This landmark study is the result of a collaborative research effort among the East-West Center and a group of institutions in China (Taipei), Japan, and Korea, in consultation with experts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Electric Power Research Institute of California. The first project of its kind to mobilize senior power experts in the three major countries of Northeast Asia for cooperative electric future assessment, Electricity in Economic Development highlights the critical role of the electric power sector in influencing a nation's future industrial development and its energy supply-demand pattern in the post-oil-crisis era.

The papers in this volume overview the patterns of industrial globalization in a select number of industries: electronics, automobiles, heavy industry, and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The narrative proceeds with a discussion on how FDI and global production networks--two specific forms of industrial globalization--contribute to industrial upgrading, followed by three case studies detailing the experiences of Ireland, Singapore, and the United Kingdom in inducing FDI inflows.

China, Japan, and South Korea constitute one of the most dynamic economic regions in the world, but it is a region where formal regional machinery is yet to be realized. The establishment of an information infrastructure, energy community, and institution for financing infrastructure investment for the region are discussed in this volume.

The Asian economic crisis drew attention to the urgent need for reforming social welfare programs. Korea survived the brunt of the economic crisis, but is still faced with numerous socioeconomic problems that emerged during and after the crisis period. This book offers a comparative review of these problems and of welfare reforms that have already been tried, together with proposals for reforms that could be introduced to guarantee the the most important human needs.