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This thesis consists of three studies. The topics discussed are in the area of international trade and economic growth with a reference to the policy issues in East Asia. The study in Chapter 2 presents a model of North-South trade which can explain the observed cross-country variations in factor prices. Intuition and evidence suggest that knowledge is largely non-excludable and hence all countries should have access to broadly similar technology. However, this public-good assumption for technology leads to implausible predictions of factor prices in standard models. The model in this study does not assume any differences in technology but its predictions are consistent with observations. In Chapter 3, the implications of the two vintage models for growth accounting are examined. Growth accounting studies have shown that total factor productivity growth in East Asian economies has been slower than expected. Analysis of the vintages models suggests that this puzzling finding could be due to mismeasurements of capital arising from the particular characteristic of East Asian growth experience. In Chapter 4, it is shown that when asymmetric economies adopt an open regionalism policy, some of them may gain at the expense of others. This result is very different from the commonly held view in the literature. In certain situations, some economies in the bloc achieves a higher welfare level than under global free trade. A policy of open regionalism could therefore turn out to be an obstacle to the process of multilateral trade liberalization.

The notion that institutional capacity matters to regional economic performance has grown in recent years (Evans and Harding, 1997; Gibbs, 2001; Healey, 1997). However, little work has focused on issues surrounding the impact of institutional capacity on major (sub) regional investment programmes such as that afforded through Objective 1 designation. Research has been undertaken into the notion of'social capital' (Putnam, 1993) and enhancing the role of local government (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992). A body of work has explored regeneration networks and partnerships (Rhodes, 1997; Skelcher et al, 1996). Less has been undertaken on developing a framework through which to define and examine institutional capacity, exploring institutional capacity across a range of stakeholders, in sub regions subject to additional funding, and through time. This thesis attempts to help fill the gap that exists in the current literature. The research proposal is designed to develop a methodology through which to define and explore the notion of institutional capacity at the sub regional level; to undertake longitudinal research through which to assess the evolving nature of capacity in the region; to examine existing theories of governance and their relevance to institutional capacity within the context of a programme such as Objective 1; to provide a theoretical explanation of institutional capacity; and to assist in the creation of a sustainable and inclusive approach towards the regeneration of South Yorkshire within the context of Objective 1. This thesis undertakes this task by the use of semi-structured interviews and case studies in exploring the development of institutional capacity in the South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme. The thesis explores the usefulness of four theories associated with notions of Governance and Power and argues that the development of institutional capacity in the South Yorkshire Objective 1 Programme is best explained by synthesising across these approaches and formulating a new approach defined as 'Bureaucratic Multi-level Governance'.

This thesis is concerned with exploring the nature of the Japanese transnational corporation and analysing the real effects of their transnational activities within Japan’s machinery industries. The machinery industries are the most important of Japan’s manufacturing sectors. The sector is also the most open of all Japanese manufacturing industry to the forces of globalisation and has seen the global emergence of Japan’s so-called “national champions”, such as Toyota, Hitachi and Sony. Japan’s transnationals have been pursuing global strategies to compete with their international rivals. In particular, they have been strategically developing their own transnational production networks, consisting of their core keiretsu partners and suppliers, to facilitate the use of global outsourcing. These transnational activities are changing the nature of Japan’s domestic industrial structure. In this respect, there have been concerns that the global expansion of Corporate Japan has had real consequences for domestic Japanese manufacturing. In particular, there have been concerns that the growth in Japanese transnational production will lead to a “hollowing out” of Japanese manufacturing industry (Fujita and Hill 1989; Cowling and Tomlinson, 2000). These important issues form the subject matter of this thesis. We begin by tracing the emergence of Japan’s transnational corporations - within the machinery sector - and the growth in Japanese transnational production. Using a Case Study of the Japanese automobile industry, we then highlight the growth in Japanese transnational production networks, known as the new keiretsu. This new keiretsu provides Japan’s transnational corporations with an inside option to “divide and rule” both their suppliers and their global labour force. We uncover direct evidence of this strategy from interviews and a questionnaire with Managing Directors and Senior Managers of Japanese auto-suppliers, based in the UK. We argue that such activities create interdependent linkages between the Japanese transnationals’ affiliates around the globe. Consequently, the transnationals’ strategic decisions, which determine the level of production, investment and employment at their domestic and foreign affiliates will then have a real effect upon the performance of domestic Japanese manufacturing. We provide both econometric and survey evidence to show that this is indeed the case. Finally, in the light of our conclusions we suggest possible ways forward for Japanese industrial policy.

This thesis sets out to examine the impact of marketisation on the value chains of a number of English post-1992 universities between 1992 and 2010. The research focuses on the relationships and interplay between knowledge and value in the context of the knowledge economy and the increasing marketisation of the higher education sector. While the extant global value chain (GVC) literature tends to focus on manufacturing networks and chains, this thesis will argue that (quasi-) public service sector value chains, especially those in higher education provide important cases for study. In-depth interviews with twelve members of the ‘institutional elite’ within the post-1992 sector of higher education, supported by rich documentary analysis, provides compelling evidence for modifications to the existing ‘value chain’ framework in order to better account for the particularities of (quasi-) public services and service work. The research proposes a typology designed to capture fragmented and commodified knowledge, and its practical manifestations, generated within the higher education sector. Beyond this, it attempts to rationalise the notion of value (in the context of the value chain framework) with the production, diffusion and dissemination of knowledge for higher education institutions. The study also develops a broad value chain for the post-1992 sector of higher education to explore the robustness of the conceptual ‘value chain’ framework for similar organisations. The research concludes that marketisation has indeed in part been responsible for encouraging universities to re-structure their value chains. It also challenges the conceptual reach of the existing ‘value chain’ framework by making a number of insightful observations regarding the nature of (higher education) service activities. Specifically, it identifies a number of underplayed factors including (1) the treatment of knowledge and value (2) ‘institutional elites’ (3) ‘ideology as governance’ (4) the (quasi-) public service sector and (5) place as having particular consequences for the conceptualisation of (quasi-) public service sector value chains.

This thesis tried to unravel the causes of the technological underdevelopment of the Thai automobile industry by examining the institutions, the actors and their interaction. The principal characteristic of each actor was a product of where it came from, when it developed, and how it adapted to· historical events. Having only evolved slowly, these characteristics have conditioned the behaviour of the actors - the strategies of multinational corporations, the policies of the Thai government and the management structures of Thai firms - during the last 40 years of the 20th century. The minimal intervention of the Thai government helped promote the activities of multinational corporations, and they brought wide-ranging manufacturing know-how to Thailand. On the one hand, the relatively unfettered operation of multinational corporations was a driving force in the quantitative expansion of the automobile industry. On the other hand, this pattern of development was not conducive to the creation of a linkage between the technologically superior foreign [ums and local rums, and the promotion of learning activities in the latter. The situation was also aggravated by the management structure of local firms and their lack of effort to upgrade technology under the environment of the existence of the only weak market pressure. However, the technological underdevelopment cannot be simply attributed to some aspects of one or all of these actors. A case study of the Thai automobile industry suggested we could understand the root causes of the underdevelopment only by examining how the interaction of the actors set a certain path of technological development and how their behaviour was conditioned by their underlying characteristics.

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