Transforming East Asia or Lessons from Deregulation

Transforming East Asia: The Evolution of Regional Economic Integration

Author: Naoko Munakata

East Asian economic integration is on the rise. Free trade agreements have proliferated throughout the region, and moves toward broader forms of regional cooperation are afoot. These initiatives have caused alarm in some quarters, leading observers to warn that East Asia may become a closed, inward-looking bloc. In this timely and important book, Naoko Munakata challenges this pessimistic interpretation.

Drawing on two decades of experience as an economic official and trade negotiator, Munakata argues that East Asian integration has little to do with either defensiveness or anti-Western sentiment. Instead, she maintains, it reflects pragmatic calculations of economic interest, as well as a desire to build trust and a sense of community across the region. Transforming East Asia explores the impact these factors have had on developments since the mid-1980s--a tumultuous period that has witnessed important changes in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the 1997 crisis and the rise of China. The book also offers policy prescriptions for building on regionalism's achievements to date while identifying key uncertainties about the prospects for an East Asian community.

In the coming decades, the rise of China, its relationship with Japan, and the institutional arrangements that bind those countries to the United States and their neighbors in East and Southeast Asia will become critical factors in the global balance of power. Transforming East Asia is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand these far-reaching developments.

Books about: Stochastic Models of Manufacturing Systems or The Economics of the World Trading System

Lessons from Deregulation: Telecommunications and Airlines after the Crunch

Author: Alfred E E Kahn

Over the last several years, the value of stocks in both the airline and the telecommunications industries have dropped catastrophically. Since these industries were among the most important—and most visible—to have been unleashed from regulation in recent decades (albeit in widely differing degree), their difficulties have raised the question of whether their deregulation should be reconsidered or even reversed.

Alfred E. Kahn, one of the foremost authorities on deregulation, argues in this book that every passing year demonstrates the superiority of the road chosen for the airlines. He contrasts the financial meltdowns of both the airline and telecommunications industries with others taking place at the same time, particularly in technology-related stocks and "dot.coms," pointing out that these sectors were also relatively free of direct economic regulation. Their experience provides a useful counter to the natural tendency to blame all the woes of aviation and telecommunications on government policy.

This book provides a valuable and accessible guide to unraveling the complex world of network deregulation. It will serve as a reference point for practioners and policymakers, as well as an important introduction for the general public.

Author Information:
Alfred E. Kahn is the preeminent authority on public utility deretulation in the United States and author of the classic two-volume The Economics of Regulation: Principles and Institutions (Wiley, 1970-71). He served as an economic adviser to President Carter and chairman of the New York Public Service Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Council on Wage and Price Stability. He is the Robert Julius Thorne Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at Cornell University.