This book evaluates the evolution of regulatory policy in advanced countries and discusses how, due to globalization, policy changes in one country have a knock-on effect in others. Separated in two parts, the first half focuses on policy in developed countries and regulatory diffusion from Europe to Asia. The second part looks at the business impact of policy developments in a number of Southeast Asian countries. Key chapters discuss Thailand's response to EU chemical regulations, the diffusion of private food standards, and the effect of chemical safety standards in Malaysia and Vietnam. These contributions are written by leading scholars in the field and the book is likely to be of interest to students, researchers and policy makers concerned with regulation changes in East Asia.

Throughout East Asia, the growth process and its sources are changing in a number of important respects, especially for middle- and high-income economies. Growth is increasingly coming from the strength of innovative activities in these economies rather than from factor accumulation as in the past. Such innovative activities--especially in producer services and the creative industries--are concentrated in high-tech clusters in globally linked cities.
Drawing on a wide range of literature and on interviews with firms, this book explores these issues with a focus on six East Asian cities: Bangkok, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. It suggests how policies and institutions can induce and furnish an urban environment that supports innovative activities. A valuable resource for researchers, urban planners, urban geographers, and policy makers interested in East Asia, Post-Industrial East Asian Cities presents the latest findings on creative industries in East Asia and their effect on economic growth.

Throughout East Asia, the growth process and its sources are changing in a number of important respects, especially for middle- and high-income economies. Growth is increasingly coming from the strength of innovative activities in these economies rather than from factor accumulation as in the past. Such innovative activities2;especially in producer services and the creative industries2;are concentrated in high-tech clusters in globally linked cities.
Drawing on a wide range of literature and on interviews with firms, this book explores these issues with a focus on six East Asian cities: Bangkok, Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. It suggests how policies and institutions can induce and furnish an urban environment that supports innovative activities. A valuable resource for researchers, urban planners, urban geographers, and policy makers interested in East Asia, Post-Industrial East Asian Cities presents the latest findings on creative industries in East Asia and their effect on economic growth.

Although the relative size of the public sector has been much reduced worldwide since the early 1980s, it remains the dominant borrower from the banking system and responsible for the majority of the non-performing assets of banks. Drawing upon new firm-level survey data, this volume assesses how changes in the ownership structure of SOEs affect management, governance, innovation, and performance, comparing these SOEs to other types of firms in China. It also considers China's reform efforts against the experiences of other transition economies. The research reveals that the medium- and longer-term gains from privatization far outweigh costs of adjustment and that the precise mechanics of privatization have little effect on outcomes. The volume argues that privatization of large industrial SOEs and market-based consolidation of small- and medium-sized enterprises will be necessary to transform them into competitive and innovative world-class firms. Chapters include: China's Industrial System: Where is it, Where it Should be Headed, and Why; Reform in China, 1978-1997; The Accelerated Change in Enterprise Ownership, 1997-2003; Chinese Ownership Reform in the East European Mirror; Empirical Evidence on the Effect of SOE Reform in China; and Making Privatization Work.

Although the relative size of the public sector has been much reduced worldwide since the early 1980s, it remains the dominant borrower from the banking system and responsible for the majority of the non-performing assets of banks. Drawing upon new firm-level survey data, this volume assesses how changes in the ownership structure of SOEs affect management, governance, innovation, and performance, comparing these SOEs to other types of firms in China. It also considers China's reform efforts against the experiences of other transition economies. The research reveals that the medium- and longer-term gains from privatization far outweigh costs of adjustment and that the precise mechanics of privatization have little effect on outcomes. The volume argues that privatization of large industrial SOEs and market-based consolidation of small- and medium-sized enterprises will be necessary to transform them into competitive and innovative world-class firms. Chapters include: China's Industrial System: Where is it, Where it Should be Headed, and Why; Reform in China, 1978-1997; The Accelerated Change in Enterprise Ownership, 1997-2003; Chinese Ownership Reform in the East European Mirror; Empirical Evidence on the Effect of SOE Reform in China; and Making Privatization Work.

Countries worldwide are struggling to imitate the industrial prowess of the East Asian pacesetters, but growth accelerations have proven remarkably transient. Building a portfolio of tradable goods and services and steadily raising the level of investment in these activities, has generally defied the best policy efforts in particular, bringing investment ratios on par with East Asian averages has presented the greatest challenge. Hence the search is on for growth recipes not so tightly bound to investment, to manufacturing activities, and to the export of manufactured products. In casting around for such recipes validated by demonstrated results, the experience of economies which have relied more on other drivers of growth human capital and knowledge is highly attractive. Finland and Ireland are among the tiny band of small nations that grew rapidly for well over a decade by achieving the maximum mileage from an adequate investment in physical assets and by harnessing the potential of human capital and technologies. Singapore combined high investment with a comprehensive and complementary strategy of building high quality human and knowledge assets. This approach enabled the three countries to diversify much faster into higher tech manufactures and tradable services and profit from globalization. The approach adopted by these three countries may be of greater relevance in the highly competitive global environment of the early 21st century because it does not necessarily assume heroic levels of investment. Moreover, it may be better tailored to the opportunities for middle and lower middle income economies threatened by the middle income trap and seeking growth rates in the 6 percent range, and for the smaller, late starting, low income countries with youthful, rapidly increasing populations that need to grow at high single digit rates in order to create enough jobs and to double per capita incomes in 10 years."

Southeast Asian tiger economies feel threatened by competition from other countries and worry that their growth momentum might be flagging. Even though their growth rates are above the average for the world and for developing countries, they fall short of yesterday's economic performance. The underlying worry is that they presage the beginning of a downward trend, the harbingers of which are lower rates of investment, persistently low rates of total factor productivity and low levels of innovativeness. The South East Asian tigers' worries motivate three questions: First, are the tigers rightly threatened by a creeping economic sclerosis or what some observers are calling the "middle income trap"? Second, if the threat is real, what are the underlying causes? Third, are there ways of neutralizing the problems and at least maintaining if not raising the growth rates of the recent past? This book tackles these questions by means of a comparative analysis of the Southeast Asian tiger economies, centered on Malaysia. This analysis draws upon a comprehensive set of techniques and indicators to assess competitive pressures, gauge industrial and technological capabilities and to indicate the directions of industrial change in Southeast Asia could take.

With the competitiveness of firms in an open and integrated world environment increasingly reliant on technological capability, universities are being asked to take on a growing role in stimulating economic growth. Beyond imparting education, they are now viewed as sources of industrially valuable technical skills, innovations, and entrepreneurship. Developed and developing countries alike have made it a priority to realize this potential of universities to spur growth, a strategy that calls for coordinated policy actions. The distinguished contributors to 'How Universities Promote Economic Growth' examines the wealth of international experience on efforts to multiply links between universities and businesses. They offer valuable and succinct guidance on some of the most effective policy measures deployed by national and regional governments, firms and universities to enhance the contribution that tertiary institutions can make to economic change.

Although China's centrally planned economy is a little more than a shadow of its former self, the closely inter-linked reforms of the enterprise and banking sectors are still incomplete. The relative size of the state-owned enterprise sector has been much reduced, however, the sector remains the dominant borrower from the banking system and is responsible for the majority of bank non-performing assets. Thus in the interests of financial stability it is crucial to implement the remaining reform agenda. The accession to the WTO has also made it more urgent for China's most-dynamic state-owned enterprises and her banking industry to compete through innovation, continuing process upgrades, and active pursuit of strategies aimed at succeeding in global markets. In order to do so, not only do large state-owned industrial enterprises need to be privatized, but the government also needs to create the conditions that will result in market determined consolidation of small and medium size firms into entities with a core strength. 'Under New Ownership' explores the effects of ownership reform in China on the performance of reformed industrial state-owned enterprises, and proposes privatization as a course of action to truly transform these enterprises into world class firms which compete on the basis of sound strategy, effective organization, and innovation. It draws upon newly collected firm level survey data to assess changes in the ownership structure of state enterprises on management, governance, innovation, and performance relative to other types of firms in China. This title provides researchers, students, and policymakers interested in the Chinese economy with in depth information and analysis on key issues related to the reform of state-owned enterprises.