This paper provides four micro-level refinements of the concept of shared growth, a conventionally macrolevel concept referring to national income growth accompanied by improvements in distribution of such income.Based on an understanding of Japanese corporate practices at domestic and international levels, shared growth is refined to connote the following: 1. labor shares in the growth of its employing firm; 2. subcontractor firms share in the growth of the contractor firm; 3. producer shares in the growth of its market; and 4. trading countries share in each others growth through mutual trade dependence.By way of a non Japan-centric case study, data relating to manufacturing economic zones in the Philippines and trade among several countries in the automotive industry are used to clarify certain aspects of each of the four refinements of shared growth.Using a production function framework and Philippine economic zone data, we show that indicators conceptually representing the first three refinements have positive effects on production efficiency.Using a trade network methodology and automotive industry trade data, we show that East Asian countries have a higher tendency to approach mutual trade dependence, although there might be some cause for concern regarding early signs of imbalance in East Asia.
C. et al. (Thu,) studied this question.