The Diffusion of Western Economic Ideas in East Asia

The Diffusion of Western Economic Ideas in East Asia
Author: Malcolm Warner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2016-12-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317399722

This book examines the diffusion of economic ideas in East Asia, assessing the impact of external ideas on internal theory and practice. It considers economists from Adam Smith onwards, including Marx, Keynes, Hayek and contemporary economists, and covers the subject both historically and also includes present day and likely future developments. The book covers all the major countries of East Asia, and pays particular attention to specific economists who have had a strong impact in specific countries, and to important developments in economic theory in East Asia, exploring how far these have been driven by Western economic ideas. This book will be welcomed by students and scholars of East Asia and South-east Asia, as well as those interested in economics, economic history and management.

Modern Japanese Economic Thought

Modern Japanese Economic Thought
Author: Kiichiro Yagi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2022-12-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000823628

Since the late-19th century, Japan has made remarkable strides in industrialization. Beginning with the economic vision of Miura Baien in the 18th century, and employing a detailed comparison with the West, this book delves into the economic thought of the scholars who played a pivotal role in Japan’s modernization process. The author takes Fukuzawa Yukichi’s theory of ‘civilization’ as the standard measure of Japan’s modernization and compares it with differing visions from various critics whose research focused on rural poverty and social problems, such as Maeda Masana, early socialists, Yanagita Kunio and Kawakami Hajime. Further, the book explores new liberalism (Ishibashi Tanzan, Fukuda Tokuzo) and Marxism (Yamada Moritaro, Uno Kozo) in the 1920s and 1930s. After discussing the dilemmas faced by economists during wartime (Takata Yasuma, Ryu Shintaro, Shibata Kei), the author concludes this intellectual history with the country’s post-1945 democratic reforms and their early demise. This book is valuable reading for students and researchers of Japan’s intellectual history. However, due to the book’s comparative perspective, as well as the universality of the modernization experience, it will also appeal to students and researchers of the history of economic thought and modern intellectual history.

The Neomercantilists

The Neomercantilists
Author: Eric Helleiner
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2021-11-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501760130

At a time when critiques of free trade policies are gaining currency, The Neomercantilists helps make sense of the protectionist turn, providing the first intellectual history of the genealogy of neomercantilism. Eric Helleiner identifies many pioneers of this ideology between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries who backed strategic protectionism and other forms of government economic activism to promote state wealth and power. They included not just the famous Friedrich List, but also numerous lesser-known thinkers, many of whom came from outside of the West. Helleiner's novel emphasis on neomercantilism's diverse origins challenges traditional Western-centric understandings of its history. It illuminates neglected local intellectual traditions and international flows of ideas that gave rise to distinctive varieties of the ideology around the globe, including in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. This rich history left enduring intellectual legacies, including in the two dominant powers of the contemporary world economy: China and the United States. The result is an exceptional study of a set of profoundly influential economic ideas. While rooted in the past, it sheds light on the present moment. The Neomercantilists shows how we might construct more global approaches to the study of international political economy and intellectual history, devoting attention to thinkers from across the world, and to the cross-border circulation of thought.

Western Bankers in China

Western Bankers in China
Author: Jane Nolan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2018-10-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429819528

When China’s economic reforms were beginning, there was an expectation in the west that China’s financial markets would be opened to western banks and that China’s banks would be reformed along western lines. Joint ventures between Chinese banks and western banks, minority shareholding by western banks and the involvement of western banking personnel in assisting Chinese banks with their reforms were all seen as moves towards reform along western lines. This book analyses the role which western bankers have played in China’s economic reforms, focusing on their influence on institutional change and corporate governance. Based on extensive original research, the book shows that while components of western models of corporate governance have been widely adopted, the motivation for these changes seems to have been legitimacy-seeking by Chinese banks, and that whilst there has been relatively rapid change in the formal legislative environment, informal organisational practices are changing at a much slower pace. Alliances between Chinese and western banks are woven with contradictions and power games and so many actors in the Chinese banking sector seek to resist manipulation by their western counterparts. The financial crisis weakened the idea that western banks are a universally correct model and strengthened China’s resolve to keep control of its banking sector and manage it along Chinese lines.

Whose Ideas Matter?

Whose Ideas Matter?
Author: Amitav Acharya
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2011-07-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 080145946X

Asia is a crucial battleground for power and influence in the international system. It is also a theater of new experiments in regional cooperation that could redefine global order. Whose Ideas Matter? is the first book to explore the diffusion of ideas and norms in the international system from the perspective of local actors, with Asian regional institutions as its main focus. There's no Asian equivalent of the EU or of NATO. Why has Asia, and in particular Southeast Asia, avoided such multilateral institutions? Most accounts focus on U.S. interests and perceptions or intraregional rivalries to explain the design and effectiveness of regional institutions in Asia such as SEATO, ASEAN, and the ASEAN Regional Forum. Amitav Acharya instead foregrounds the ideas of Asian policymakers, including their response to the global norms of sovereignty and nonintervention. Asian regional institutions are shaped by contestations and compromises involving emerging global norms and the preexisting beliefs and practices of local actors. Acharya terms this perspective "constitutive localization" and argues that international politics is not all about Western ideas and norms forcing their way into non-Western societies while the latter remain passive recipients. Rather, ideas are conditioned and accepted by local agents who shape the diffusion of ideas and norms in the international system. Acharya sketches a normative trajectory of Asian regionalism that constitutes an important contribution to the global sovereignty regime and explains a remarkable continuity in the design and functions of Asian regional institutions.

Employers' Associations in Asia

Employers' Associations in Asia
Author: John Beson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2017-06-26
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317372859

Economic growth in Asia over the past half century has led to significant changes in societies, business organization and the nature of work. This has been accompanied by the rise in some countries of trade unions and also of employers’ associations. This book explores the nature of employers’ associations in the major countries of Asia. It considers how employers’ associations have developed in recent decades, how changes in market structures and the profile of economies have affected employers’ associations, how employers’ associations deal with issues to do with pay and employment conditions, and how they interact with regulation and the state. The book shows how the differing political and institutional contexts of different countries, and different economic conditions, greatly affect the nature of employers’ associations and also the wider context of labour markets and trade unions.

Business Leaders and Leadership in Asia

Business Leaders and Leadership in Asia
Author: Ying Zhu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 140
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317567501

The quality of its business leadership is a key issue for the future development of Asia’s economies. Although Asia’s economies have grown spectacularly in recent decades, they are currently facing increasing challenges. This book explores the current state of business leaders and leadership in Asia. It demonstrates that there is no single model of Asian business leadership, and that Western models often do not fit easily alongside Asian cultural values. It discusses how relatively developed Asian economies – Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, and former socialist economies – China and Vietnam – all have different types of business leadership challenges at present. The book concludes by assessing how business leadership in Asia is likely to develop in future.

Changing Labour Policies and Organization of Work in China

Changing Labour Policies and Organization of Work in China
Author: Ying Zhu
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 118
Release: 2020-12-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0429848080

The transformation of China’s economy from a centrally planned to a market-oriented system has had a profound impact on management systems and practices at the firm level, particularly changes to the organization of work. One of the consequences of this is increasing social disparity reflected through inequality of employees’ income and employment conditions. This book, based on extensive original research including interviews and questionnaire surveys in different regions of China, explores the exact nature of these changes and their effects. It examines state-owned enterprises, foreign-owned enterprises and domestic private enterprises, discusses the extent to which employees are satisfied with their employment conditions and whether they think their employment conditions are fair and outlines how managers and employees in China expect conditions to change in future.

Connecting Taiwan

Connecting Taiwan
Author: Carsten Storm
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351268945

Taiwan has often been characterised as an isolated society in its search for sovereignty and security. Its contact with the world in an era of globalization and post-modernity, however, has increasingly led to Taiwanese actors successfully participating in many regional and global fields. In this book an international team of scholars presents cases studies and theoretical debates emphasising agency in coping with the effects of globalisation. In so doing, they contest the image of Taiwan’s marginalization and seek to understand it in terms of its connectedness, whether globally, regionally or trans-nationally. Taking a multi-disciplinary, comparative approach, it covers themes such as markets and trading, diplomacy and nation-branding, collective action, media, film and literature, and religious mission. It thus combines perspectives from several disciplines including media studies, sociology, political science, and studies in religion. Using Taiwan as an example of how to conceptualise connectivity and think differently about comparative studies, this book will be useful for students and scholars of Asian Politics and Cultural Studies, as well as of Taiwan Studies more specifically.

The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Policy

The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Policy
Author: Arkebe Oqubay
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 912
Release: 2020-10-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0192607235

Industrial policy has long been regarded as a strategy to encourage sector-, industry-, or economy-wide development by the state. It has been central to competitiveness, catching up, and structural change in both advanced and developing countries. It has also been one of the most contested perspectives, reflecting ideologically inflected debates and shifts in prevailing ideas. There has lately been a renewed interest in industrial policy in academic circles and international policy dialogues, prompted by the weak outcomes of policies pursued by many developing countries under the direction of the Washington Consensus (and its descendants), the slow economic recovery of many advanced economies after the 2008 global financial crisis, and mounting anxieties about the national consequences of globalization. The Oxford Handbook of Industrial Policy presents a comprehensive review of and a novel approach to the conceptual and theoretical foundations of industrial policy. The Handbook also presents analytical perspectives on how industrial policy connects to broader issues of development strategy, macro-economic policies, infrastructure development, human capital, and political economy. By combining historical and theoretical perspectives, and integrating conceptual issues with empirical evidence drawn from advanced, emerging, and developing countries, The Handbook offers valuable lessons and policy insights to policymakers, practitioners and researchers on developing productive transformation, technological capabilities, and international competitiveness. It addresses pressing issues including climate change, the gendered dimensions of industrial policy, global governance, and technical change. Written by leading international thinkers on the subject, the volume pulls together different perspectives and schools of thought from neo-classical to structuralist development economists to discuss and highlight the adaptation of industrial policy in an ever-changing socio-economic and political landscape.