Factors Influencing Economic Integration in East Asia During 1980-2012; with A Focus on the Role of Japan

The spread of high economic growth among East Asian countries in the last three decades resulted in increasing attention regarding these countries’ development models. The present study attempts to investigate the process of integration among 15 countries in East Asia and to identify factors influencing the convergence of these countries during the years 1980 to 2012. The results show that the hypothesis of absolute beta convergence and sigma convergence are confirmed in the region. Examining the convergence toward the average reginal GDP per capita shows that the absolute beta convergence and sigma convergence are not confirmed for Japan. Meanwhile, conditional convergence is shown for Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, while absolute convergence is confirmed for Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. These results indicate a significant difference between the three countries of Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore, regarding GDP per capita compared with the average GDP per capita in the region. Due to Japan's position as a leading economy in the region, we investigate these countries’ convergence with Japan. The results show that all countries (except Macau, Brunei and Mongolia) have convergence with Japan.Asian international input-output tables depict a highly deepening and widening interdependency among manufacturing sector in East Asian countries during the years 1985-2005. Their interdependency which can be explained by "Flying Geese Pattern of Development" started with the acceptance of Plaza Accord in 1985 and the drastic wage increase in Japan in the early 1980s. Because of this interdependency, in the second part of this study we investigate the relationship between total export and bilateral export by using extended gravity model during the years 1988-2012. The results confirmed a significant positive relationship between bilateral exports and some of the model’s variables such as GDP and total relative exports of countries in the sample.