Multinationals and East Asian Integration

The purpose of this study is to examine the trade and investment activities of international firms, notably those of Japan and the United States, in selected manufacturing industries in eight East Asian economies -- Guangdong Province in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand -- in order to shed light on their impact on regional economic linkages. Issues studied include: how their production is organized, particularly with regard to trade activities; the extent of intra-firm and intra-industry trade; how trade patterns differ by corporate nationality, location, industry, and age or size of enterprise; what those patterns imply about trade policies and intra-regional intensity of trade and investment ties compared with those with the rest of the world; and whether international firms' independence and growing importance in global production discipline governments' domestic policy freedom.