Mini Workshop on Micro-data Study on Labialization of International Trade and Investment
October 1, 2009
A mini-workshop on the liberalization of international trade and investment featuring invited researchers from South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia was held October 1, 2009 at the Keio University Mita Campus, with sponsorship from the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
At the workshop participants discussed how changes in trade and investment systems, which have a great impact on market quality in developing countries, influence foreign direct investment and export behavior. The three invited researchers presented reports concerning their respective countries, with Dionisius Narjoko of ERIA addressing Indonesia, Associate Professor Archanun Kohpaiboon (Thammasat University) speaking about Thailand, and Chin Hee Hahn of the Korea Development Institute examining South Korea.
The research reports on Indonesia and Thailand both examined technology transfer from multinationals to local companies, with implications for the incentive policies developing countries may pursue to lure multinationals. The report on South Korea examined whether or not export access to overseas markets boosts productivity, and suggested that the likelihood of successful technology acquisition may be higher at factories with high concentrations of skilled labor. Dr. Hahn’s paper on South Korea was also stimulating because it made use of propensity score matching, which is a relatively new analytical method in the field of international economics.
The papers presented at the mini-workshop all used enterprise and business establishment level data analysis to indentify how globalization improves economic welfare, bringing renewed awareness of the great potential for research based on micro-level data.
