Overview
2009
In recent times, China has accomplished remarkable economic development and among developing countries has the strongest economic relationship with Japan. China is now Japan's largest trading partner and Japan is the third largest trading partner for China. Japan is also the second largest provider of foreign direct investment into China. It is this close economic relationship between the two countries that prompted policymakers and researchers to clarify the mechanism that supports China's current economic development. RIETI and the Development Research Center of the State Council of the People's Republic of China concluded an agreement for research cooperation in 2006, which has allowed RIETI to conduct in-depth analyses of the Chinese economy. This research project thus conducts various empirical analyses using industrial and firm-level data from China and Japan to uncover the important aspects of the Chinese economy such as the spillovers from the increased presence of foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) or the internationalization of indigenous Chinese firms.
2007 - 2008
Notable research topics in the field of international economics include the growth of foreign direct investment, expansion of overseas production and outsourcing; technology licensing and the protection of intellectual property rights; the trade expanding effects of FTAs; and, the effectiveness of trade restrictive measures based on tariffs and anti-dumping actions. These issues have already been analyzed in the context of trade theory, theory of the firm and contract theory. However, not enough has been done in empirical examination. This applies to Japan as well as to other countries. The purpose of this project is to quantitatively analyze current issues in the above topics based on international trade data by commodity industry-level data and firm-level data for Japanese firms. In addition, we will quantitatively assess the effects of policies and systems, and discuss the implications for trade and industrial policies.
2006
The globalization is bringing great changes to the international economic environment for Japan. We will review the current state of globalization in Japan from three perspectives: (1) market institutions, (2) international trade structures, and (3) trade policy. (1) Market conditions are major determinants of international trade, foreign direct investment, and technology transfers, but their quantitative analysis is inadequately developed. In our research we will study the importance of market conditions by developing indicators, and analyze the impact on trade, investment, and research and development (R&D). One topic includes the impact of cross-country differences in the intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on technology transfers. (2) Amid the globalization, the Japanese international division of labor is becoming more complex. By analyzing the split of manufacturing processes by Japanese firms and relating it with the firms' R&D and scale, we will cast light on the state of outsourcing, in particular the outsourcing of production. (3) The advance of economic globalization is making it increasingly important to seriously consider the costs and benefits of safeguard measures in trade policy. We take up the United States' experience as a case study, and re-examine the importance of these policies.
July 1, 2007 - March 31, 2011
Major Research Results
Major Research Results
2010
RIETI Discussion Papers
RIETI Policy Discussion Papers
2009
DRC-RIETI Workshop
2008
RIETI Discussion Papers
08-E-029
"Cross-regional Variations in Offshore Outsourcing Choices: Evidence from Firm-level Data" (TOMIURA Eiichi, ITO Banri and WAKASUGI Ryuhei)
08-E-028
"Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Firm-level Data" (ITO Banri, WAKASUGI Ryuhei and TOMIURA Eiichi)
08-E-022
"International Strategic Alliances for Local Market Entry: Direct Launches versus Marketing Alliances in Pharmaceuticals" (TAKECHI Kazutaka)
08-J-007
"International Trade in Cultural Goods: Survey and Prospects" (TANAKA Ayumu)
2007
RIETI Discussion Papers
08-E-009
"Offshoring and Trade in East Asia: Statistical Evidence" (WAKASUGI Ryuhei, ITO Banri and TOMIURA Eiichi)
07-E-064
"Foreign Direct Investment, Intra-Regional Trade and Production Sharing in East Asia" (Nathalie AMINIAN, K. C. FUNG and IIZAKA Hitomi)
07-E-060
"Dissecting Offshore Outsourcing and R&D: A Survey of Japanese Manufacturing Firms" (ITO Banri, TOMIURA Eiichi and WAKASUGI Ryuhei)
07-E-055
"Product Cycle and Industrial Hollowing-out: The Case of the Electrical and Electronics Sector of Taiwan" (Tzu-Han YANG and Yueh-Po LIAO)
07-E-031
"Enforceability in Trade Credit: Financial Aspects of Transactions with FDI" (ITOH Seiro, WATANABE Mariko and YANAGAWA Noriyuki)
07-E-026
"Did U.S. Safeguard Resuscitate Harley Davidson in the 1980s?" (KITANO Taiju and OHASHI Hiroshi)
07-E-025
"R&D and Export Intensities in Automotive Parts Firms in China, Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan: Does Ownership Matter?" (Rajah RASIAH)
07-E-024
"Global Sourcing, Technology, and Factor Intensity: Firm-level Relationships" (TOMIURA Eiichi)
07-E-022
"The Effect of Imports and Exports on Total Factor Productivity in Korea" (Sangho KIM, Hyunjoon LIM and Donghyun PARK)
07-E-021
"Does Foreign Direct Investment Have an Impact on the Growth in Labor Productivity of Vietnamese Domestic Firms?" (LE Thanh Thuy)
International Symposium
2006
RIETI Discussion Papers
International Workshop
- Mar. 16-17, 2007
"Empirical Studies of Trade, FDI and Firm in East Asia"