Hans-Peter Brunner

The 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.

The authors of this book link productivity change, trade competitiveness, networks of interaction and cooperation and income growth in developing Asian countries with the complex evolutionary processes of economic development and international trade. They take an innovative approach to simulating the complex micro-dynamics of competitiveness in order to distinguish those trade-related microeconomic dynamics and institutional reforms vital to leading countries out of institutional and poverty traps. Real competitiveness changes in six countries (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand) are measured from 1991 to 2000 with detailed international export unit value comparisons, to detect structural changes towards technology and knowledge intensive goods in trade patterns. No significant structural change was detected in the six countries during that period. Evolutionary trade theory is presented in two models and is calibrated with transaction and trade data from West Bengal and Nepal. These reveal that lower transport costs - resulting from investment in transport and institutional reforms related to the investment and trade environment - result initially in small productivity differences that can be amplified in a non-linear evolutionary system and eventually lead to a spatial restructuring of the system, and to a structural change in the trade patterns. The models in this path-breaking book can be used to explore the impact of a variety of interventions and policies. Productivity, Competitiveness and Incomes in Asia will be of interest to academics and researchers in Asian Studies, industrial economics, evolutionary economics and international business development. The book will also appeal to policy makers responsible for economic growth.