East Asia

About: East Asia is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 17591 publications have been published within this topic receiving 274073 citations. The topic is also known as: Eastern Asia.

East Asian Corporates: Growth, Financing and Risks over the Last Decade

Abstract: Using a database of 5,550 firms in nine countries over the period 1988-1996, we find large differences in performance and financial structures across East Asian countries. Profitability, as measured by real return on assets in local currency, was relatively low in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Singapore throughout the period, while corporates in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand had high returns, on average twice higher than those recorded in Germany and the US. Nominal returns in dollars were high too, but reflected in part the real appreciation of currencies. In 1994-1996, measured performance declined in several countries, especially Japan and Korea. This did not show up as much in sales growth as investment rates were high and continued to drive output growth rates in many countries. The combination of high investment and relatively low profitability in some countries meant that much external financing was needed. As outside equity was used sparingly, leverage was high in most East Asian countries, also relative to other countries, and increasing in Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. Short-term borrowing became increasingly important, especially in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Some of the vulnerabilities in corporate financial structures that have now become a very apparent factor in triggering and aggravating East Asia’s financial crisis, were thus already in existence in the early 1990s.

East Asian Growth Before and After the Crisis

Abstract: This paper surveys the literature on the growth performance of the east Asian economies in recent decades, evaluates the sustainability of that performance, and provides a preliminary assessment of their long-term growth prospects in the aftermath of the current crisis. It highlights three special aspects of east Asian growth: unusually high factor accumulation, a favorable demographic transition, and the impact of rapid growth on financial and other institutions. The paper argues that there are downside risks to the east Asian “developmental state” model, despite its favorable attributes, and that an alternative model may become more attractive as these economies mature.

Eastern Asia in the Cretaceous: New paleomagnetic data from South Korea and a new look at Chinese and Japanese data

Abstract: Lower Cretaceous continental sediments and volcanic rocks have been sampled in the Gyeongsang basin (South Korea). A detailed analysis of 160 specimens reveals two stable components of magnetization, a postfolding, low-temperature (LT) component with normal polarity and a stable, high-temperature (HT) component with both normal and reversed polarities. The blocking temperature of the HT component ranges from 540°C up to the Neel temperature of hematite. This component predates the folding of the series and yields a pole at λ = 68°N, Φ = 205°E, A95 = 6°. The prefolding magnetization indicates that South Korea stood at a latitude nearly identical to its present-day latitude in the Lower Cretaceous. Comparison of Korean data with (revised) paleomagnetic data from North and South China and Japan shows that all these blocks of Eastern Asia occupied the same positions in term of latitude and were probably parts of a single craton since at least the Lower Cretaceous. The paleomagnetic directions of the Sino-Korean block show large discrepancies with respect to the expected directions of the “stable” Eurasian (Siberian) block. An interpretation involving significant N-S motion (∼1000 km) between either North and South China or between North China and Siberia appears to contradict geological data. A preferred interpretation is that the Siberian data are in serious error and that the combined China/Korea Lower Cretaceous pole provides a valid estimate for the Eurasian plate as a whole.

Shadow Education Systems

Abstract: Private supplementary tutoring, or shadow education, has long been a major phenomenon in parts of East Asia, including Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. In recent times, shadow education has been rapidly increasing in other Asian countries as well, as it has in Europe and North America. Traditionally, private supplementary tutoring has been a neglected topic in research, though there has been much more research in recent years. A growing body of literature focuses on the shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring, which occurs in academic subjects beyond the hours of mainstream formal schooling (Bray, 1999, 2003; Kwok, 2004; Silova & Bray, 2006; Yoo, 2002).

Financial Contagion in the East Asian Crisis: With Special Reference to the Republic of Korea

Abstract: Over the last three years, there has been a growing amount of literature on the East Asian crisis. A website created by Roubini, for example, lists more than 500 articles on the crisis. Despite the proliferation of studies on the East Asian financial turmoil, the causes of the crisis still remain controversial. Radelet and Sachs (1998), Feldstein (1998), and Stiglitz (1999) argue that the primary source of the crisis was the sudden shifts in market expectations and confidence. According to these authors, foreign lenders and institutional investors were so alarmed by the Thai crisis, which broke out in July 1997, that they abruptly pulled their investments out of the other countries in the region and caused the crisis to be contagious. Their withdrawal was prompted by the belief that these countries suffered from similar structural problems as those causing a speculative attack on Thailand.