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This article provides an overview of the macroeconomic challenges facing the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It discusses various macroeconomic indicators and the importance of achieving high levels of economic growth. The article also explores ASEAN's participation in Regional Value Chains (RVCs) and Global Value Chains (GVCs), particularly in the automotive and electronics industries. It examines the adoption of inflation targeting frameworks by ASEAN countries and evaluates their macroeconomic performance. The text further analyzes the fiscal sustainability of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, providing policy recommendations to enhance revenue collection and reduce subsidies. It also discusses the challenges faced by Vietnam's economy and suggests policy measures to overcome them. The article touches on economic issues in Cambodia and Laos, including technology spillovers, Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) implementation, and financial system reform. The perspectives presented offer insights into these countries' economic situations and potential policy measures. [Extracted from the article]

This paper examines the macroeconomic and development policies to spur economic integration and growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It reviews how economic transformation and integration have fueled growth and job creation in the region. ASEAN's increased participation in global and regional value chains, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) as a regional hub, laid the solid foundation of regional production networks. However, with the changing role of the PRC in global value chains, the region needs to renew policy initiatives to address the development challenges and seize new growth opportunities with its single market goals. The analysis suggests the region requires strategic plans for infrastructure development, digitalization, and greater integration reinforced by the removal of trade barriers, increased labor mobility, and foreign direct investment mobilization. The region's successful future also depends on cooperative policy efforts around developing e‐government and digital value chains, strengthening micro‐, small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises and startups, and building smart cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the experience of developed countries, the production and export of intermediate goods have been observed to foster innovation within firms. This study investigates whether China's export of intermediate products has significantly enhanced the independent innovation capability of China’s firms. Using microdata and patent applications as a measure of innovation, we adopt the staggered PSM-DID method to explore the influence of China’s intermediate exports on firm innovation. We find that China's export of intermediate goods positively influences firm innovation, particularly utility patents. Domestic firms benefit more from this effect than foreign firms, and medium-high technology industries experience the most significant innovation impact. The export of intermediate goods stimulates innovation through the following channels: scale economies and employment structure optimization. These findings shed light on China's evolving innovation landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the specifics of strengthening Central Asian regional cooperation and its potential opportunities according to Hungary’s Eastern Opening Policy.

This article provides an accessible overview of the current state of ASEAN, focusing on trade integration and the role of regional and global value chains, with particular attention to China. The ASEAN economies have generally performed well and have benefited from technological and policy advances, as well as their proximity to China. The article discusses the deepening of regional integration, particularly in sectors such as electronics and automotive. It also highlights the policy challenges that ASEAN faces, including the need for enforcing commitments and addressing collective action problems. The article raises questions about the adequacy of ASEAN's model and the role of regional commitments, while acknowledging the potential impact of national-level reforms and exposure to other countries' experiences. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the economic integration and growth within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the challenges and opportunities it faces. It highlights the role of China in ASEAN's trade and the progress of global and regional value chains in the region. The article also emphasizes the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI) in driving economic growth in ASEAN, particularly from East Asian economies. It suggests policy recommendations for sustaining growth and integration, including infrastructure development, digitalization, and liberalization of services trade. The article concludes by mentioning the potential impacts of the US-China trade and technology disputes on ASEAN and the need for further research on growth drivers and convergence among ASEAN member states. [Extracted from the article]

The root cause of the current crisis in the United Kingdom is British Exceptionalism which assumed its classic form in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. During the nineteenth century, the British state focused upon the creation of a global empire and by the 1890s was in a state of 'splendid isolation' with respect to Europe. Simultaneously, the rise of Germany meant that Britain could not ignore Europe. During the first half of the twentieth century, Britain became involved in two major wars, which to a considerable extent revolved around the need to curb German power. After the First World War, Britain wanted to focus upon her global interests and this was reflected in her reluctance to embrace integrationist initiatives such as the Briand Plan. Although the Second World War destroyed the basis of Britain's imperium, the feeling that British superiority had saved the world only reinforced the sense of exceptionalism by adding to it a sense of 'pride'. After 1945 British power steadily waned and the British state came increasingly under pressure from Washington to join the European Economic Community. The potential of Germany to dominate this grouping and British apprehension of such a development led to prejudice in respect of Germany which later transmitted itself into prejudice against Europe as a whole. Once inside the European Community, Britain accordingly became an awkward partner. Never entirely comfortable within the European Union, a secessionist movement grew which ultimately forced the referendum of 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the prospects for an ordoliberal reform of the European Union in order to tackle its multiple crises. It shows what an ordoliberal European Union would have to look like and examines the constraints its implementation faces. Three reasons are identified that make an ordoliberal reform of the EU at present unlikely. First, in the EU's most powerful member state, Germany, where ordoliberalism has its origins, economic policy adheres increasingly less to this strain of economic thinking. Second, given the primacy of European integration in domestic politics, Germany values European unity higher than economic principles. Third, once Brexit is complete Germany will lack influential allies for an ordoliberal reshaping of the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to explore the competition in exports among ASEAN + 3 members by applying the export similarity index for the disaggregation export data from 1990 to 2014. We also discuss the changes of comparative advantage of ASEAN + 3's exports through the revealed comparative advantage index and its relation with similarity index. First, the results support the idea that export similarity varies among ASEAN + 3 member states over the period 1990–2014. Second, we find evidence of several export communities. In particular, five countries, notably China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea, with the highest similarity index form an export community mainly in the electronic microcircuits and parts of office machines. Third, the revealed comparative advantage seems to be the key factor defining the similarity level of exports. Finally, the revealed comparative advantage analysis partly allows us to verify the Ricardo's theory and New Trade theory in the context of ASEAN + 3 trade integration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UK's decision to leave the European Union will have a wide-ranging effect on the British economy, but the scale and sequencing of the likely effects are hard to gauge. The uncertainties surrounding how a country separates itself from a regional economic bloc have posed challenges to the economics profession about how best to analyse the many consequences. The paper discusses the main lines of relevant economic argumentation, and reviews the evidence from studies of the likely effects of 'Brexit'. It then considers how the UK's economic linkages with the EU might evolve and examines some of the ensuing political economy challenges. The concluding section ponders the role of economists in so contentious a political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the estimation of import intensities of exports, final consumption expenditures and gross fixed capital formation. It uses the input-output methodology of computing direct and indirect imports to the final demand components, which compares with regression estimates. Unlike the widely used turnover approach, the results contribute fundamentally to knowledge about the genuine openness of the Czech economy with regard to how much value-added is exported. In 2015, the highest import intensity for exports amounting to 52%, closely followed by 49% for investments. Household consumption worked with 41% import intensity, while general government consumption expenditures showed the lowest import intensity of 16%. Based on our input-output findings, the true openness of the Czech economy can be revealed. While turnover of exports to GDP reached 80% in 2019, the value-added approach showed only a half, i.e., 40% value-added was exported. It implies a contra-intuitive conclusion that even in a relatively small and highly integrated country into the globalized economy, there is a 60% majority of the non-tradeable goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intra-Eurozone current-account imbalances (and divergent external debt positions) cannot be attributed to the deterioration of cost (or price) competitiveness in Europe’s periphery vis-à-vis its core. Imbalances were driven by high domestic demand growth in the periphery, which was financed by capital flows from the core. The external finance – following capitalist logic – ended up in non-traded medium-low-tech activities (e.g. construction). This points to a structural problem in pan-European financial integration – which we locate in the economic ideology guiding the EMU: NAIRU economics. We zoom in on the reasons why NAIRU-based monetary policy deepened the already existing structural heterogeneity in the Eurozone, locking the Southern-European economies up in low- and medium-technology activities often in direct competition with China. The only way out is a rethink of Eurozone macroeconomic and industrial policies which – going beyond often-made calls for broad-based fiscal stimulus or a clearing arrangement – fundamentally reconsiders the role of the ECB in light of what needs to be done to create Europe’s non-price comparative advantage of tomorrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to its strong dependence on exports, Germany was among the economies hit hardest by the financial crisis. But unlike almost all other countries, Germany emerged from the crisis quickly and stronger than before. What lies behind this success story, if at all it is one? The commonplace – neoliberal – answer is that Germany's success is the hard-won reward for strict economic management, combining fiscal conservatism and structural reforms of welfare and the labour market. The latter, by reducing labour costs, fostered competitiveness, boosted growth, and increased employment. “Progressive” economists arguing that Germany beggared its Eurozone neighbours by squeezing workers’ wages, share a similar view. However, this particular explanation of Germany's resilience is wrong and unhelpful. Germany's export success cannot be explained in terms of its (labour) cost competitiveness, but is caused by strong non-price competitiveness. This, in turn, is due – much more than is normally recognized – by the remaining distinctly non-neoliberal dimensions of Germany's economic model (including a Keynesian crisis response). German and European policymakers preaching austerity and structural labour-market changes as the model for other Eurozone countries, misunderstand Germany's rebound from crisis, with serious costs to Eurozone populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A basic premise of the limited/open access orders framework of North, Wallis, Webb and Weingast is a variant of the Hayek-Friedman hypothesis that economic and political freedom sustain each other. Keys to this framework are the specific 'doorstep' conditions that enable a transition from limited to open access, which the authors draw from the historical experience of Britain, France and the United States. This essay analyzes the transition process of Imperial Germany to reveal that maintaining economic competition did not depend on democracy and that the middle classes became stakeholders in authoritarianism. It then explores the specific challenges posed by this large, mature limited access order as it was integrated into an international system sustained by a declining liberal hegemon, Great Britain. The refinements of the framework suggested by the case of Imperial Germany allow for a better understanding of some of the parallel transition processes in present-day China and its evolving relationship to both the United States and the current international order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]