the development of East Asian society and has exerted many positive influences that have been beneficial to social progress and development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Is democracy emerging as the universally preferred political system, as advocates of the global democratization thesis claim? This paper seeks to explore this question in the context of East Asia, a region known for democratic underdevelopment. To this end, we first provide a critical review of how previous survey-based studies were conducted to estimate the relative preference of democracy as a political system. We then introduce hybridization as a new conceptual tool for ascertaining the emerging patterns of political orientations among citizens of authoritarian and post-authoritarian societies. Finally, we analyze the latest, third wave of the Asian Barometer surveys conducted in 11 East Asian countries conducted in 2010 and 2011. On the basis of this analysis, we argue that it is premature to claim that democracy is emerging as the universally preferred system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the effects of off-balance sheet (OBS) activities and various types of risks on the cost and profit efficiencies of banks in seven East Asian countries between 2001 and 2008. Cost and profit efficiency scores are estimated using the data envelopment analysis approach. The results of this analysis are then used to identify the impact of OBS activities and risk exposures on cost and profit efficiencies using a Tobit regression. Bank insolvency risk (as measured byz-scores) is positively related to profit efficiency, while interest sensitivity, size, equity to total assets and OBS exposures all impact on cost efficiency. The analysis of the impact of input and output slacks illustrates that in around 1 in 5 cases banks’ cost efficiency can be improved by adjusting the former variables, whereas in only around 1 in 100 cases a similar outcome is possible for profit efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the wake of the recent ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA) launch in 2010, this paper argues for the greater scholarly contribution of international development studies in the discourse of comparative education in East Asia. The argument is based on three premises. The first acknowledges the growing relations of East Asian countries to neighbouring low income nations. The second premise is to realise an urgent need to fill the existing research gap in the field of comparative education. The last responds to today's dominant theme, 'globalisation', in the discourse of comparative education. The paper ends up in encouraging ongoing communication with researchers from different disciplines and societies, in order to seek mutual respect, share visions and find compatibility to contribute to the transformation of regional relations as well as increased well-being across the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an overview of the April 2003 issue of the 'Cambridge Review of International Affairs.' Collection of papers on the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998; Inclusion of political-cultural factors; Asian economic crisis as threshold event in modern international affairs; Return to high rates of economic growth.

There is much change afoot in the financial systems of East Asia. Historically, states in the region have actively sought to shape financial markets for developmental – and indeed other political – ends. Yet, their capacity to do so has been significantly transformed by the fragmentation and transformation of financial systems in East Asia as well as the onslaught of globalising forces more generally. The increasing complexity of the financial landscape poses new challenges for the types of financial policymaking traditionally associated with the notion of the 'developmental state'. These developments raise important questions for those interested in the relationship between finance, development and the state – not only in East Asia – but across the globe. How, to what extent, in what ways and with what purpose, do East Asian states continue to intervene in their financial markets? Can their interventions still meaningfully be characterised as 'developmental' in nature? If so, how effective are they? In seeking to address such questions, the contribution of this special section is threefold. First, theoretically, it advances debate on the relationship between finance and the state in East Asia, in particular against the background of new forms of financial (dis-)intermediation. Second, conceptually, it situates the changes it analyses vis-à-vis a renewed interest in questions of legitimacy and social purpose. Third, the collection provides new empirical insights drawing on original fieldwork in Northeast and Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical texts have much to offer young researchers in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Yet, many students feel that such resources are of no value to them. Consequently, academic library usage rates for historical East Asian texts are low, and continue to drop. In Hong Kong and Mainland China, however, there still remains a widespread appreciation of Chinese calligraphy. Through leveraging this interest, academic libraries in East Asia can motivate university students to engage with historical texts and discover what they have to offer. This paper will recount and reflect upon the Calligraphy Connections Project, an initiative aimed at getting students to engage with historical East Asian texts through the creation of calligraphy artworks, which were subsequently exhibited to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to examine how start-up innovation is emerging in the information society. The media is a window through which innovation is highlighted in which fields. We conducted a comparative study with North America to comparatively analyze how startup innovation in East Asia appeared. This study used a set of computer analysis methods including Dirichlet-multinomial regression Topic Model and Topic network analysis. News articles from 2000 to 2019 were collected from East Asia and North America and were analysed on the topic of start-ups. The results indicated that the discourse of start-ups from East Asia and North America in the 2000s and 2010s showed distinctly different trends. The East Asia media changed its focus from an innovation economy to an emerging industry: mobility & energy, while the North American media showed a change from revenue sources to the benefit of innovation. In the discourse of start-ups in East Asia, the government-centred innovative economy was emphasised in the 2000s, and expectations for emerging industries such as mobility and energy increased after the 2010s. Meanwhile, in the discourse of start-ups in North America, revenue sources were emphasised in the 2000s, and the proportion of beneficiaries of innovation increased after the 2010s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the 1901–1904 discussions about free trade in the Priamur region and the territories in Chinese Manchuria leased to the Russian Empire. The discussions are placed in the contexts of nationalising empire, Russian imperialism, and cosmopolitan society of the globalised free port of Vladivostok. The piece traces the place of ideas about free trade in the social and political imagination of contemporaries in the Priamur region to show how these images were challenged by imperial expansion in Manchuria. It also analyses the rhetorical strategies used by regional actors to re-negotiate the borders of economic and political expansion, as well as the internal and external comparisons they made. The article demonstrates how debates about free trade in the Russian Far East offer deeper insight into how ideas about free trade and free ports as institutions affected not only the economic but social and political transformations in the late imperial period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oxidation of sulfur dioxide (SO2) to sulfate in the atmosphere is an important concern in regional air quality, global climate change, and human health. While gas-phase and liquid-phase oxidation of SO2 are widely regarded as important sources of sulfate, the contribution of the heterogeneous oxidation process on particle surfaces is controversial. Recently, this heterogeneous chemistry has been considered to be an important mechanism that is missing in current models to explain sulfate concentrations observed in haze episodes in East Asia. Therefore, the heterogeneous oxidation of SO2 on particles under the conditions of complex air pollution needs to be reassessed. This review summarizes the fundamental understanding of the heterogeneous reactions of SO2 on solid particles such as mineral dust, black carbon, sea salts, organic aerosol, and so on. The factors affecting the mechanism and kinetics of the heterogeneous reactions of SO2, including coexisting components (O3, NO2, H2O2, NH3, and VOCs), reactive sites, surface properties, relative humidity, and illumination, are reviewed. Reactive oxygen species involved in the heterogeneous oxidation of SO2 on particles are discussed. To our knowledge, while previous reviews have appeared on the oxidation of SO2 in the aqueous-phase, this is the first review on the atmospheric heterogeneous reactions of SO2 on the surface of solid particles, which can be of help in understanding the sulfur cycle in the atmosphere and its environmental impacts. A number of recommendations for future research are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers can take advantage of the flexibility of accounting choices to act opportunistically through financial aggressiveness and/or tax aggressiveness. The higher the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness, the higher the risk arising from the levels of error or fraudulent reporting carried out by such firms (fraud risk). This study aims to examine the impacts of the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness on the cost of debt. We estimate these relationships with a two-stage estimator method using 7 200 firm-year samples from East Asia and Europe for the period 2014 to 2016. In the first stage, a binary logistics model is used to examine the factors that influence the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness. Then in the second stage, we use a regression model to examine the effect of the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness on the cost of debt. We find that the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness has a positive and significant effect on the cost of debt, meaning that the higher the complementary level of financial and tax aggressiveness, the higher the cost of debt faced by firms. Creditors perceive the practice of financial and tax aggressiveness as a significant firm risk, thus tending to increase the cost of the debt they provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precisely because public health crises are uncertain, complex and have multiple dimensions, deeper institutional state capacity is needed. This article develops an approach to thinking about state capacity by incorporating time as a key component of a refurbished idea of state capacity. This reorientation helps us understand the specific mechanisms, especially of learning – that were crucial for the success of East Asian cases in managing the COVID-19 epidemic. Previous exposure to a health crisis – a critical juncture – activates learning capacity via two distinct mechanisms, one a political route of that restores public trust and renews the social contract, and the second through a functional route leading to administrative capacity building necessitated by a complex and multiplex crisis that crosses a variety of boundaries. Learning that builds coordinating state capacity is therefore needed. This article applies these ideas to understanding the successful pathway cases of South Korea and Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study expands the prior corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies in East Asia by demonstrating that vertical individualism, which is a rarely studied dimension for consumers in East Asia, plays an important role in processing CSR ads. Furthermore, based on the generational cohort theory and gender theory in the cultural context, through an online survey design, this study's findings show that the effect of vertical individualism on consumers' purchase intention varied across generations in East Asia: Korea (study 1; n = 221; 51% female) and China (study 2; n = 201; 47% female). For consumers in China, regardless of gender, vertical individualism is a crucial factor in triggering a strong purchase intention toward CSR ads among older consumers. However, for consumers in Korea, gender effects were found that females (males) were not sensitive (were sensitive) to the effects of vertical individualism on product evaluations across generations. Theoretical and managerial implications are further discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the use of sports mega-events by nations in East Asia to leverage 'soft power'. The focus is on Japan and its 'soft power' strategies, building on existing work by adding a novel tripartite analysis to understand Japan's domestic, regional and international rationale for hosting sports mega-events. The empirical data for this study is drawn from government documents and bespoke in-depth interviews (N = 10) with experts involved in sport. This, alongside engagement with the extant literature in the field, allows a more nuanced understanding of Japan's rationale behind hosting the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the city's second hosting of an Olympics, the 2020(1) summer Games. Key findings include the use of sports mega-events to 'open up' Japan's society and bolster domestic politics, to maintain their regional status competing with China and South Korea and to improve the nation's global status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth participation in agricultural entrepreneurship (agripreneurship) is vital to the sustainable and inclusive modernisation of agrarian societies. We analysed relationships between demographic factors and motivational antecedents of intention to practise small and medium-scale agripreneurship using survey data collected from undergraduate students in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Gender significantly influenced attitudes, family occupational background influenced subjective norms, and place of origin influenced perceived behavioural control: three constructs hypothesised to drive intention according to the theory of planned behaviour. Although students with commercial agriculture/agribusiness family occupational backgrounds were found to have a greater intention to practise agripreneurship than students without, students with subsistence farming family occupational backgrounds were not. Commercialisation of agriculture in Laos therefore requires better engagement of youth from subsistence farming households, as this group has the most to contribute and is at the greatest risk of missing the benefits of modernisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the motivations behind the outward foreign direct investment (ofdi) decisions in the past decade of an East Asian government-linked corporation (glc), the largest company of its kind in the world in terms of sectoral specialisation. Thisglchas travelled far from its origins as an agent of European imperialism to its current controversial role spearheading postcolonial extra-territorialisation strategies. I argue that financial predation is the synechdoche for territorialisation in the new imperialism. Consequently emerging economies pre-empt the financial siege by embarking onofdistrategies themselves to create economic buffer territory. I construct a psychoanalytical framework for examining how anxiety is acted out in the global economy. I apply concepts of the traumatic moment, anxiety and the defence mechanisms of disavowal, splitting, introjection and projection to analyse theglc’s investments as territorial displacements of the libidinal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper posits four ranked, generic goals of state foreign policy, maps them against the American ‘pivot,’ and concludes with possible handicaps of that shift. Drawn broadly from realism and liberalism, those abstract goals are as follows: national security, economic growth, prestige among the community of states, and the promotion of cherished national values. Applying this framework specifically to Northeast Asia, the USA, regarding security, is likely to increasingly ‘hedge’ China, and its North Korean client, with regional allies, off-shore balancing, and a shift toward AirSea Battle. On trade, the USA will continue its decades-long effort to reduce Asian mercantilism by tying Asian traders into multilateral, neoliberal rule sets. Regarding prestige, the ‘Beijing Consensus’ is a growing challenge to US soft power which the pivot seeks to refute. In addition, on values, the USA will continue to nag especially China to conform to US standards of law and human rights. The USA will continue to push the broad liberalization of Asian polities and economies. The democratic peace and liberal trade are the ideological frame and motivation of the pivot. Nevertheless, significant US handicaps may slow the pivot: American cultural distance from Asia means little public support and understanding of its necessity; strong regional allies will tempt the USA toward offshore balancing on the cheap; and the dire US budget shortfall will reduce the resources necessary to fund it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growing private sector in the post-reform Vietnamese economy and its new forms of mobilisation have led to newly emergent social forces that have shaped internal state agendas and political deliberations. With a view to exploring the nature of institutional change in Vietnam, I argue that business associations have played a crucial intermediary role between the state and the private sector over past decades. These associations and the spaces of governance that they constitute are neither characteristic of autonomous actors as suggested by liberal theory nor a form of state corporatism. This paper adopts the “state-in-society” approach, which contends that the state and society should be considered through new governance spaces within the state. These spaces create institutional mechanisms for interaction between the government and business, and provide a framework for deliberative engagement between state and non-state actors. This framework will be tested through an examination of associations of small and medium enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City and their connections to the city authorities. I argue that business associations will be accommodated by the state and will coalesce with existing bureaucratic interests. This proposition contributes to the new research agenda that applies the state-in-society approach to post-socialist institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Soaring prices for minerals and energy are posing a major threat to the resource security of economies in Asia. As a result, many regional governments have launched new resource security strategies in the last few years. Most recent attention to resource security in Asia has focused on debating whether the Chinese government’s resource policies are mercantilist or liberal. This China-focused debate is too narrow to fully capture the nature of resource politics in Northeast Asia, since the governments of Japan and Korea have also recently launched their own resource security strategies. This paper considers regional-level trends in Asian resource politics by examining the causes, content and implications of the resource security strategies deployed by the consumer governments in Northeast Asia. It argues that growing resource security concerns, combined with a process of competitive policy emulation, have seen the Chinese, Japanese and Korean governments each adopt mercantilist resource security strategies over the last decade. Furthermore, the competitive nature of these mercantilist strategies is acting to intensify political and economic competition for resources between the Asian region’s three main economic powers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author discusses the 25th International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) Hong Kong congress titled "An Unbroken History: Conserving East Asian Works of Art and Heritage" held in the year 2014. the author mentions that it is a five days programme focuses on exchange of knowledge, advancement in preventive conservation and new applications of materials.

This paper aims to examine the process of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) glocalisation in China. By analysing its two contextualising phases: the reach – globalising the American basketball commodities in Chinese territory, and the response – reinventing tradition and reconstructing modernity of Chinese sport, the authors argue that the presence of the NBA in China has greatly remoulded the previous norms of Chinese basketball and sport culture. However, the NBA has not resulted in homogenisation of Chinese basketball, as local resistance from the Chinese Basketball Association has correspondently risen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ‘rise of China’ is proving to be one of the most consequential developments of the early 21 century One of the key questions it raises is about the impact this historically unprecedented process will have on the East Asian region in particular and the world more generally. Will Chinese policy makers will be able to translate the country’s growing material importance into other forms of political power and influence? Equally importantly, will Chinese elites be ‘socialised’ into the practices and norms of extant institutions, or will they attempt to redefine them to further Chinese foreign policy goals? This paper explores these questions by initially looking at the overall historical context in which East Asian regionalisation has occurred, before considering the operation of some of the more important regional institutions. It is suggested that China’s ability to offer regional leadership is constrained both by its own security policies―which are seen as increasingly threatening by many of its neighbours―and by the actions of the USA, which is trying to reassert its own claims to regional leadership. While the outcome of this process is inconclusive, it helps us to understand the more general dynamics reshaping the international system as a result of the emergence of new centres of international power. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]