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.

Why East Asia overtook Latin America: Agrarian reform, industrialisation and development

Abstract: Scholars and policy makers have long debated the causes of the spectacular economic success achieved by the East Asian newly industrialising countries ( NICs ) as well as the lessons that other developing countries can learn from this development experience. Latin America started to industrialise many decades before the East Asian NICs and yet was quickly overtaken by them in the last few decades. This article explores the agrarian roots that may explain the different development trajectory and performance of the East Asian NICs, particularly South Korea and Taiwan, and Latin America. The analysis focuses mainly on three interconnected factors in seeking to understand why the East Asian NICs outperformed Latin America: 1) state capacity and policy performance or 'statecraft'; 2) character of agrarian reform and its impact on equity and growth; 3) interactions between agriculture and industry in development strategies.

Ancient DNA indicates human population shifts and admixture in northern and southern China

Abstract: Human genetic history in East Asia is poorly understood. To clarify population relationships, we obtained genome-wide data from 26 ancient individuals from northern and southern East Asia spanning 9500 to 300 years ago. Genetic differentiation in this region was higher in the past than the present, which reflects a major episode of admixture involving northern East Asian ancestry spreading across southern East Asia after the Neolithic, thereby transforming the genetic ancestry of southern China. Mainland southern East Asian and Taiwan Strait island samples from the Neolithic show clear connections with modern and ancient individuals with Austronesian-related ancestry, which supports an origin in southern China for proto-Austronesians. Connections among Neolithic coastal groups from Siberia and Japan to Vietnam indicate that migration and gene flow played an important role in the prehistory of coastal Asia.

The Formation of International Production and Distribution Networks in East Asia

Abstract: The international production and distribution networks consist of vertical production chains and distribution networks extended across a number of countries. This paper claims 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. The paper starts from reviewing crucial changes in policy framework observed in the developing East Asian countries a decade ago and sketching the theoretical thoughts explaining the mechanics of international production and distribution networks. Then, the empirical part of the paper examines the micro data of Japanese corporate firms to make a closer look at the nature of networks through the pattern of FDI after analyzing overall trade patterns of the major East Asian countries to confirm the importance of international trade of machinery parts and components. In addition, the paper quantifies the magnitude of economic activities of Japanese firms through different channels of transactions, using the firm nationality approach. The last part of the paper discusses policy implication of the networks.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Constructing an ‘East Asian’ concept and growing regional identity: from EAEC to ASEAN+3

Abstract: The concept of East Asia as a region is relatively new. Until the appearance of the abortive East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC) idea, which was put forward by Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia in the early 1990s, there was no strong conceptual framework for regionalism in East Asia as a whole. At that time, the idea of an integrated East Asia, joining Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia in regional unity, was not yet firmly enough established to gain the consensus necessary to form a regional institution based on the larger framework. Following the constructivist approach, which emphasizes the significance of analysing how regional ‘togetherness’ can be strengthened and how this influences the formation of a regional institution, this article examines how and why the first proposal for East Asian regionalism, EAEC, failed to be realized, and then analyses the successful establishment and development of ASEAN+3. The article stresses the significance of the emergence and increasing acceptance of the concept ...