China, Asia, and the World Economy： The Implications of an Emerging Asian Core and Periphery

I. IntroductionThe effect of China’s rapid growth on other Asian economies is felt most directly through itsimpact on international trade and foreign investment. However, not only is the magnitude of this impact uncertain, even its direction is disputed. Some authors emphasize that China’s emergence as an economic power is applying intense competitive pressure to its neighbors. China’s immense reserves of cheap labor enable it to out-compete neighboring economies in the production of low-…     

The World Is Not Enough! Small Open Economies and Regional Dependence

In this paper, we explicitly introduce regional factors into a global dynamic factor model. We combine new open economy factor models (emphasizing global shocks) with the recent findings of regional importance in the business cycle synchronization literature. The analysis is applied to a large panel of domestic data for four small open economies. We find that global and regional shocks explain roughly 30 and 20 percent, respectively, of the business cycle variation in all countries. While global shocks have most impact on trade variables, regional shocks explain a relatively large share of the variation in cost variables.     

Tourism,changing architectural styles,and the production of place in Itacaré, Bahia,Brazil

This article examines changing architecture in Itacaré, Brazil, as it transitions from a fishing village to an international tourist destination. Tourism, as an assemblage of practices and perspectives, recreates places in specific ways that structure social and environmental relationships. Through an examination of historical architectural styles, tourist architecture, and popular architecture in Itacaré, this article analyses the ways a tourist economy has physically and socially rebuilt the city. Socially, the changing architecture marks and creates differences between class, racial, and regional identities while also providing an idiom through which public conversations about these changing economic systems and demographics are articulated. At the same time, the expansion of the city has led to racial-, regional-, and class-based segregation. Environmentally, tourist architecture creates new relationships to nature through re-imagining Itacaré’s position in relation to other rural and urban places and a new emphasis on the aesthetic value of nature.     

Polycentric development in the Cape Town city-region: Empirical assessment and consideration of spatial policy implications

The concept of the ‘polycentric urban region’ has been popularised both as a theoretical concept for understanding regional urban systems in an era of reduced transport and communication costs, and as a normative policy objective in its own right. This paper explores its relevance to the rapidly urbanising Cape Town city-region. First, empirical evidence for the emergence of polycentric regional development patterns was considered. Shifts in relative settlements sizes (morphological polycentrism) over the period 1991–2011 were examined using population data, and patterns of inter-settlement interactions (functional polycentrism) were explored by analysing commuting information. Contrary to expectations, trends toward polycentric development were found to be weak. Second, the paper considers the relevance and value of polycentric development thinking for regional economic and spatial planning policy, concluding that there are insufficient grounds for policy intervention aimed at encouraging polycentric regional development or countering the dominance of Cape Town in the region.     

Real Existing Regionalism: The Region between Talk,Territory and Technology

In this essay, we propose the notion of real existing ‘lived’ regionalism as a rejoinder to the normative and ideological debates around new regionalism. Regional forms have shown little convergence in this age of globalized regionalization. Instead of an ideational construct or set of predictable practices, we argue that regionalism is a contested product of discourses (talk), territorial relationships (territory) and technologies (material and of power). The concept of real existing regionalism confronts the tensions between the discursive constructions and normative interventions characterizing much current regionalist debate and the territorial politics and technologies reflecting, generating and directing new state spatial strategic choices. The essay demonstrates the utility of the real existing regionalism framework through an analysis of the greenbelt, transport planning and post‐ suburbanization in Southern Ontario. We argue that regulatory institutions capture the Toronto region in a mix of rhetorical and technological change that complies with neither preconceived notions of regionalization nor the pessimism of total regional dysfunctionality. Rather, the lived experience of regionalization illuminates the emergent assemblages, multiplicity of everyday flows and ongoing multiscalar negotiations of diverse communities that produce the real existing region.     

基于TPP的亚太经济一体化前景分析及中国的对策

作为亚太地区新的区域合作政策之一的TPP被看作是美国实现重返亚洲的有力工具,一直以来受到美国的关注和力推,必然对已经存在多种经济合作形式的亚太区域经济一体化进程产生重要的影响。文章首先梳理亚太区域经济一体化进程,提出TPP的由来和发展,并对TPP能否实现多边性区域主义进行剖析,以此作为预测亚太区域经济一体化前景的依据,并为中国进一步参与区域经济一体化提供对策建议。     

区域合作的现状分析及中国的周边外交战略选择

新区域主义是区域合作的一个重要形式。新区域主义的逐步兴起为中国周边外交战略的日益完善提供良好机遇和理论依据,为中国和周边国家之间的区域合作架起了桥梁,使中国的周边外交展现了更大的魅力。     

区域主义、多边主义与亚洲经济一体化

当今世界,区域经济一体化趋势明显.区域主义与多边主义之争反映了对两者是否兼容的不同认识.区域经济一体化不应看作是对多边主义的挑战,两者完全可以并存.而亚洲经济一体化则会在APEC的基础上逐步发展起来.     

地区本位与长江三角洲一体化发展

建立全国统一市场是市场经济发展的客观要求，建立全国统一市场，应该首先推进邻近区域的市场一体化。长江三角洲由于行政区划及利益主体不同等原因，区域经济发展中存在地区本位，阻碍着资源自由流动和跨地区合作。从发展的基础看，长江三角洲地区有条件成为推进区域市场一体化的先行地区。促进长江三角洲一体化的措施包括：构造协作联动的制度基础；协调基础设施建设；整合区域产业结构；鼓励企业跨区兼并；寻求新动力全面推进一体化进程。     

The political economy of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: a ‘21st Century’ trade agreement?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was the first of the ‘Mega-FTAs’ to be signed. Had it been ratified, it would have created the world’s largest preferential trade area. The negotiators of the TPP aspired to create ‘a next-generation transformative agreement’ that would address a new trade agenda focused on regulatory coherence and business facilitation. The expectation was that this agenda would generate a 21st Century trade politics that would be less contentious, at least among business actors, than traditional negotiations on market access. Studies of another Mega-FTA under negotiation, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that has a similar agenda found unified business support for the agreement domestically and the emergence of transnational business coalitions in support of the agreement. Recent theorising on trade politics suggests, however, that global value chains (GVCs) that involve vertical intra-industry trade introduce ‘traditional’ distributional issues that will divide business interests domestically – and, in the case of GVCs organised on different geographical bases, internationally as well. This cleavage was evident in the TPP negotiations, unlike those for TTIP, as were other divisions among business – both domestically and across countries – over the sharing of existing rents and of new rents generated by regulatory harmonisation.