We examine how Korea’s capital flows and trade have been affected by the quantitative easing (QE) of the United States and the quantitative and qualitative easing (QQME) of Japan. Korea is an intriguing case due to its borderline position between advanced and emerging market country groups, and the common perception that Korea competes fiercely with Japan in the world market for trade. We find that QE had little direct impact on capital flows to Korea, and tapering is unlikely to cause capital outflows from it owing to partial safe-haven behavior of capital flows to Korea. We also find that the exchange rate spillover from QQME to Korea has been limited both on trade and capital flow fronts.

Three years have passed since the Bank of Japan’s asset purchase program was introduced in 2011, causing a sharp decline in the value of the Japanese Yen. What would be the implications for Japan and Korea’s exporters if the weak Yen is here to stay? We explore this question by examining exporters’ pricing behaviors and volume responses to exchange rate shocks. We find that if the weak Yen persists, it would strengthen Japan’s price competitiveness over time as export prices respond with a lag. We also find that while direct boosts to export demand will be rather limited, a persistently weaker Yen would expand the Japanese exporters’ profits lastingly, which could reinvigorate the ability, particularly of flagship exporting firms, to compete and grow in the global market over time. These findings suggest that the muted price and volume response so far to the sustained weakness of the Yen may mask a more fundamental shift in the relative competitiveness of Japanese and Korean exporters.

We use a Global VAR model to study spillovers from the Bank of Japan’s quantitative and qualitative easing (QQE) on emerging Asia.1 Our main result is that, despite an appreciation of their currencies vis-à-vis the yen, the impact on emerging Asia’s GDP tended to be positive and significant. Our results suggest that the positive effect of QQE on expectations, by improving confidence, more than offset any negative exchange rate spillover due to expenditure switching from domestic demand to Japanese goods. They also suggest that spillovers from QQE might have worked mainly through the impact of expectations and improved confidence, captured by increases in equity prices, rather than through balance sheet adjustments which might have been captured by movements in the monetary base.

Articles in the June 2014 issue of the IMF Research Bulletin look at “The Rise and Fall of Current Account Deficits in the Euro Area Periphery and the Baltics” (Joong Shik Kang and Jay C. Shambaugh) and “The Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Rebalancing and Inclusive Growth in China” (Il Houng Lee, Murtaza Syed, and Xin Wang). The Q&A looks at “Seven Questions on the Monetary Transmission Mechanism in Low-Income Countries” (Andrew Berg, Luisa Charry, Rafael A. Portillo, and Jan Vleck). This issue of the Research Bulletin includes updated listings of IMF Working Papers, Staff Discussion Notes, and Recommended Readings from the IMF Bookstore. Readers can also find information on free access to a featured article from “IMF Economic Review.”

This book systematically studies the structural characteristics of IP laws and regimes of major Asian economies, including (but not always) China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. It explores and crystallizes some worthy Asian models which could further help the development of international IP laws. This book begins with an overview of Asian modern history and IP laws. It discusses the three basic IP laws in Asia which are patent law, trademark law and copyright law. It looks at the pre-established damages for copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting. The book also deals with problems with trade secret and its over-protection. It compares IP laws and four industries in India and China, and examines what role have IP laws played in the development in those industries and how India and China can learn from each other. Finally, it examines one medium and one small-sized Asian economy on its respective struggle (Taiwan’s efforts to build a coherent IP exhaustion regime) and a success story (how Singapore has utilized IP to secure its position in global value chains). This book is a useful reference for law students, scholars, practitioners, IP professionals who are interested in knowing Asia, Asian IP laws and industries, their struggles and finding ways to better global IP laws. The case studies could provide helpful lessons for other Asian economies and beyond.

This paper focuses on negative interest rate policies and covers a broad range of its effects, with a detailed discussion of findings in the academic literature and of broader country experiences.

Rising densities of human settlements, migration and transport to reduce distances to market, and specialization and trade facilitated by fewer international divisions are central to economic development. The transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are most noticeable in North America, Western Europe, and Japan, but countries in Asia and Eastern Europe are changing in ways similar in scope and speed. 'World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography' concludes that these spatial transformations are essential, and should be encouraged. The conclusion is not without controversy. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. Globalization is believed to benefit many, but not the billion people living in lagging areas of developing nations. High poverty and mortality persist among the world's 'bottom billion', while others grow wealthier and live longer lives. Concern for these three billion often comes with the prescription that growth must be made spatially balanced. The WDR has a different message: economic growth is seldom balanced, and efforts to spread it out prematurely will jeopardize progress. The Report: documents how production becomes more concentrated spatially as economies grow. proposes economic integration as the principle for promoting successful spatial transformations. revisits the debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration and shows how today's developers can reshape economic geography.