Current issues in economic integration : can Asia inspire the "West"? / edited by Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan and M. Bruna Zolin.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan and M. Bruna Zolin ---- Part I. Current Macroeconomic Issues. 1. Real interest rates and the crisis: where are the rates heading? / Dino Martellato --- 2. Economic vulnerability: China, EU and USA / Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan --- 3. The twilight of 'Chimerica'? China and the collapse of the American model / Guilhem Fabre --- 4. De facto trade integration and exchange rate policies in East Asia / Françoise Nicolas --- 5. Economic and financial integration in East Asia: status and perspective / Woosik Moon and Hwanhee Oh --- 6. Land, biofuels and food security: another 'impossible trinity theorem'? / Bernadette Andreosso-O'Callaghan and M. Bruna Zolin ---- Part II. Firm and Industry Level Issues. 7. Chinese businesses in Japan: an emerging phenomenon / Reinhard Drifte and Jacques Jaussaud --- 8. Indian multinationals: which competitive advantages? / Giovanni Balcet and Silvia Bruschieri --- 9. Transnational companies, shareholder value and Chinese innovation policy / Michael von Wuntsch and Xiaojun Wei --- 10. 'Equipment hypothesis' and skills: the case of die and mould-making -- Japan and Ireland / Tomoko Oikawa --- 11. Policy support for SMEs -- China and Europe / Esmeralda Gassie and Ju Hu --- 12. The impact of high-speed rail on accessibility and house-price variability: the case of 2 Taiwanese regions / David Emanuel Anderson and Oliver F. Shyr.

The current economic crisis throws into question a number of well-established and received beliefs. In particular, it questions the long-term viability of the decoupling between multinational firms and the banking system, it casts serious doubts on the US dollar-centered monetary system and on the continuation of the US dollar as the unique reserve currency in the future and invites the critical analyst to assess the long-term viability of US-China economic relations based on a US current account deficit absorbed by Chinese financial institutions. It can also be seen as an opportunity for a thorough analysis of the factors explaining the rise of property prices, in particular in fast-growing economies. Given the arbitrage exercised by investors on the different financial, primary commodities and other markets, and given the increasing depletion of fossil fuels, it raises the issue of food security in the long term, puts to the fore the multinational firms from the emerging economies (such as China and India) and it questions the response strategies of multinational firms from the Ẁest' and Japan. Finally, the crisis opens a debate centered on the future stimulating role that the Asian continent could play vis-a-vis t̀he West', and in particular, vis-a-vis the European Union. This book engages these key current issues in the broad theme of integration. -- Back cover.