• International Area Studies Review
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.73-91
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• 2009

In this paper, we attempt to study the trend of regional disparity among Chinese provinces and examine the effects of globalization on the disparities adapting panel data approach. The panel data set utilized consists of the annual variables of 29 provinces during 18 years from 1990 to 2007. The trend of inter-provincial disparities in the 1990s with the expansive trend but the trend has started to decrease since 2000. The results of the China case study show clearly that the provincial international trade level and ratio variables perform on regional income disparities remarkably in all cases. It means that the large development of international trade do with increased among provincial disparity. While due to the large area in the provinces, there exist urban-rural disparities within provinces could be one of the main source of regional disparities. Therefore, along with western regions development policy various development policies against small cities are necessary for balanced regional economic growth in China.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.75-102
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• 1999

This paper attempts at analyzing the urban dynamics in Northeast Asia by looking at major forces transforming the regional structure of Northeast Asia. Trade and foreign direct invest-ment are identified as two principal channels of increasing economic interdependence in the region. In addition, macro development strategy and infrastructure policy are another set of determining factors for changes in the regional structure of Northeast Asia. To examine the role of cities and inter-city linkages, the paper first tries to identify major urban centers and urban hierarchy in Northeast Asia. Secondly, it examines the prospects for inter-city network formation. Against these anticipated changes in the regional structure and inter-city networks in Northeast Asia, the paper discusses about the future of Korea as well as the role of Koran cities in the regional economy of Northeast Asia.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.95-110
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• 2021

Purpose - This paper intends to conduct theoretical analysis and empirical test on the action mechanism of South Korea-China trade and South Korea's FDI to China on green total factor productivity, so as to provide a new perspective and ideas for the improvement of China's green total factor productivity and promote the high-quality development of China's economy Design/methodology - This paper uses the data of 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017 as the research sample, adopts the GML index method of SBM Directional Distance Function to measure GTFP, and analyzes the influence of South Korea-China trade and FDI from South Korea on China's GTFP. Findings - Trade is conducive to promoting technological progress, which has a significant promotion effect on China's green total factor productivity. While FDI has a significant inhibitory effect on China's green total factor productivity, which verifies the "pollution haven" hypothesis. In addition, such influence has certain regional overall heterogeneity. Trade has a more significant promoting effect on GTFP in eastern coastal areas, while FDI has a more significant inhibitory effect on GTFP in central and western inland areas. The interaction between trade and FDI is conducive to the improvement of green total factor productivity, indicating that the benign mechanism of trade and FDI has been formed. Urbanization, industrial structure, human resource level and investment in science and technology are all conducive to the improvement of GTFP. Originality/value - Through theoretical analysis and empirical test on the action mechanism of South Korea-China trade and South Korea's FDI on green total factor productivity, this paper provides a solid theoretical foundation for the further development of China-South Korea economic and trade cooperation in the future.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.109-126
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• 2022

Purpose - Based on the relevant panel data for China and 13 of the RCEP countries from 2008-2019, this paper conducts an in-depth study on the impact of trade facilitation levels on China's cross-border e-commerce exports using the expanded trade gravity model. Design/methodology - This study constructs a trade facilitation index (TFI) system, and uses the principal component analysis method to measure the trade facilitation levels of RCEP countries in 2008-2019. This result is then introduced into the extended gravity model to explore the effect of trade facilitation in RCEP countries on China's cross-border e-commerce export. Findings - It is found that the overall trade facilitation level has a significant effect on China's cross-border e-commerce exports. Among the primary indicators, with the exception of infrastructure, the other four indicators demonstrate a significant impact. The findings show that China should strengthen its cooperation with RCEP countries in trade facilitation and cross-border e-commerce to better achieve complementary regional economic development. Originality/value - This paper has three contributions: first, this paper builds a TFI system that includes five primary indicators based on the characteristics of cross-border e-commerce. Second, we explore the impact of trade facilitation levels of RCEP countries on China's cross-border e-commerce exports, which helps to fill the gap in existing studies of the impact of cross-border e-commerce exports. Third, this paper further analyzes the impact of five primary indicators on cross-border e-commerce exports; this thus provides more targeted measures to improve trade facilitation levels.

• Journal of Korea Port Economic Association
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.23-41
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the gravitation of ship's cargo tons of arriving and leaving port of Busan based on the gravity model empirically and experimentally and to suggest possible ways to expand the trade quantities(cargo tons) by identifying important factors determining the port of Busan's bilateral trade flows with foreign countries by using the 1995, and 2001 data. In this paper, new independent variables, such as land, populations, and the APEC and ASEAN memberships, and new dependent variable, such as the ship's cargo tons of arrival and leaving port of Busan were used for expanding the previous studies. Empirical analysis found that the port of Busan tends to trade more with countries in close proximity and the large size of economies. The fact that the port of Busan's trades more with APEC countries than with non-APEC countries is a clear empirical evidence of the growing importance of the regional trade agreement and strategic alliance with the ports of these member countries. The main policy implication based on the findings of this study is that GDP, distance, adjacency, and APEC membership which were the affecting variables to the bilateral trade with the port of Busan should be closely investigated for enhancing the trade quantities with those foreign countries.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2016.05a
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• pp.190-190
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• 2016

The Water, Energy, and Food (WEF) nexus is an emerging concept for sustainable resources planning and management. The three valuable resources are inevitably interconnected, that is, it takes water to produce energy; it takes energy to extract, treat, and distribute water; and both water and energy are required to produce food. Although it is challenging to fully understand the complicated interdependency, a few studies have been devoted to interpret the concept and develop the assessment tools. The tools were mainly developed for nation-wide simulations without considering inter-basin or inter-state resources trade. This study tries to present an idea to develop and implement the WEF nexus simulation model in regional scale by advancing the existing nation-wide model with additional capability to simulate the inter-basin trade. This simulation could help local planners and engineers to determine optimal policies and infrastructure solutions to reach and ensure local demand satisfaction. The simulation model is implemented in hypothetical areas with different conditions of WEF demands and supplies. Although the inter-basin trade scenarios are simulated manually, it shows that the inter-basin resources trade could enhance the resources security for a longer time period. In future, an optimization model might be developed to provide the automatic calculation to reach optimum amount of WEF for the trade, which can be a helpful tool in decision making process.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.58-76
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• 2022

Purpose - This study examined the Rules of Origin (RoO) as a factor affecting free trade agreements' (FTA) utilization and analyzed the causal relationship and the effects of these factors on the export performance of automobile parts companies. Design/methodology - We analyzed and verified the impact of FTA utilization and the export performance of automobile parts companies by dividing the characteristics of the RoO into complexity and uncertainty. Following which, various statistical analyses were conducted on the interrelationships among these variables. Findings - This research analyzed the effect of the RoO factors of complexity and uncertainty on the use of FTA and the export performance of automobile parts companies. We found that these characteristics of RoO were generally related to and affected the FTA use and export performance of these companies. Based on this, this study's investigation into the characteristics of the RoO would then help companies in better utilizing the FTA, as well as providing suggestions on how to effectively respond to the application of the FTA in the future. Originality/value - Companies that want to utilize FTAs in international trade must follow the RoO. In the Regional Trade Agreement (RTA), the country-of-origin is a key factor, with the RoO being an important requirement for the application of preferential tariffs. These regulations are a requirement for receiving FTA preferential treatment; however, they also cause difficulties to companies in using the FTA.

• Asian review of World Histories
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.113-135
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• 2015

The word 'urbanity' literally means 'quality or state of being urban' where the criterion of urban economic and civic culture is assumed despite the general celebration of cultural uniqueness of urban centers. The narratives celebrating the uniqueness of urban centers since the ancient past till recent times could not get rid of the broad categorization of the urban models depending on their contextual networks of trade, mobility and culture. This paper attempts to explore whether the urban cultures in South Asia even preceding a global phenomenon like colonialism were actually reflecting an idea of urbanity where the urban culture, including planning and architecture reflected a trans-national model. This paper particularly concentrates on the medieval period when a pattern of urbanity took shape in this subcontinent under the influence of Islam, which could be explained by its particular idea of urban model, cultural exchange and vibrant trade networks.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.159-186
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• 2016

This study analyzes the degree of dependency and comparative advantage of each country for intermediate goods trade in East Asia, which predicts the comparative advantage of the intermediate goods trade and fragmentation in East Asia when the FTA arrangement in East Asia is implemented. The results are as follows. First, the share of intra-regional trade in the intermediate goods in East Asia has increased over time, implying the deepening of interdependency in intermediate goods trade within the East Asia. Second, Korea is a net exporter in intermediate goods trade for China and ASEAN, whereas it is a net importer for Japan. Japan is a high net exporter for all East Asia, while China is a net importer for Korea, Japan and ASEAN. If FTA arrangement in East Asia is implemented, Japan and Korea will be key suppliers of the intermediate goods for East Asia, while China and ASEAN will play a role of the manufacturing factory through the import of intermediate goods. Third, Korea has a comparative advantage in intermediate trade of electric and electronics and transport vehicle industry in East Asia. Japan has a comparative advantage in all of electric and electronics, transport vehicle, precision instrument, general machinery industry, whereas China has a comparative advantage only in electric and electronics intermediate trade in East Asia. The intra-industry trade of the intermediate goods in precision instrument, general machinery industry is expected to grow among Korea, Japan and China.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-79
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• 2013

The objective of this article is to explore the economic relationship between China and the surrounding dynamic Asian economies. It delves into China's influence over the Asian economies and whether this relationship is a market-led or de facto symbiosis. The three principal channels of regional integration analyzed in this article are trade, FDI and vertically integrated production networks. They are essentially based on the activities of the private-sector in these economies. China methodically expanded and deepened its economic ties with the regional neighbors. At the present juncture, China's integration with the surrounding Asia is deep. Another issue that this article explores is the so-called China "threat" or "fear" in Asia. It implies that China is crowding out exports of the other Asian economies in the world market place. Also, as China has become the most attractive FDI destination among the developing countries, it is apprehended that China is receiving FDI at the expense of the Asian economies. These concerns were examined by several empirical studies, and the inference is that they are exaggerated. This article concludes that the private-sector business activities in China and other rapidly growing Asian economies were (and are) instrumental in bringing together the production structures and real economies. The result is both convergence and integration among the dynamic Asian economies. Over the years China and its Asian neighbors has developed a close and symbiotic economic relationship and a de facto regional integration.