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Nowadays, Korean central government has concentrated increasing attention on welfare policy. Welfare payment which is delivered by local government relies on the national subsidy. The national subsidy, however, is a kind of conditional grants which is needed to match some financial resource of local governments. For this reason, the fiscal conditions of local governments may become worse off, as the amount of national subsidy increases. This phenomenon is called the ‘fly-paper effect’, and may be caused inefficiency of the intergovernmental grants. In this paper, we test whether there is any fly-paper effect in the national subsidy and, then, the asymmetry in the fly-paper effect. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the world No.1 emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2), China has made up its mind to act on climate change. After trials in six pilot regions- Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Tianjin, Hubei, and Chongqing- a nationwide ETS has been established and implemented in line with the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan period (2016–2020). This paper simulates the effect of a national ETS in China using GTAP 9.1 database and a revised GTAP-E model. The simulation results show that the ETS is very effective in emissions reduction but will cause a mild economic contraction. At the sectoral level, the energy and resource sectors and energy intensive sectors are to be hit hard while most other sectors are affected negatively but insignificantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finally, the last paper by Fanjie Fu, Alan Collins, and Shujie Yao investigates how supervision intensity is related to stock price crash risk (SPCR) in China, finding an inverted U-pattern. Three of the eight papers are closely related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) launched by China in 2013. In Paper 4, Kailei Wei, Suhan Li, and Chunxia Jiang explore the spatial heterogeneity and time-varying nature of FDI determinants by specially examining the BRI impact on FDI inflows. [Extracted from the article]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including impact of investment in human capital on economic growth; human capital in U.S.; and income inequality.

This paper empirically investigates the impacts of FDI on operation and innovation performance of China's national high-tech zones by using the SBM-VRS and Tobit model. The results show that in general, FDI promotes the growth of operation performance of high-tech zones, but has no significant effect on their innovation performance, after controlling the characteristics in cities and high-tech zones level. Furtherly, the paper finds that FDI increases per expenditure on R&D activity, but decreases ratio of technical income, which explains why FDI doesn't have significant effect on innovation performance. Different regions make different sense. FDI has significantly positive effect on operation performance of all high-tech zones located on eastern, central and western regions, while FDI only makes a positive effect on innovation performance of those high-tech zones on western and central region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper uses evidence to argue that effective active industrial policies helped stimulate industrial upgrading from low and medium value-added activities to high value-added activities in the electronics industry of South Korea and Taiwan. However, passive industrial policies, largely driven by foreign direct investment have restricted industrial upgrading so that the electronics industry in Malaysia and Thailand have not upgraded beyond low and medium value-added activities. Consequently, the paper suggests that it is possible to attract foreign multinational operations in labour-intensive activities by countries endowed with surplus trainable labour, efficient customs coordination, financial incentives, and political stability, but active industrial policies focused on developing the embedding science, technology, and innovation infrastructure and stringent appraisal and monitoring are necessary to stimulate upgrading to high value-added activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper evaluates the natural rate of interest (NRI) for Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, [Taipei, China], and Thailand and aggregates them using a GDP-weighted average. This paper discusses four key points. Firstly, to estimate the NRI in emerging Asian economies, this paper introduces a Time Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR) model that integrates exchange rates alongside conventional growth and inflation variables. Secondly, the results show that NRIs in the emerging Asia have been declining in trend since the 1990s. Thirdly, the behavior of the NRI for each economy is not uniform across crises—the Asian Financial Crisis, the Global Financial Crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Fourthly, the findings reveal that the ascertained Asian NRI decreased to the vicinity of 0% during the COVID-19 pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The year 2018 marks the 40-th anniversary of China's economic reform and opening up and the year 2019 marks the 70-th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Paper 2 by Yu Wu, Xiao Li, Yan Zhang and Kai Li investigates the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows on the financial costs of local firms in China. The results show that (1) the financial costs of FDI recipients and local firms declined with FDI inflows; (2) private firms and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) gained more than state-owned firms; and (3) the cost of short- and mid-term loans decreased more than that of long-term loans. [Extracted from the article]

We specify a mixed-frequency Nelson–Siegel term structure (MF-NS) model with fiscal policy information to investigate the influence of fiscal policy on interest rate term structure. This paper finds the following results: First, fiscal policy information can significantly improve both the in-sample fitting and out-of-sample predictions of the Chinese yield curve. More importantly, compared with short-term bonds, the fiscal variable has a greater contribution to long-term bonds. Second, the response of the level factor of the yield curve to monetary impulse is positive, while the response to fiscal surprise is negative. Furthermore, we suggest that monetary policy shows an inflation expectation effect for the level factor. However, fiscal policy shocks on the level factor via the wealth effect. Finally, fiscal policy account for the larger forecast variance of yield curve than monetary policy does in the short forecast horizon. Meanwhile, this paper further shows that fiscal policy has a greater contribution to forecast variance of long-term yield than short-term yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract\nHIGHLIGHTSUnder the promotion of urban planning and land development policies, the urban spatial structure of China is undergoing a transformation towards polycentricity. The improvement of environmental performance during the process of urban spatial transformation is crucial for urban sustainable development. This paper uses high-resolution population grid data from LandScan for the years 2001–2019 to measure the urban spatial structure of Chinese cities. Then we match the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database with the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Pollution Emission Database for the years 2001–2014. This paper empirically examines the impact and mechanisms of the polycentric spatial structure of Chinese cities on enterprise pollution reduction at the micro-level. The findings indicate that compared to monocentricity, polycentricity is more conducive to improving enterprise environmental performance. Mechanism tests demonstrate that the improvement in enterprise environmental performance resulting from polycentricity can be achieved through three channels: increasing urban population and density, mitigating urban environmental pollution, and promoting enterprise innovation ability. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that polycentricity is more beneficial for emission reduction among small enterprises, young enterprises and enterprises in regions with higher environmental regulations. This paper provides micro-level evidence and policy implications for further strengthening the aggregation effect of polycentricity and improving enterprise environmental performance in the future.We quantify urban spatial structure using Landscan data in China.Polycentricity is conductive to the enterprise emission reduction of so2.Polycentricity reduces enterprise emission by improving population scale and density.Reliving urban pollution, improving enterprise innovation are also mechanisms.Polycentricity is common in the southeast, southwest and northeast cities of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe aim of the paper was to assess the nexus between COVID 19, trade and gender. Since readymade garments (RMG) and remittances (i.e. services exports) dominant exports in Bangladesh, the paper analyses the impact of the COVID-19 via the RMG and remittance shocks on women workers and entrepreneurs in Bangladesh. The economic and social impacts on trade and COVID 19 are large in Bangladesh. Supportive measures were needed to address these deleterious impacts. The paper recommends tapping into the potential for job creation in ready-made garment and service sectors with supporting policies to alleviate women’s unpaid care work, to reduce gender-based violence in the public space and at work and to upgrade women’s skills – in particular, digital skills to accompany the economic transformation to a shift towards the ICT and service sector. It was also suggested that the government should ensure that support packages reach women entrepreneurs by partnering up with micro-finance institutions and offer reduced collaterals, prolonged repayment timeline and flexibility as to the size of the interest free loan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we evaluate the role of the high speed railway (HSR) project, one of the largest transportation infrastructure projects in the world, in poverty alleviation in China. This study combines county-level data from the China County Statistical Yearbooks with HSR data from the China Railway Yearbooks. The method of difference-in-differences is applied to examine the HSR connection effect on government expenditure in poverty alleviation across Chinese poverty counties over the period of 2010-2018. The results show that the HSR connection has a significantly positive impact on reducing government expenditure in poverty alleviation. Our results, which are based on alternative measurement of poverty alleviation and possible bias arising from endogeneity issue, are robust. This paper highlights that HSR can help achieve accessibility of rural area and poverty alleviation simultaneously. An understanding of the effect is critical for policymakers to promote intra-regional development, balancing efficiency and regional equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how CEOs educational background affects the agglomeration economies–firm performance relationship based on the upper echelons theory. With a sample of Chinese software and information technology services public listed firms, it is found that CEO educational specialization helps firms to reap the benefits of agglomeration. Specifically, firms led by CEOs with science or engineering degrees benefit more from specialization externalities, while firms led by CEOs with business, economics or legal degrees enjoy more diversity externalities. This paper contributes to the specialization versus diversity debate by stating the importance of individual CEOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the micro-cross-sectional data from the Chinese Household Finance Survey in 2017 to systematically investigate the influence of house purchasing intention on household participation in the financial market by adopting probit, tobit and bootstrap methods. First, house purchasing intention had a significant positive impact on household participation in the financial market. Second, family risk preference played a significant mediating effect in the relation stated above. The results of the paper revealed that the impact of housing market prosperity on participation in the financial market was not only through the stock of real estate in the housing market but also through house purchasing intention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines factors influencing agricultural land-use efficiency among 35 ethnic minority groups in Vietnam during the 2010–2018 period. A hybrid approach comprising the Difference-in-Difference model with Propensity Score Matching (DID_PSM) is adopted to examine the effect of different land sizes, land elevations, and land tenure on land-use efficiency. The results show that: (1) land size and agricultural production form an 'U-shaped' relationship; (2) farming on high land decreases efficiency by around 7.7%–8.0%; (3) farmers purchasing or hiring land in long-term are 7.3%–8.2% more efficient. The paper also discusses typical land characteristics of mountainous areas including steep and fragmentation related to the three comparing factors. From these results, implications are made for Vietnamese authorities about 'land accumulation' policies and other 'farming on elevation' techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of literature suggests that access to electricity has a positive impact on household's living standards and social welfare. This paper sheds new light on this discussion. Using expenditure dependent equivalence scales, this paper examines the impact of electricity access on food consumption economies of scale (FCES) and thereby the poverty measurements of households with and without access to electricity in Sri Lanka during 1990-2016. Results indicate that a low-income household of four adults with access to electricity spends about 20% less on food compared to a similar household without access to electricity. The results also reveal that although the incorporation of FCES into poverty measurements reduces the overall poverty levels considerably, the reduction in poverty levels is about 1.2% higher for households with electricity at the national level. These observations are consistent across the national and sub-national levels, however, with varying magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More and more Chinese enterprises have participated in the Belt and Road initiative (BRI) since its launch in 2013. However, have they all actually benefited? Which companies otherwise have benefited most from the plan? To answer these questions, this paper analyzes the impact of the BRI on Chinese enterprises. Among several findings, it reveals that the performance of companies remained low even though the initiative policy initially stimulated performance, the performance of enterprises depends on the geographical location of enterprises and that the returns of China's outward foreign direct investment in various industries became more volatile with only the mining industry enjoying better returns. Thus, the paper shows that the BRI offers Chinese enterprises opportunities but also brings challenges for companies to optimize the allocation of their resources and improve the performance of their investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following economic reforms, China has become one of the premiere destinations for foreign capital; however, the benefits of this spectacular growth are not evenly distributed. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the Chinese government has designed and implemented policies to encourage foreign investment in central and western provinces to help decrease the significant distributional differences in regional industrial value-added, with limited success. In contrast to previous literature, this paper uses Panel Least Squares method to analyze empirically the impact of industrial sector FDI on Chinese regional inequality in industrial value-added 2003–2013, using three Chinese regions. The lack of prerequisite institutional structure to aid in FDI absorption affects location choices. Despite government policies to support inland regional economic development, foreign firms still prefer to invest in coastal provinces, further illustrating the effects of regional clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the importance of trade in services for global value chain participation in the ASEAN region. Using newly created data on GVCs as well as a new database on the services trade restrictiveness index to connect international trade policies in services to participation in GVCs, we show that restrictions on trade in services are detrimental for backward participation in GVCs and that such restrictions are harmful to ASEAN members when compared to other countries in the data set. Also, we show that services trade restrictions are especially detrimental to ASEAN countries when such backward integration is connected to forward participation, hence, central positions in GVCs. Restrictions on trade in services slow down the upgrading of value chain positions, which calls for policy actions to follow up trade liberalization in industrial products with a new round of lower restrictions on services trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to investigate the opposing trends in Chinese urban and rural household savings rates observed in the micro data during the period 1995-2013. Using the Chinese Household Income Project Survey (CHIPS) data, we find that the average urban household savings rate has consistently risen while the average rural household savings rate has gone the opposite direction during the same period. Using a variant of Deaton-Paxson decomposition analysis, we find that urban and rural households displayed vastly different life-cycle savings rate profiles. Results from the median regression and Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition suggest that the increasing urban savings rate can be explained by the continuously rising household income and increased precautionary savings for health shocks, whereas the shifts in household characteristics examined were not able to account for the decrease in rural household savings rate. The urban-rural savings disparities can be fully explained by the urban-rural income gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a multi-regime threshold vector autoregressive model to investigate the asymmetric and nonlinear impacts of financial stress on China's real economy in high- and low-stress regimes. Special attention is paid to the reliability of the measures of financial stress and real activities in China. We find that the response of China's real economy to a financial stress shock is bigger in high-stress regimes than in low-stress regimes. The negative response to a positive shock is bigger than the positive response to a negative shock. The response to a positive shock is disproportionately larger when the size of the shock increases, but a negative shock does not have this amplifying effect, indicating the danger of a severe financial crisis and the difficulty to revert its damage to China's real economy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the dynamic impact of GVCs on productivity growth in 14 Asian economies, from 1995 to 2016. OECD and Asia Productivity Organisation data show that in the last few decades there has been a rapid expansion of GVCs in the majority of the Asian economies. We employ the panel Auto-regressive Distributed Lag method to empirically evaluate the impact of GVCs participation on 'total factor productivity growth' and 'labor productivity growth'. The empirical results point to the significant effect of GVCs on domestic productivity growth in the long run in the selected Asian economies, while the effect on labor productivity growth is larger than that on total factor productivity growth. However, GVCs does not affect it in the short-run. If excluded the six high-income economies and only focused on the middle-income countries, we find forward GVCs promotes domestic productivity in long run, while the backward GVCs does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper discusses the impact of COVID-19 on production and trade in Pakistan. The paper finds that Pakistan’s outbreak preparedness and response has been a success story, but there are still some gaps that need to be addressed in order to better prepare for future crises. We recommend that the policy makers: conduct frequent structured dialogues with small firms to better understand the type and magnitude of unanticipated costs that increase during health crises; regularly source information to determine if the design of fiscal support is benefiting the beneficiaries; convene dialogues with businesses (which should include labour groups) to address the stringency of temporary trade measures; support smaller firms for adoption of online technologies; expedite the implementation of e-commerce policy, information security policy, and personal data protection law; and cut down business and trade costs during crisis through a more liberal tariff policy and rationalization of regulatory burden on firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

About 91% of India's workforce of 520 million is informal, lacking social insurance. However, this paper finds the Social Security Code 2020 wanting, but with potential for universalizing social insurance. The paper spells out the principles that should guide social insurance for informal workers; and presents the design and architecture for extending coverage. It shows how realistically, over the next 10–15 years, social insurance could cover the entire workforce, in accordance with ILO Conventions. It also estimates the fiscal cost of social insurance, for the first five years, and spells out the political economy, fiscal and administrative challenges to universalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the evidence of productivity spillover from foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) to local firms through horizontal, backward, and forward spillover channels, using establishment-level data from Vietnam in 2006–2017. The paper also considers the effects of foreign ownership types on the existence and magnitude of the productivity spillover. In addition, the paper examines whether the involvement of domestic firms in global production networks (GPNs) impacts on the nature of the spillover. The findings indicate that productivity from FIEs spills over to local firms through backward and forward channels, but not horizontal channels. Ownership structures of FIEs serve as an important determinant of productivity spillover: joint ventures tend to generate more significant positive productivity spillover to domestic firms than fully owned foreign firms. Lastly, local firms operating within GPNs benefit more from the presence of FIEs compared to those involved in horizontal specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractUsing a micro-level representative dataset of China, the very first paper empirically analyzes the relationship between marital decision-making power and husband’s happiness. While employing the OLS and ordinal logit model, the paper finds a negative effect of husband’s marital decision-making power on his happiness in contemporary transitioning China. The conclusion remains consistent even after conducting additional robustness tests, such as propensity score matching and instrument variable analysis. The negative effect is particularly noticeable among educated men and those men living in environments that emphasize egalitarian gender ideologies, as they tend to reject the notion of men being dominant in the family. Our findings highlight the increasing acceptance of egalitarian gender ideologies among Chinese men, especially those with higher socioeconomic status, as a result of socioeconomic advancements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of economic policies on the development of Vietnam's electronics industry. We identified, reviewed, evaluated and interviewed various stakeholders in the industry about the policies implemented by the Vietnamese government during the period 1986–2017. We argue that while the policy aiming at learning through technological spillover from foreign direct investment led to the specific level of the technological development, problems during its implementation, coupled with institutional failures brought about unintended consequences. We conclude that trade liberalisation alone did not deliver the desired technological upgrading for domestic firms in Vietnam. Our paper provides policy implications for technological development in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance of the manufacturing sector in bringing about structural transformation in the economy is well appreciated in literature. In India, with more than 70% of manufacturing employment originating in the unorganised segment, it becomes imperative to explore the dynamics of employment and growth of firms in the unorganised manufacturing sector. Additionally, interest in the sector arises since it is one of the prime avenues of employment generation. In particular, this paper examines the economic viability of unorganised manufacturing firms and underemployment therein. Results on underemployment help us to conclude on the prospect of full-time employment opportunities in the sector, whereas an assessment of economic viability brings out the major obstacles to growth plaguing unorganised manufacturing firms. This article identifies the prime areas requiring policy intervention and emphasises the need of implementing existing policies on ground. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty alleviation has attracted extensive attention worldwide. This paper investigated the spatial agglomeration effect and dynamics driving rural education levels (namely, primary education, junior secondary education, and senior secondary education) and rural poverty in 27 provinces of China in 2010-2017. The results of a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model revealed that different education levels have distinct effects on rural poverty, and the impact of compulsory education on rural poverty is greater than that of senior secondary education. We further found that rural poverty in a region is clearly not only internally driven but also impacted by the poverty rate in the surrounding provinces, suggesting that regional poverty alleviation policies should combine regional education differences and learn from poverty alleviation through education experience in surrounding areas. Thus, the findings established in this paper have significant implications for targeted poverty alleviation measures in China by improving education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) assumes that polluting industries will move to regions with lesser rigorous environmental regulations. On the other hand, pollution halo hypothesis presumes that industries transfer their clean technologies through FDI inflows to the host countries. Following these theoretical perceptions, this paper empirically examines how foreign direct investment (FDI) affects pollution (CO2 emissions) for four selected Asian countries (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) over the period 1971-2014. This is done by applying the autoregressive distributed lags (ARDL) model of Pesaran et al.. The ARDL model is employed under two scenarios: without and with structural breaks. The long-run findings, for both scenarios, suggest support for the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) for the Philippines only. Whereas, the findings lend support for the pollution halo hypothesis for Malaysia and Singapore. In addition, the paper explores the causality direction between FDI and pollution (CO2 emissions) using the Vector Error Correction model (VECM). The results show mixed long- and short-run Granger causality findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate short- and long-term tax buoyancy for 30 Asian-Pacific countries during 1980–2017 using recent panel techniques. Using Mean Group estimators, we found that the short-run buoyancy is statistically not different from one, while the long-run buoyancy is statistically larger than one. In 11 out of 30 countries, growth has improved fiscal sustainability over time, while in only 4 out of 30 countries the tax system has acted as a good automatic stabilizer. Results are robust to the estimation with alternative estimators, the inclusion of inflation and tax rates. We uncovered that buoyancies increased in magnitude and significance over time. Lastly, resorting to nonlinear estimations of short-run buoyancies contingent on the phase of the business cycle, we find that buoyancy is generally larger during recessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it has been more than 150 years since the emergence of the plantation, labour in the democratic context of post-1998 Indonesia remains subject to similar forms of suppression. Following the distinct social and political trajectory of North Sumatra, this paper provides an explanatory analysis of the interrelation between historical hegemonic social relations and the mobility of labour in modern palm oil plantations. Following well-documented accounts of colonial plantation practices, this paper empirically examines whether it is plausible to argue that historical forms of subordination remain relevant to the political mobility of plantation labour. To guide the evaluation, I will look at the existence of historical practices of labour control on the one hand and conditions of democratic reform and structural change on the other. I argue that the modern plantation is constitutive of historically inscribed social relations that function to keep intact colonial and authoritarian structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research applies the dynamic slack-based measure (DSBM) model to evaluate the dynamic efficiency of manufacturing companies in the long run and uses the Censored Least Absolute Deviations (CLAD) model to analyze the effect of corporate governance on their overall efficiency and the efficiency of each input factor. We find the following main results. First, overall efficiency of the manufacturing industry listed companies is low. 2) Debt efficiency is lower than the efficiency of shareholders' equity and exhibits a downward trend. 3) Labor efficiency is the lowest among all inputs. 4) The efficiency of the medicine and bio-products industry is the highest, while the efficiency of the paper and printing industry (which causes serious pollution) is the lowest. 5) Companies with low export intensity and high capital intensity are the most efficient, while companies with high export intensity and low capital intensity are the least efficient. 6) Ownership concentration and efficiency have a significantly positive U-shape relationship. 7) Board size and efficiency have a significantly inverted U-shape relationship. 8) An actual controller with a state-owned nature has a significantly negative impact on efficiency. 9) Executive compensation, equity incentive, and institutional ownership have a significantly positive impact on efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractWith new technologies emerging, productivity is increasing, while environmental issues are being addressed. Studies focus on the benefits of technological progress but pay limited attention to potential risks. This paper uses data from 286 Chinese cities to explore the impact of industrial robots on urban green total factor productivity. We find that industrial robots significantly reduces urban green total factor productivity. Mechanism analysis shows the main effect is driven by manufacturing agglomeration and crowding out environmental investment. Urban green total factor productivity decomposition shows that industrial robots block green technical progress and efficiency. Heterogeneity analysis shows that industrial robots significantly impact urban green total factor productivity in developed, highly market-oriented, and industrialized regions. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of industrial robots in urban green development and provide corresponding policy implications for guiding the harmonious development of technology and sustainable urban growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An area of debate in development economics is how financial openness affects economic development. In spite of considerable research, there is no consensus. This is because there are many financial openness indices, so the results are not robust to variations in the index, as discussed in Gräbner et al. (2021). Due to the possibility of different initial conditions, different levels of development, and/or different stages of transitions, the effect of financial openness could vanish without considering these factors. Therefore, this paper categorizes countries into stable countries (High-, Medium-, and Low-income countries) and transition countries (Transitioning to High and Transitioning to Medium income) based on World Bank Categorization. The results show that the effect of financial openness is positive for medium- and low-income level countries. However, it is not at a high-income level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key findings from our estimation models show that although the poorest households are vulnerable to income and food price shocks, our results also reveal an anomaly: given an increase in income and in food price, the poorest households seem to indulge in non-essential food expenditure, which is counterintuitive. Being the poorest typically conjures images of needing more food, not more food choices. We explain our findings within an intertwined theoretical underpinning, providing empirical verifications to two landmark hypotheses that bridge the economic-psychological frontier. We merge two relatively recent and nationally representative Malaysian household expenditure and price datasets. Our paper is perhaps the first work examining the poorest among poor households in a developing country from an economic-psychological angle, providing insights for more nuanced policy prescriptions. We believe our findings unveil aspects of food and poverty in Malaysia that have yet to be given detailed treatment so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of macro-financial shocks on bank liquidity creation in Mongolia, a developing and commodity-exporting economy, using a structural Bayesian vector autoregression (SBVAR). Ten structural shocks (three external and seven domestic shocks) are identified using a triangular factorization. The main results are (i) the measured bank liquidity creation (as a share of total assets) is procyclical and negatively correlated with the liquidity coverage ratio in the banking sector; (ii) external shocks (the US monetary policy, Chinese economic activity, and changes in the global commodity market) have statistically significant and economically major effects on the liquidity creation. Lending rate, NPL ratio, foreign exchange reserves, and competition in the banking sector are key domestic determinants of liquidity creation; (iii) liquidity creation's main components respond differently to the US federal funds rate and lending rate shocks. External and financial shocks have contributed to the liquidity creation passing through movements in (illiquid assets + liquid liabilities) component; (iv) monetary policy can be an effective counter-cyclical policy instrument in stabilizing the economic and financial cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines whether heterogeneities in financial development among Vietnamese provinces matter for firm growth in Vietnam. Using a nationally representative firm survey that covers more than 41,000 firms for the period 2009 − 2013, we estimate the impact of provincial financial development on the growth rates of firms by accounting for sectoral differences in growth opportunities. We find that province-level financial development promotes the growth rates of sales, investment and sales per worker of small firms, and reduces the growth rate of the wage-to-sales ratio. Our results imply that firms grow faster in provinces with a higher level of financial development. Moreover, the effect of financial development on growth rates is larger when firms operate in sectors with better growth opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated a network of financial institutions in Korea using the Korea Consumer Credit Panel (KCCP). It is assumed that each consumer borrows from multiple institutions, so those institutions share risks from the same consumers regardless of the quality or type of loan. We constructed a financial network comprising those institutions and computed a contagion index based on their interconnections using a weight of probability of default for the individual borrowers. We found strong connection between banking institutions and credit card firms because of the convenience of making small loans using credit cards. However, with a weighted probability of default to the linkages among institutions, the connections between banking institutions and savings banks, non-credit card finance corporations and merchant banks are stronger than others, while banking institutions hold a central position and are exposed to the largest amount of loans individually. The contagion index hit a peak in 2013Q1 and then fell rapidly, before fluctuating at a relatively low level from 2016 to 2017Q2. The results enabled authorities to monitor systemic risk from the level of consumer credit, while accounting for specific types of consumers and their probability of default. This paper's main contribution is its construction of a network of financial institutions from the level of consumer credit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractTourism consumption is vital in expanding domestic demand and stimulating economic growth. In China, the urban-rural dual structure is more prominent in the tourism industry, and the potential of tourism consumption in rural areas needs further release. The development of the digital economy provides a new path to promote rural residents’ tourism consumption. Based on the data from China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2016, 2018, and 2020, this paper explores the specific impact of the digital economy on rural tourism consumption. The results show that the digital economy is conducive to promoting rural tourism consumption, and income structure is an important influence mechanism. The digital economy can promote rural tourism consumption by increasing wage income. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the digital economy significantly promotes tourism consumption in rural households with sufficient leisure time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does health aid help reduce infant mortality? Despite a growing literature, existing findings have no consensus. To investigate the relationship between health aid and infant mortality, this paper applies polynomial inverse lag (PIL) framework to panel data from 131 countries over the period 2002–2019, and focuses on the instant and long-term impacts of health aid on infant mortality. The results indicate that health aid can effectively reduce infant mortality and it has a greatest effect in the current year. More specifically, a 1% rise in health aid causes a 1.53% drop in infant mortality instantly, though the impact tails off over time. The results maintain robustness across specifications. Heterogeneity test shows that health aid's benign impact is more pronounced in deep poverty countries. Finally, it is found that aid raises public health expenditure of recipient countries, leading to a better health care system and a lower infant mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides the theoretical guide and introduction to a selected list of papers evaluating the drivers of technological catch-up experiences from Asia. It departs from neoclassical preoccupation with markets as the sole or dominant institution of economic allocation by arguing that the evidence supports the evolutionary logic of macro, meso and micro interactions between several institutions, depending on the actors involved, structural location and taxonomic and trajectory elements of technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses network analysis to evaluate the extent to which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is able to maintain its centrality in the context of the emerging economic integration in the Asia Pacific region. Employing methodology derived from network analysis, this paper maps Asia Pacific-related trade flows, and also determines the corresponding strength of these trade flows using appropriate centrality measures as defined and applied in network analysis. This paper finds that on average, ASEAN as a group is not upholding centrality within the Asia Pacific region, except when considering trade intensity, where ASEAN's average eigenvector centrality from 2007 to 2013 is higher than that of the network. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chile and Korea subscribed a free trade agreement in 2003, which entered into force in 2004. One of the main objectives behind the agreement was to modify the concentration of the Chilean export basket, traditionally dominated by primary products, through preferential access to the country's main export destinations. From here, this paper analyses the achievement of this objective through mixed-methods. Acknowledging that econometric models may not fully explain trade patterns, this article uses both quantitative data to understand the impact of the agreement on export flows, and qualitative information to complement these results. It concludes that Chile has not been capable of achieving the objective stated, due to constrains in the public and private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the bilateral trade costs between Bangladesh and its leading trading partners before investigating the factors that influence Bangladesh's import costs, including the contribution of NTMs. To measure implied bilateral trade costs, we first deploy an inverse gravity equation. We then estimate the determinants of import trade costs at the HS 6-digit product level, applying PPML estimation techniques to a gravity model, using a unique new NTM database developed for the current study. Our results show that imports to Bangladesh are related in an expected way to common trade cost proxies and that NTMs negatively impact imports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of innovation performance and government support schemes on cost efficiency of Vietnamese small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Financial and technical assistances are two different public instruments used to correct market failure and facilitate efficient innovation through lowering the research and development (R&D) expenditures. Although large and small firms innovate in different ways, so far limited empirical evidence has been reported with respect to the effectiveness of innovation activities and public instruments for SMEs. Using stochastic frontier approach to estimate firm efficiency scores, we find that firms with new product innovation are associated with higher efficiency, but firms with introduced actions of existing product improvement, technology innovation, and new product lines are unable to achieve a higher efficiency level compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, the results suggest that government financial assistances used alone or with technical assistances are neither able to help firms to improve efficiency, nor to reduce the cost of SMEs' innovation activities. This suggests that public instruments may have limited usefulness for SMEs in Vietnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews reasons for the domination of the Indonesian salt business, from the colonial to the New Order era, by the Chinese who are ethnic Indonesian citizens. The authors argue that this domination and subordination by middlemen induces a negative impact on market segmentation. Consequently, local farmers have limited market access and it appears that these salt farmers are pressurised by middlemen and the Chinese. This study used a historical method with an economic-political approach. Due to the New Order's policy that placed the economy as a 'commander', business opportunities were widely open to the Chinese and even to foreign investment. During this era, there were middle-scale and large-scale salt companies, all of which belonged to the Chinese. Meanwhile, small-scale companies were non-Chinese or native Indonesian. The Chinese dominance in the salt business was not something new, and ironically, it has left almost no place for locals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examined the asymmetric and symmetric effects of real exchange rate on bilateral trade balance between the United States and Vietnam at the industry level by employing both ARDL and NARDL models. We found that (i) only symmetric real exchange rate is statistically significant in explaining the total trade balance between the US and Vietnam in the long-run at the 10% statistical significant level; (ii) the effect at the industry level is mixed and dependent on product category; and (iii) the asymmetric effects are found in both short-run and long-run in 29 industries which account for 69% of the total industry. These findings suggest that Vietnam could import more commodities with a high import weight such as agricultural products, cork and wood, textile fiber, chemicals, and machinery products to reduce the US's trade deficit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, first, using a dataset for China's financial balance sheets we construct the sector-level macro-financial networks. Second, we analyse the statistical features and the dynamic changes of our macro-financial networks. Third, we conduct financial contagion simulations to identify the specific prominent sectors that can generate potential system-wide losses, and measure the resiliencies of different sectors to sector-specific financial shocks. The results uncover certain crucial propagation and contagion mechanisms of systemic risk in China's macro-financial system. In addition, we find that the statistical features of the networks are closely associated with the losses incurred under the inter-sectoral financial contagion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new wave of nationalism has led to an increase in trade barriers, trade wars and break away from Mega-regionals of various economic powers in the world. In-line with the United States in TPP and the United Kingdom in the European Union, India has also withdrawn from RCEP, inter alia, to protect its domestic market from flooding of imports with no gains in services. With the on-going global recession, this protectionist behaviour of countries has intensified the global slow growth. The paper dwells into the reasons for India's backout and concludes that it would lose its export potential and an opportunity to be part of value chains in the region. Concomitantly, other members of the grouping would also lose their export potential in the Indian market. Therefore, RCEP members should re-evaluate the grouping without India and India should consider a middle way approach to be a part of this Mega-regional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]