US-Asia Interdependencies: A Study of Business and Knowledge Links

In the past two decades, US–Asia linkages have improved tremendously with the gradual transformation of some Asian countries as sources of high skilled as well as low cost labor. Extensive research on US–Japan relationships have been undertaken in the 1980s and the 1990s with a progression of research toward the four tigers and now China. South and South East Asian economies are usually neglected in academic research on Asia. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of business links (trade, foreign direct investment, licensing, and patents) and knowledge links (labor flow, publications and citations) within the context of technology transfer and technology cooperation between the two regions. The data show that the United States is increasingly dependent on imports from Asia while Asian nations are dependent on US FDI and technology licenses. For knowledge links, the United States continues to attract Asian scientists and engineers and, over the past ten years, interregional collaborations have strengthened. Economic linkages in the past 30 years are now complemented by knowledge links, which is creating transnational knowledge networks and will eventually facilitate further development of the science and technology workforce and innovation in Asian nations.