• Date: December 18th, Wednesday, 2019 13:00-15:00
• Location: Room 303, SNUAC (Bldg. 101)

Speaker: Prof. Soyoung Kim (Dept. of Economics)

As the 2017 SNUAC Invitational Project <Asian Identity and Integration of Exchange – Developing East Asian Integration Index> has ended in November 2019, the research results will be presented. As the research director of this project, Professor Soyoung Kim of Dept. of Economics sought to express the identity of integration in the Asian region, thus first building integration indices of economy, politics and society in Korea, China and Japan.

First, the process of integration in each sector was conceptualized after being divided into institutional integration and relational integration.

Second, variables appropriate for showing the integration in each sector were selected and quantified for building the integration index.

Third, a time series flow was presented at the level of integration in each sector, and the integration levels were presented along with appropriate interpretations.

Lastly, an overall integration index was presented, in consideration of the economy, politics and society.

The integration index shows that the economic, political and social integration indices of all three countries have increased slightly in 2016-2017 compared to early 2000’s, and the overall integration index as the sum of integration indices in all three sectors has increased slightly in 2016 compared to early 2000’s, which shows that the integration level of three countries has increased even by little as time passed. Yet, as the integration progress of the three countries shows different time series progresses depending on the sector and concept, it is important to continuously check and analyze these signs of progress in this situation where the importance of regional integration is emphasized. Therefore the integration index development performed in this research is significant in the sense that it is a starting point of research that will expand into the entire Asian region in the future.

On December 18th, the presentation of the results of <Asian Identity and Integration of Exchange – Developing East Asian Integration Index> was held in Room 303 of SNUAC. The event started off with a brief reporting of Prof. Soyoung Kim (Dept. of Economics) on the research objectives, overall direction of research and major results. Afterward, further presentations were given on concepts and methodologies in detail by each sector, starting with politics (Dr. Seungwon Lee), economy (Jaeho Jung, Ph.D. student), and society (Dr. Jongho Kim).

After an hour of presentations, many questions and comments were given by the participants including the moderator, proving their high interest in the project. One remarkable question was on the possibility of expanding the integration index. Discussions continued on whether the index could extend beyond Korea, China and Japan into Asia as a whole, and what difficulties we may expect in that case. It is expected that this project would be able to derive an even more accurate index reflecting the questions and comments from this presentation if the project is to be continued.