ABSTRACT
Much economic research on the role of Asia1 in the global economy has focused on the impact of changes in macroeconomic parameters (for instance, financial and foreign exchange crises), but has neglected the issue of ‘deeper economic integration’. The latter refers to transformations in markets for capital, goods, services, technology and labour that, to a large degree, result from changes in corporate strategies and organisation. ‘Globalisation’ is widely used shorthand for these transformations (Ernst 2005c). Barriers to integration continue to exist, of course, in each of these different markets, but there is no doubt that a massive integration of markets has taken place across borders that, only a short while ago, seemed to be impenetrable. And much of the action now is in Asia.
