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This research paper advances our understanding of complex interdependence among countries. Existing research has found that total factor productivity (TFP), the residual from the economic growth function, is hindered in the absence of a country's strong political and legal institutions or if a country does not already have a sufficiently high level of TFP. We also know that regional efforts to eliminate pollution are complex. Bridging these two areas while focusing on a high polluting yet high innovating region, the following research questions are posed: Are Northeast Asian countries key collaborators in pursuit of green R&D? Are Northeast Asian countries collaborating extensively with each other? What are the implications for other regions 'attempts to establish these kinds of relations? To answer the above questions, biofuels-related technology as defined in the International Patent Classification's "green inventory" of environmentally sound technologies is examined. Patent data is drawn from the USPTO and inventors' country origin as the unit of analysis. For the 1990-2013 period, the Northeast Asian countries are in the core of a small set of collaborating countries. There is evidence that their centrality has increased in recent years. Most importantly, East Asia is becoming a singular research hub in terms of biofuels-related R&D, offering a counter in the foreseeable future to the dominance of the American and European research network hubs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Special Economic Zones (SEZ) have been proven to help countries in fostering economic growth. The aim of this research is to try to help the government to improve SEZ policies in Indonesia by providing a benchmark with other SEZ countries in China, Malaysia, and Thailand. While China has the most established SEZ program, Malaysia and Thailand also have highly-regarded SEZs and investment incentives. These neighboring countries have developed SEZs in significant quantities but the greatest returns have come from a subsection of large-scale zones with favorable locations, good planning and access to resources. Thailand has a smaller number of zones, but a higher rate of successful zones, such as the automobile cluster which became the anchor of automotive production in Asia. How Indonesia's position compares to these three Asian countries is the main question of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To continue Asia's economic growth the focus for expansion and improvement must move from export manufacturing to the services sector -- primarily to cross-border trade in such modern services as finance, information and communication, and professional business services. As the Asian services-sector economies have historically been dominated by personal services rather than by more information-intensive services, serious concerns exist about their ability to rapidly and successfully grow these modern services. While Asia does have some well-known services-sector success stories -- such as in India and the Philippines -- most Asian services economies have a history of relatively slow developmental change. Removing internal and external policy and structural constraints will be key to productivity growth in modern crossborder services trade. Improving educational opportunities and strengthening infrastructure and capital and labor markets will all be needed complements to regulatory reform if Asia is to grow new and innovative service providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the importance of the domestic research and development stock and foreign knowledge spillovers on total factor productivity for six Asian miracle economies over the period from 1955 to 2006. The productivity effects of international knowledge spillovers through the following channels are considered: imports, exports, inward foreign direct investment, patents, geographical proximity, and the general channel. The general channel is a transmission mechanism where knowledge spillovers occur automatically and do not pass through any specific channel. The estimates show that knowledge has been transmitted through all the channels considered but that the import channel and the general channel have probably been the most important ones for the Asian miracle economies. ( JEL O10, O30, O40) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that trade and FDI are beneficial to countries' economic development. This paper builds on the literature, and analyzes the ef fects on total factor productivity (TFP) through three channels of openness-imports, inward FDI and international call traf fic (ICT) for a set of developing countries in Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Using data from the period of 1980 to 2000, I find that imports, FDI and international call traf fic all significantly promote TFP growth in developing countries, and that human capital enhances the ef fects of imports on TFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]