Fukunari Kimura

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors assess the impact of various factors on bilateral services trade relative to that on bilateral goods trade using the standard gravity model and find that services trade is better predicted by gravity equations than goods trade.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose the concept of two-dimensional fragmentation and empirically analyzes the international production/distribution networks in East Asia, showing that the increase in service link cost comes from physical separation of production processes and uncontrollability while the reduction of production costs comes along location advantages and the counterparts' ownership advantages.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors claim that the international production and distribution networks in East Asia present distinctive characters in their significance in the regional economy, their geographical extensiveness involving a large number of countries in the region, and their sophistication of both intra-firm and arm's-length relationships across different firm nationalities.

TL;DR: This paper examined the relationship between exports, foreign direct investment, and firm productivity and found that firms that retain a presence in foreign markets, either by exports or FDI, show the highest productivity growth, which contributes to improvements in national productivity.

TL;DR: This article argued that fragmentation theory is well suited for explaining the mechanics of international production/distribution networks in East Asia, in contrast with the traditional horizontal product differentiation model fitted for intra-industry trade in core Europe.