The number of regional economic agreements involving East Asian economies has proliferated in the years since the financial crises. These agreements generally have been viewed as a response to the costs of increasing interdependence and/or to the demand by domestic exporters to level the playing field when their rivals benefit from preferential trade agreements.

According to the UNU-CRIS Working Paper “New East Asian Regionalism”: A “Political Domino” Effect? by Prof. John Ravenhill of Australian National University, however, a detailed examination of economic data finds no support for the argument that intra-regional economic interdependence in East Asia has increased significantly since the financial crises. Case studies further suggest that business has not played a major role in either promoting or opposing the agreements — which is not surprising in that the agreements are unlikely to have a major economic impact and are not being widely used by business.

According to this study, rather than there being an “economic domino” effect at work, the new East Asian regionalism is best understood as being driven by a “political domino” effect.