The lion's share of smartphones, computers, televisions, semiconductor devices, and other electronics goods is made in East Asia. Final electronics goods are assembled in China, and sophisticated parts and components (P&C) such as semiconductor chips, image sensors, and ceramic filters in upstream Asian economies such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. How did Asia become the center of electronics manufacturing? How did learning take place that allowed Asian workers to produce cutting-edge products? Are there lessons for countries like the US that seek to reshore manufacturing of semiconductors, flat-panel displays, and related products? This Element addresses these issues.

For several decades, fast-growing East Asia has been the envy of the developing world. Not only has East Asia outperformed all other regions of the world, but it also recovered surprisingly swiftly from the 1997–98 Asian financial crisis and the 2008–09 global financial crisis. Nevertheless, investment in the region remains subdued relative to pre-Asian crisis levels. Are current investment rates too low and, given greater investment, could the region grow even more rapidly? This book brings together a rich array of papers analyzing the determinants of, and impediments to, investment and growth. It discusses a range of issues bearing on investment and development. The chapters cover domestic and international economic, institutional and political factors, including the role of foreign direct investment, and the importance of public infrastructure, fiscal policy and export-oriented growth strategies. Trade and trade policy, in particular, are emphasized, with contributions ranging from an analysis of global production networks in electronics manufacturing, to the effects and implications of economic integration in the Mekong states. The chapters provide a healthy blend of theoretical and empirical analysis and offer a range of useful policy proposals. This book will be of interest to policy-makers, students and scholars of Asian economics and development economics alike.

How can we account for the dynamic growth of East and Southeast Asian countries? Much of the debate has turned on the question of the 'state' versus the 'market' as exclusive (and often competing) explanations of the successful performance of individual countries. This book explores the distinctively interdependent nature of the East and Southeast Asian experience. As firms create a regional organization of production, the growing interdependence of national labour markets is one major outcome.

The semiconductor industry is a vital industry for military establishments worldwide, and the control of, or loss of control of, this key industry has enormous strategic implications. This book focuses on the globalization of the strategic semiconductor industry and the security ramifications of this process. It examines in particular the migration of the Taiwanese chip industry to China as part of the globalization of production processes, and the extent to which such a globalization process poses security challenges to the United States, China and Taiwan. Transcending disciplinary boundaries between international political economy, security studies, and the history of science and technology, this multidisciplinary work provides an in-depth understanding of the globalization-security nexus, and disentangles the key policy issues connected to a potential explosive flashpoint in world politics today.

East Asian countries - currently the most dynamic region of the global economy - have recently pursued trade liberalization through the adoption of various forms of bilateral and plurilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The book explores the key issues and possible outcomes arising from this departure from the region's traditional multilateral approach to trade liberalization. Implications of this new approach for the region as a whole, and key participating individual economies and blocs of economies, are emphasized.

This book addresses the changing nature of high-tech industries in Asia, particularly in the electronics sector. Its up-to-date findings will be invaluable to those involved in management, production networks and corporate strategy.

East Asia has been an area of high economic growth for several decades. The East Asian High-Tech Drive argues that to maintain the growth momentum, the more advanced East Asian economies need to pay particular attention to policies designed to upgrade their industrial capabilities. The authors argue that effectively functioning institutions, predictable commercial policies, investments in human capital and infrastructure, openness and macroeconomic stability are essential for growth and technological development. Regarding the two lower income economies in the sample, Indonesia is found to have the smallest improvement in the skill intensity of its exports, while the Philippines has registered the slowest economic growth. For both countries, industrial upgrading issues are not as imperative as achieving or regaining rapid, labour-intensive growth as both recently experienced major political instabilities.