Innovation Networks and the New Asian Regionalism : A Knowledge Platform on Economic Productivity

Hans-Peter Brunner has produced here a very thoughtful piece of scholarship. This important book is genuinely innovative and very well executed. It addresses a very significant problem - how the integration and inter-linkage of national markets through regional cooperation and integration adds to productivity growth. The book goes on to define a meaningful theoretical framework, describes relevant regional experiences, and then presents a road map for cluster development. As such, it will be of value to academics, practitioners and policy makers alike.'- Kislaya Prasad, University of Maryland, College Park, USThe rise of Asia, as well as the future of regional cooperation and integration (RCI) the world over, will be profoundly influenced by the challenges of slowing productivity growth, increasing economic inequalities and systemic vulnerabilities. Such structural reform issues will require RCI policies that complement domestic policy reform. This unique book explains what drives the regional economic integration of nations and their contribution to national knowledge capital. It also lays out how such beneficial integration can generate broad-based, equitable wealth in Europe and Asia.Unique in the regional economic integration literature, this comprehensive book identifies the set of drivers of integration for productivity growth. Importantly, it describes and compares the experiences of the Baltic Sea Region with Asia's use of a set of institutionalized consensual knowledge and decision tools to drive inclusive and productive growth throughout a period dominated by the global economic crisis.Original and enlightening, Innovation Networks and the New Asian Regionalism will be vital reading for academics and researchers interested in regional integration and innovation. Policy makers and practitioners in regional development and economic geography will also find it to be an invaluable resource.