The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) with Keio University organised the 8th Annual Empirical Investigations in Trade and Investment (EITI) Conference in Phuket, Thailand, from 20 to 22 of March 2014.

In the three-day conference, 32 prominent economists from various universities and institutions shared their views and discussed their papers, bringing new insights on international trade and investment.

On the first day, the three papers presented in the morning were on the relationship between trade and quality of goods. All three papers utilized unique datasets of various countries revealing the novel aspect of trade and quality. Feedbacks from the discussants and the floor were critical and constructive which raised the need for further research in the future.

Three more papers were presented after lunch in which papers were focused on trade in developing countries. Along with the development of firm level dataset in emerging economy, they employed sophisticated methods to highlight undiscovered feature of firms in developing countries. Questions, comments and feedbacks from participants on the papers clarified the contribution and stimulated active policy discussion.

On the second day, three papers were presented in the morning, mostly focused on newly developed models and brought attention to the new aspect of trade which had not been argued lately. The discussions have shown that there are needs of further research on these newly discovered topics, such as correlations between migrant network and trade.

In the afternoon, three papers on trade, labour and banking were presented. Based on global financial crisis and rapid globalization perspectives, this interdisciplinary research on trade is strongly required, though it has not been thoroughly investigated. These three papers attained new data and methodology, also analysed the issues, which are important for both academics and policymakers.

On the final day, three papers were presented and focused on trade and off shoring. The presentations showed new features which have not been discovered in the field. The detailed investigations showed a new fact and mechanism of off shoring, which brought new material for policy.

The EITI Conference presented the latest research by economists specializing in empirical economic research on issues relating to international trade and investment from North America, Europe, and Asia. The presenters would improve their papers based on the discussion and the discussants and other participant learned a lot from the presenters. All participants appreciated ERIA's continuous support to the conference and contributions to the research on international trade and investment.