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This paper seeks to explore the relationship between economic growth and governance performance in Asian developing economies. This exploration yields some interesting conclusions. First, notwithstanding its tremendous economic achievements, the state of governance in Asia is not stellar by international comparison. Indeed, the majority of these countries seem to suffer from a governance deficit. Second, contrary to our expectations, data do not suggest any strong positive link between governance and growth: paradoxically, countries that exhibit surpluses in governance on average grew much slower than those with deficits. The paper ends with some conjecture about this apparent paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom suggests that improving water governance is the key to solving water insecurity in developing countries but there are also many disagreements on operational and methodological issues. In this paper, we build on the work of Saleth and Dinar and surveyed 100 water experts from 17 countries in Asia to compare 19 indicators of water laws, policies, and administration among and within countries from 2001 to 2010. We present the results of our study in a comparative dashboard and report how water governance indicators vary with a country's level of economic development, which ones do not and how and why some indicators change overtime in some countries. We have two main results. First, our initial findings suggest the possibility of water Kuznet's curve, i.e., certain water governance indicators vary with a country's level of economic development. However, more studies are needed given the caveats and limitations of our study. Second, the results have practical value for policy makers and researchers for benchmarking with other countries and tracking changes within their countries overtime. We conclude with implications for a second-generation research agenda on water governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the past two decades, the fast-developing Asia has emerged as one of the most important economic regions. However, its economic growth is accompanied with severe software piracy. This paper analyzes productivity changes of 11 Asian economies and 4 non-Asian industrialized economies by taking into account software piracy using the Malmquist productivity index and its two components, efficiency change and technical change over the period 1994–2002. The results indicate that when software piracy is included, productivity growth in Asian developing economies regresses, while productivity growth in the four non-Asian industrialized economies improves. Interpretation and implications are provided. ( JEL L86, O34) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the impact of investment in information technology (IT) on the recent resurgence of world economic growth. We describe the growth of the world economy, seven regions and 14 major economies during the period 1989–2003. We allocate the growth of world output between input growth and productivity and find, surprisingly, that input growth greatly predominates! The contributions of IT investment have increased in all regions, but especially in industrialized economies and Developing Asia. Differences in per capita output are explained by differences in per capita input, rather than by variations in productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an annotated list of books related to the economic developments of Asian countries as of May 2004. "China: New Engine of World Growth" edited by Ross Garnaut and Ligang Song; "Sustaining Competitiveness in the New Global Economy: The Experience of Singapore," edited by Ramkishen Rajan; "Democracy, Governance and Economic Performance: Theory and Evidence," by Feng Yi; "Poverty, Growth and Institutions in Developing Asia," edited by Ernesto M. Pernia and Anil B. Deolalikar.

The article focuses on communist China's economic growth. The purpose of this article is to throw light on communist China's asserted economic growth by comparing it with that of the Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Japan. This is not to minimize in any way the Indian development, which has been rapid during the Nineteen Fifties and which has given very encouraging evidence to Asia of what can be accomplished with free institutions. It is merely an attempt to put Communist China's claimed economic progress back into focus. It should be emphasized that this article does not intend to analyze how effective the Chinese communists have been in improving their military potential even though this appears to be a primary aim of their economic policy. Instead this report intends to outline an approach for analyzing the relative effectiveness of the Chinese communist system in promoting economic growth; it is this latter question that appears to be most hotly debated. It appears that many analysts are convinced that just because a regime can hold down consumption, theoretically it should, therefore, be promoting a large volume of sound investment and a huge growth potential.

The extent of poverty reduction in Asia by 2015 will depend upon two linked issues: sustaining the current rates of economic growth and avoiding increases in income inequality. Rapid growth over the past 15 years has itself created three challenges for its continuation: inadequate infrastructure; energy shortages and insecurity; and depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation. The ways in which these problems are addressed will have impacts not only on growth but also on inequality, requiring policy interventions at multiple levels, having implications for governance at multiple levels, and involving the development of new partnerships within the region and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]