Regional and Outward Economic Integration in South-East Asia

The subject of this paper tackles questions of macroeconomic integration of the South-East Asian countries South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. Economically, the analysis is based on notions of stochastic long-run convergence and business cycle synchrony in the GDPs. According tests for cointegration and common serial correlation features reveal a high degree of coherence in long-run growth and medium-run fluctuations. This allows extracting a common stochastic growth trend and a common business cycle. Further analysis shows, both of these components are subject to stronger influences from the US than from Japan. Convergence towards these matured economies conspicuously appears since the 1990s.