Asia Regional Integration Center

Edited by Michael Devereux (University of British Columbia), Philip Lane (Trinity College Dublin), Cyn-Young Park (Asian Development Bank), and Shang-Jin Wei (Columbia University), the book provides an up-to-date assessment of global and regional financial integration in Asia based on rigorous analytical frameworks and offers insight into the future of Asian financial integration. Read the book summary, flyer, and publication details.   

This publication by Plummer, Cheong, and Hamanaka displays the menu for choice of available methods to evaluate the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). It caters mainly to policy makers from developing countries and aims to equip them with some economic knowledge and techniques that will enable them to conduct their own economic evaluation studies on existing or future FTAs, or to critically re-examine the results of impact assessment studies conducted by others, at the very least. Download the book. 

Taeho Bark and Moonsung Kang aim to identify the trade agenda that represents Asia’s concerns for the global and regional trading system. This paper prescribes three policy options: resolve the stalemate of the Doha Development Agenda; integrate individual free trade agreements into broader regional trade agreements; and link the development agenda to trade. Read more.

The spread of regional and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) in Asia and the Pacific region continues to gain momentum. From 54 FTAs in 2000, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has identified 238 bilateral and plurilateral FTAs as of January 2011. Of these, 93 are in effect, 27 are signed, 63 are under negotiation, and 55 are in the proposal stage. Follow FTA Trends.

Pennings, Ramayandi and Tang estimate the impact of monetary policy on exchange rates and stock markets for eight small open economies during the global financial crisis. Read more.

The Asia Regional Integration Center launches the Economic Calendar, a new feature which tracks upcoming and current official releases of key macroeconomic and financial data, and policy announcements. The Economic Calendar is updated on a daily basis to provide the latest information on economic developments in Asia, the US, and the eurozone. Click here to view the calendar.

The Asia Regional Integration Center launches the Economic Calendar, a new feature which tracks upcoming and current official releases of key macroeconomic and financial data, and policy announcements. The Economic Calendar is updated daily to provide the latest information on economic developments in Asia, the US, and the eurozone. View the calendar.

The spread of Asia’s free trade agreements (FTAs) has sparked an important debate on the impact of such agreements on business activity. This pioneering study, edited by Masahiro Kawai and Ganeshan Wignaraja, uses new evidence from surveys of East Asian exporters – including Japan, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea and three ASEAN economies of the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – to shed light on the FTA debate. Read the press release and publication details.