Postindustrial East Asian Cities : Innovation for Growth

Throughout East Asia, the growth process and its sources are changing in a number of important respects, especially for middle and higher income economies. Growth will increasingly come from the strength of innovative activities. Such innovative activities, especially in producer services and the creative industries are concentrated in high-tech clusters in globally-linked cities. A successful transition from export-oriented manufacturing to a service economy that is competitive and integrated with global systems, will involve a reshaping of the urban landscape so that providers of business services and the creative industries perceive it to be value augmenting for their purposes and a basis for competitive advantage. Drawing on a wide literature review and interviews of firms, this title explores these issues and suggests how policies and institutions can induce and furnish an urban environment that supports innovative activities with a focus on four cities in East Asia: Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. This title provides researchers, students, urban planners, urban geographers, and policymakers interested in East Asia as well as other middle income countries with an in depth review and analysis of the role of high-tech manufacturing, creative industries and business services in urban economic growth.

Kaoru Nabeshima is an economist in the Development Economics Research Group at the World Bank. Shahid Yusuf is economic adviser in the Development Economics Research Group at the World Bank.