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Objective: The objective of this paper was to analyze the bidirectional relationship between financial development and economic growth for a dataset of Latin American and Asian developing countries between 2001 and 2019. Method: This research employed an empirical approach to analyze the statistical relationship between financial development and economic growth, by presenting an estimation of a system of simultaneous equations for a panel of Asian and Latin American countries using 3SLS. Main Results: The results presented in this research provided evidence that financial development does not appear to have a significant impact on economic growth, although growth appears to have a significant and positive influence on financial development. Moreover, the results also suggested that regulatory quality and domestic credit directed to the private sector have a positive effect on economic growth, while urbanization and education showed a negative influence on growth. The estimated model also indicated that urbanization has a positive influence on financial development while foreign direct investment presented a negative effect on the development of the financial sector. Relevance / Originality: Most of the research agenda on the topic of finance and growth has focused on identifying correlation or causality between these variables, with little attention given to the simultaneous relationship between them. This is still a clear gap in economic literature. Following this premise, the objective of this paper was to analyze the bidirectional relationship between financial development and growth by estimating a system of simultaneous equations using the Zellner and Theil’s (1962) 3SLS methodology. In this sense, the main contribution will be given empirically, based on data and analysis from emerging countries in Latin America and Asia. The fact that financial development has an influence on growth and growth plays a role on the development of the financial sector indicates a simultaneous relationship between these variables. Another relevant contribution is to update the debate on financial systems and economic development for emerging countries, highlighting institutional aspects and financial cycles. Theoretical / Methodological Contributions: The main contribution of this study is in the empirical strategy, whose results dialogue with part of the literature on the financial system and development presented along the text. That is, this research explored the statistical relationship between economic development and financial development for a sample composed by twenty-two Asian and Latin American emerging countries, using a simultaneous equations model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely accepted that the structure of population of a country can have significant contribution towards its growth effort. With the proportional increase of relatively older group of people in developed countries alongside the proportional rise of the youth population in the developing part of the world, it is of paramount importance to understand the long term economic consequences of this changed structure of population. Despite having a favorable demographic composition, depending on public investment and policy strategy adopted, economies differ in terms of their ability to attain demographic dividend. The issue is therefore an empirical one which requires appropriate quantitative analysis. Against this backdrop, with the help of a 37-year long panel of 15 Asian countries, this study has made an attempt to understand the long run effect of changing demographic pattern on economic growth of Asian countries. Despite increased importance of demographic composition on labor supply, asset accumulation, savings, hence on the overall growth process, there is no literature focusing on the relationship from a cross-country perspective and while applying suitable methodological tools. Thus, this paper utilized econometric methods of panel data constructed using World Development Indicators (WDI) and Health Nutrition and Population Statistics (HNPS) from World Bank database to understand the linkage between dependency ratio and per capita GDP growth. Following cross section dependence test stationarity property of the variables has been diagnosed employing appropriate panel unit root tests. The short run and long run parameters have estimated with the help of Mean Group (MG), Pooled Mean Group (PMG) and Dynamic Fixed Effect (DFE) estimators. PMG estimates have been preferred over the DFE and MG. It revealed the fact that for the Asian countries Dependency Ratio (DR) does not have any short run impact on Per Capita GDP Growth (PCGDPG) but it has significant long run impact therefore with an increase in working age population in comparison to the non-working group, there is a resulting increase in per capita GDP growth of Asian countries. Since changed demographic composition can only result in higher economic growth, if complemented by effective public policies, this paper provides empirical evidences in favor of such policies of human resource development. Besides, in order to reap the maximum benefit from working age population while increasing investment, it is important to engage them in productive, growth enhancing activities and that requires investment in employment generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As economic growth centres, the Southeast Asian cities feature high population pressure, unsustainable land use, environmental degradation, and large ecological footprints. It is difficult to manage environmental health and basic services for urban dwellers, and ensure optimum flow of ecosystem services in the context of rapid, unplanned, and haphazard urbanization. These challenges are particularly multifaceted in the developing countries of Southeast Asian region. This study, based on secondary sources, adopted multidisciplinary lenses, such as geographical information systems, socio‐economic perspective, and sustainability science to examine the population situation, land use change pattern, and drivers of environmental degradation in the Southeast Asian cities as well as the Dhaka megacity, and brought forth a fresh perspective to look into contemporary urban ecosystems, population dynamics, environmental health, and sustainability. It also focused on identifying the commonalities among the cities under study to create a common understanding towards promoting collaborative urban development. This study shows that the urbanization process in the Southeast Asia region is taking place mostly in an unplanned and haphazard manner. With little concern for nature, life‐supporting ecological systems, and the environment, urban spatial growth continues unabated. The data surveyed and discussed in this paper shows that the current style of urbanization in Southeast Asia can best be called unsustainable. The findings also suggest that the general wellbeing and welfare of the current and future generations in Southeast Asian cities as well as in Dhaka is at risk. The paper recommends concerted efforts towards making the urbanization process sustainable, including better urban planning, policymaking, and international and regional cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the evolution of industry structure in the World Bank’s eight high performing Asian economies (HPAEs) displays the U-shaped relationship between manufacturing concentration and per capita income widely held to foster economic development. Increasingly prosperous HPAEs have long been hailed as models for success by other emerging economies. Focusing on a regional group of high performing economies enables us to relate policies used by successful HPAEs directly to observed patterns of manufacturing diversification and provide policy guidance to emerging economies.Design/methodology/approach A robust locally weighted scatterplot smoothing procedure is employed to generate the U-shaped relationship between manufacturing concentration and level of economic development. Policies used by the most successful HPAEs are discussed.Findings The relationship between manufacturing concentration and level of economic development is found to be U-shaped. Diversification of manufacturing is a prerequisite for successful economic development. Countries further along the economic development path such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan made extensive use of active and selective interventionist policies to diversify manufacturing before eventually specializing in a narrower range of export activities.Practical implications Emerging economies should follow examples set by the most successful HPAEs that demonstrated significant government assistance is required to foster economic development.Originality/value The paper is the first to investigate the evolution of manufacturing concentration over the economic development path HPAEs. Success enjoyed by HPAEs holds important lessons for developing and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines a Granger causality test and a VAR model to investigate the relationships among oil price shocks, global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU), and China’s industrial economic growth. Based on monthly data from 2000 to 2017, we reveal that GEPU and world oil prices jointly Granger cause China's industrial economic growth; world oil prices have a positive effect on China's industrial economic growth, while GEPU has a negative effect. Further analyses investigate the asymmetry effect of oil prices and find that the negative component shows a more significant impact on China's industrial economic growth. The results are robust to different oil price and EPU proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the calculation of the inclusive financial development level of 22 provinces and 4 municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017, this paper uses the Kernel density estimation method to further analyze the evolution of the inclusive financial index. Based on the above analysis, we make empirical analysis of the impact of China's inclusive financial inclusion development index on farmers' entrepreneurship using static panel and dynamic panel estimation method. The empirical conclusions show that there are certain differences in inclusive financial inclusion development level in various provinces in China. Improving the inclusion development level of inclusive finance can better promote farmers' entrepreneurship. Urbanization level, economic openness and regional economic development level have a significant positive effect on farmers' entrepreneurship, while farmers' income and education level have a significant negative effect on farmers' entrepreneurship. It is possible to promote farmers' entrepreneurship by improving the inclusive development level of inclusive finance, combining urbanization, increasing government investment in productive fixed assets, increasing economic openness and improving regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Southeast Asia is a development success story. By 2025, it is forecast that extreme poverty in the region will have been ‘eradicated’. Does this mean that the challenges so evident in the 1960s when the countries of the region began to pursue development have been met, and the objectives achieved? The paper makes a case for thinking afresh about development and the poverty project, recognising that development is never neatly achieved but, rather, re‐worked, re‐engineered and re‐imagined over time. This is done through identifying different categories of ‘poor’, each produced through different poverty‐making processes, measured and viewed in different ways, and their poverty addressed using different approaches and policies. With specific reference to the cases of Laos and Thailand, and drawing on longitudinal research in the latter country, it is argued that while economic growth does trickle down, it trickles down in quite discrete and often contingent ways. Furthermore, there is always development work to be done, because development creates its own work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper elaborates on critical processes of institutional change and the implications for local economic development in fragile settings. Drawing on empirical research in Afghanistan, the discussion looks specifically at how local actors interact to reshape the “rules of the game” in women’s enterprise. The research has highlighted diverse actor negotiation in the transformation of (heterogeneous) purdah norms and development of enterprise institutions. This has crucially influenced the scope of norm development, and women’s engagement in business. The study shows that external actors (such as NGOs) may be able to both initiate and guide institutional change and development. Yet in challenging environments such as Afghanistan, there may be limitations to their endeavors, with strong resistance from local power holders, unpredictable entrepreneurs and disruptive (local) events. The use of liberal cultural/religious narratives has proved fundamental in permitting change processes. Emerging open-minded beliefs have unleashed a more democratic “narrative” on women, particularly if championed by progressive leaders, or credible outsiders in “receptive” local conditions. This has led to the evolution of new attitudes and preferences, with potential effects beyond the market, including increasing girls’ education and women’s property rights. The research has generated a micro-social perspective of institutional change, identifying key actors and conditions that may shape grassroots institutional processes in enterprise development. In emerging outcomes, the paper presents insights into the role of dominant entrepreneurs in driving (nested) institutional pathways. This may promote inclusive opportunities for (new) power and wealth through open institutions, in “productive institutional pathways.” Yet it can equally foster distorted economies if exclusive institutions are allowed to prevail in more “destructive institutional pathways.” To further develop micro-institutional theory, the paper argues for a greater appreciation of culture, religion, and fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThe economic rise of developing Asia has given impetus to debates over the geographic orientation, strategy, organisation, and collaborative relationships of the Australian aid programme. This paper examines these debates, Australian government responses, and the politics underlying these responses. It points to, among things, the different ways in which the Labor Party and the Liberal–National Coalition have dealt with these issues, reflecting their different constituencies and foreign policy philosophies. The paper also assesses the future trajectory of Australian aid policy, in particular, the extent to which it is embracing the Chinese model of aid. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the last quarter of a century, analyzing the pace of urbanization and urban economic growth in South Asia has become increasingly important. However, a key challenge relates to the absence of spatially disaggregated national accounts data – in particular, the absence of GDP data for sub-national administrative units and individual cities. The absence of such data limits the scope for detailed empirical analysis of spatial patterns of economic growth, particularly across individual urban settlements or cities. This paper aims to test the suitability of DMSP-OLS Nighttime Lights (NTL) data as a proxy for GDP to analyze detailed spatial patterns of urban economic growth across South Asia over the period 1999–2010. It will help to build an understanding of the nature and heterogeneity of spatial patterns of urban economic growth within the region and contribute to the development of a framework for the usage of NTL to investigate such patterns. Geographic Information System (GIS) is employed to identify the cities and urban agglomerations together with their NTL data in South Asia, and spatial statistics are used to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of NTL growth. This paper adopts descriptive and inferential statistics to determine the quantitative relationship between NTL and population, urban size, and proximity to the coast. This paper reveals that the inter-annually calibrated NTL data is a good proxy for changes in national and sub-national GDP. In South Asia, the urban NTL hot spots are around major cities with populations between 1.3 and 2.6 million in 1999 and 0.5 to 1.3 million in 2010. Cities in the region have also become more clustered and connected forming urban agglomerations. NTL per unit of land in such clusters tends to be higher than in single cities in South Asia. India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka tend to have higher NTL (economic) growth on average, while Nepal and Bangladesh have lower growth or declining NTL. There exists a very strong positive linear relation between distance to the coast and the total NTL within that distance, which leads to similar NTL growth rates among inland and coastal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Savings and investment play a major role in any countries to fostering long term growth. It shows the amount of saving being converted into investment in the domestic economies which is related with capital mobility in the countries. Ever since seminal paper by Feldstein Horioka (1980), the issue regarding the relationship between saving and investment become one of the popular issues among economist researchers. They found that it has a strong relationship between saving and investment where about 85 percent to 95 percent approximately of the domestic saving are converted into domestic investment and at the same time capital mobility is relatively low. It means that saving and investment were circling around in the domestic countries rather than mobile to other countries. Many researchers relate this issue with capital immobility as domestic saving is easily transferred to the other countries and vice versa. As such, the aim of the present paper is to reinvestigate the nexus between saving and investment for the three-Asian economies namely China, India and Malaysia by employing the recent Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) co-integration modelling approach. Three emerging Asian countries have been chosen in this research which have its own economic strength and weaknesses. In which, the GDP growth prospect for China, India and Malaysia is 7%, 6% and 5% approximately in 2015. This study covers the annual sample from 1970 to 2013.The present paper employs ARDL bound procedure to test the presence of a co-integrated relationship which involves the standard F-test. One of the advantages of ARDL test is that it is more robust and performs better for small sample size of data which suitable for this research. The sample size is 43 years for each country. The annual time series data of saving and investment ratio as percentage of GDP in each country were utilized in this study. The result shows that the null hypothesis of the unit roots for the saving and investment series is rejected in first difference. It reveals that all the variables are co-integrated at first different. The ARDL F-test yields evidence a positive long run relationship between savings and investment for the three emerging Asian countries namely, Malaysia, China and India which is consistent with many past researches. It shows that the estimated ECTt-1 coefficient is found to be negative and statistically significant at 1% confidence level for China and India. Meanwhile, the estimated ECTt-1 is negative and statistically significant at 5% confidence level for Malaysia. As such, this results confirm the existence of long run relationship between savings and investment in the three countries concurrently. In the short run, it has a positive significant relationship between saving and investment in China and India. Furthermore, the estimated model has passes the diagnostic test and the stability test. Based on the finding, the speed of adjustment for Malaysia, India and China are 31%, 23% and 15% respectively. It indicates moderate speed of adjustment back to equilibrium. From this research paper, It shows that there is relationship between saving and invest in the three Asian countries. Thus, it is recommended that the three-Asian countries should not neglect its savings if the countries wish to spur its investments of which, will consequently generate economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though many African and Asian countries share a common history of European colonialism and thus a model of economic development shaped within the aegis of center-periphery analysis, many Asian countries have been able to ride through the burden of center-periphery economics and built more successful political economies than most African countries. This state of affairs has often led many African analysts to point to Asian success stories like China and South Korea for comparative analysis and often see these Asian countries as models of socio-economic and socio-cultural success to emulate. In particular, Africans in the Diaspora, especially Africans in China, tend to compare very frequently the socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of their host countries with those of their source countries. This paper outlines and discusses how a group of Africans living in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia see Korea and Korean culture through the prism of Korean television dramas, which constitute a popular cultural phenomenon among Hong Kong/Asian youths. Through qualitative and quantitative survey methods, participant-observation, and questionnaire surveys, the paper reports on how African community members of Hong Kong and others think of Koreans. We show that Africans draw a lot of comparisons between Korean and African ways of conceptualizing the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that to understand the relevance of developmental states in East Asia and elsewhere, we need to focus on the changing development agenda in the early twenty-first century, especially how this connects with the global challenge of climate change and thereby sustainable, low-carbon development. It combines theories on state capacity and ecological modernisation to form the 'new developmentalism' concept. This is applied to study revitalised and refocused forms of state capacity aimed at realising the transformative economic objectives associated with sustainable development. New developmentalism helps us understand not only current state capacity practice in a climate challenged world but also how we have moved beyond original conceptions of developmental statism. It may be understood in the wider context of the sustainable development agenda and climate interventionism. As is argued, new developmentalism is most clearly evident in East Asia but can be applied in a wider geographic sense where strong forms of developmental state capacity are exercised towards meeting transformative sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The substantial slowdown of economic growth since the global financial crisis of 2008- 2009 is rekindling debate on whether developing Asia should use fiscal expansion to boost aggregate demand. A key factor in the debate is the effectiveness of countercyclical fiscal policy in the region. The global crisis, as well as the fiscal stimulus packages implemented by developing Asian countries at that time, give some clues to this important issue. The region weathered the global crisis well and experienced a robust V-shaped recovery. According to conventional wisdom, the fiscal stimulus packages put in place by Asian governments played a key role in the region's recovery. The central objective of this paper is to empirically test this wisdom by using cross-country panel data. Our main finding is that the stimulus has had a limited but positive impact on developing Asia's output during the global crisis. This lends some support to the notion that countercyclical fiscal policy can help the region cope with severe external shocks. The broader, more fundamental implication for regional policymakers is that the region's long-standing commitment to fiscal discipline can yield significant benefits beyond macroeconomic stability. An important consequence of this commitment - relatively healthy fiscal balance sheets - enabled the region's governments to quickly and decisively embark upon fiscal stimulus programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental advocacy in East Asia takes place in a context where there are few well-funded professional advocacy organizations, no viable green parties, and governments that are highly pro-business. In this advocacy-hostile environment, what strategies are environmental organizations using to promote better environmental outcomes? Using an original database of environmental organizations and interviews with activists and officials throughout the region, this paper investigates which strategies are most common, and compares them to the advocacy strategies found in the United States. It finds, perhaps surprisingly, that (a) environmental organizations across East Asia employ similar advocacy strategies, even though they are operating in very different political conditions, and (b) the strategies most favoured in East Asia are also the strategies most often utilized in the United States. It then argues that new theories of advocacy should be developed to pay closer attention to certain actors (academics and artists), and particular processes (organizational networking, government collaboration, and culture-making), that appear to play important roles in advocacy in countries around the world, irrespective of political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Rural financial markets have grown rapidly in Asian emerging market economies, thus contributing to economic development and the reduction of poverty. At the same time, however, the level of indebtedness of rural households has increased, making households more vulnerable to shocks. One of the reasons for rising household debt is the ease of borrowing simultaneously from a growing number of lending institutions. This paper addresses two major questions. First, does borrowing from multiple sources increase rural households’ risk of over-indebtedness? Second, do over-indebted rural households refinance their outstanding loans through multiple borrowing, running the risk of becoming trapped in a debt cycle? Employing a dynamic random effects bivariate probit model for a unique set of longitudinal household panel data from Northeast Thailand, this study examines the bidirectional relationship between over-indebtedness and multiple borrowing to determine to what extent rural households become trapped in debt cycles. On the one hand, the results indicate that households in Northeast Thailand take on multiple loans, which further increases their risk of becoming over-indebted. On the other hand, our model results do not confirm the widespread notion that over-indebted rural households use multiple loans to refinance unpayable debts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s Multilateral Development Banks created accountability mechanisms (AMs) that allowed people affected by development projects redress. Currently undertheorized, this paper examines how and why the Asian Development Bank (ADB) created an AM, and whether the AM serves its purpose to hold the ADB to account and to provide ‘fair hearing of the views of the affected group’. This article argues that the ADB created anewAM because of institutional isomorphism,borrowingthe idea of the AM from the World Bank as a result of coercive and mimetic isomorphic processes. Further, that the ADB introduced a mechanism ill-suited to the pre-existing (old)organizational culture of the ADB, which is based on consensus and hierarchical rule-following in the context of ADB operations to further economic growth while upholding state sovereignty. Despite its restructure and recent review, the mechanism's weakness was revealed through a stand-off between China and the AM over an investigation begun in 2009 (creating something ‘blue’). The paper concludes that the AM's ability to serve its purpose will remain hampered as long as ADB maintains consensus around economic growth and state sovereignty over providing recourse to affected people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the context of mineral extraction in South East Asia, the rural poor are generally portrayed as victims of large, invading corporatized mining enterprises. However, this paper argues that local villagers have also shown considerable agency in taking advantage of the mineral resource boom by diversifying their livelihoods to include informal mining. In South East Asia, the growth of informal mining has occurred within the overall process of agrarian transition. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich valley in southern Laos to highlight the location-specific nature of such transitions. The valley's environmental transformation has both caused and accompanied a modification in the peasant ways of life, and the recent entry of transnational mining companies and the growing market price of tin have fundamentally altered the relationships of the peasants with place, while at the same time encouraging them to claim mineral resource rights in ways that are not accommodated in conventional mining legislation. To conclude, the paper notes the multiple interpretations and contradictions of the increasing mineral dependence among Lao peasants in a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burma's first well known welfare plan was entitled Pyidawtha or Happy Land, and it was launched in 1952. In vernacular terms, the literal meaning of Pyidawtha is 'Prosperous Royal Country'. The government's attempt to sustain tradition and culture and to instil modern aspirations in its citizens was reflected in its choice of the word Pyidawtha. The Plan failed and its implications still overshadow the development framework of Burma. This paper discusses how the country's major decisions, including whether or not to join the Commonwealth, have been influenced by language; how the term and concept of 'development' were conceived; how the Burmese translation was coined to attract public support; and how the detailed planning was presented to the masses by the government. The paper also discusses the concerns and anxieties of the democratic government led by U Nu in introducing Burma's first major development plan to a war-torn and bitterly divided country, and why it eventually failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The growing cities in developing Asia require a massive provision of infrastructure, public transportation, housing and jobs for their population, as well as a healthy environment. On the other hand, urban Asia contributes increasingly to climate change, and suffers its impacts. The climate co-benefits approach in this paper refers to the development and implementation of policies and strategies that simultaneously contribute to addressing climate change and solving local environmental problems, which also have other development impacts. The co-benefits approach is important especially for developing countries, which have to overcome many challenges simultaneously with limited capacities and resources. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine the main obstacles, opportunities and challenges to implementation of environmental co-benefit related policies in urban areas. The paper focuses primarily upon sub-national processes, particularly in cities in developing countries, but the research also looked into the links of sub-national processes to national and international processes. The paper relies on the results of research done in China, Indonesia and India. It offers a series of lessons for understanding initiatives that generated co-benefits and the factors that influence them. This paper provides insight on successful ways to promote, design and implement the urban co-benefits approach in urban areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper argues that while the main drivers of economic development in the Asia-Pacific region will be a sound development policy and good governance, migration can play a facilitating role at a national, especially at a regional level within countries. It discusses the role of the demographic dividend and Asia-Pacific youth bulges in assisting development in the region and the potential role of migration in that context. It examines the evidence that migration has delivered developmental advantages to sending countries and regions through an analysis of the effects of remittances, diaspora, interactions and return movements. There also is, however, an evidence of brain drain effects having negative impacts. Nevertheless, it concludes that the potential positive effects of emigration on sending countries are being diluted because of poor quality governance of migration systems in the region. These include excessive rent taking at all stages of the migration process, corruption, lack of capacity in migration management and exploitation. The final part of the paper addresses the important issue of what needs to be done if the full potential of international migration to deliver development dividends to sending countries to the region is to be taken advantage of. This includes a change in the attitude towards migration which recognises its potential benefits, a more development-friendly migration policies at origins especially at destinations, capacity building and a parametric improvement in migration management, greater bilateral and multilateral cooperation and more evidence-based decision-making in policy and programme development. A role for Australia in this is also discussed. Migration is not a substitute for good governance and sound socio-economic policy in the development of Asia-Pacific nations, but it can have positive outcomes in poverty reduction and improving the lives and prospects of many people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Robust economic growth across the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has lifted millions out of poverty. Nevertheless, there are concerns about whether growth will be derailed in the future. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of growth slowdown for the ASEAN economies which are at different levels of development. We aim to answer two questions: First, are determinants of economic slowdown likely to differ across income groups? Second, what are the probabilities that economies in ASEAN will experience a growth slowdown in the near future? We construct a sample of 107 economies including ASEAN economies, Greater China economies, as well as sub-national economies of India and Indonesia. The sample spans the period 1993-2013. We first classify these economies into four different income groups: low-income economies, lower-middle-income economies, uppermiddle- income economies and high-income economies using the criteria proposed by Felipe (2012). Next, we adopt the methodology of Eichengreen et al. (2012) to create a dummy variable representing the occurrence of growth slowdown episodes in each income group. We then run income group-specific logistic regressions to identify the determinants of growth slowdown and use Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) techniques as a robustness check for our empirical findings. Using the regression results, we compute economy-specific predictive probabilities of growth slowdown over the period 2012-2017. Overall, the level of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita and human capital formation appear as important determinants of growth slowdown in all income groups. However, aside from these two variables, growth slowdown tends to be associated with different factors at different levels of development. Most notably, FDI inflows is an important determinant of growth slowdown for low-income and lower-middleincome economies while employment in the tertiary sector affects the probability of growth slowdown of lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income and high-income economies. Furthermore, we find that on average, ASEAN economies have a one-in-five chance of experiencing growth slowdown over the period 2012-2017. In terms of policy implications, the economy-specific predictive probabilities we compute may serve as early warning signs for policy-makers. Meanwhile, results from the regression analyses provide a roadmap for policy intervention to combat the risk of growth slowdown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the emergence of the sustainable development paradigm in the late 1980s, land-use planning has become a key arena for political debates over society-environment interactions and, in practice, an important means for territorialisation projects. The paper reviews the main planning approaches that have been employed over the past three decades in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a country that has long been viewed as a valuable policy testing ground for the proponents of sustainable development. It highlights three concurrent territorialisation projects that have shaped the history of land-use planning and have fuelled tensions between central and subnational governments and local actors, national and foreign institutions, and land suitability and sustainability approaches. The paper argues that the latter tensions reflect an important dynamism and reactivity in the planning arena. It concludes that the capacity of land-use planners to adapt to specific contexts and evolving socio-environmental challenges should be harnessed in order to reconcile conflicting approaches to planning and, perhaps, to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper sees market building in Asia as part of the larger project of constructing a global market economy – a project which can be traced back to Adam Smith and, more recently, to the founding of a set of global liberal institutions in the post-World War II period. In the last two decades the global liberal impulse behind the creation of these institutions has gained momentum, in step with the emergence of a “world market” of genuinely global scale. The issue of risk is central to the project of building a world market. Following an introduction to the global liberal project, the first section of this paper addresses the question of risk through a critical analysis of the difference between negative risks (both external and internal) that pose a threat to the global liberal project, and the positive risks that the project seeks to embed and incentivise. The second section outlines the treatment of risk in the literature on the “political economy of reform,” and the third provides a detailed analysis of Social Risk Management at the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank over the last decade. The final section reflects on the implications for “building markets in Asia.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on the island city of Macau as Europe's last Asian colony and one of China's special administrative regions (SARs) that enjoys a high degree of autonomy. The author traces the root cause of the current social discontent and political dilemma in the face of Macau's post-colonial casino boom and economic miracle. The study finds that Macau's islandness, smallness and geographic location significantly affect the island city's urban political culture. While Macau shares similarities with other island cities across the world, as a Chinese casino city under Portuguese administration for more than 400 years, certain unique features have also developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the Chinese government’s ‘belt and road’ initiative – the Silk Roads vision of land and maritime logistics and communications networks connecting Asia, Europe and Africa – has its roots in sub-national ideas and practices, and that it reflects their elevation to the national level more than the creation of substantially new policy content. Further, the spatial paradigms inherent in the Silk Roads vision reveal the reproduction of capitalist developmental ideas expressed particularly in the form of networks, which themselves have become a feature of contemporary global political economy. In other words, the Silk Roads vision is more of a ‘spatial fix’ than a geopolitical manoeuvre. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Inclusiveness in economic development has lately emerged as a critical factor for development. This paper adopts an analytical concept of inclusive growth to evaluate East Asia’s economic success. It contests the Western conceptualization of the critical role of public participation in development, and argues that it has played a limited role in terms of inclusive growth in East Asia. Several factors have influenced the outcome of research in this area including the choice of methodology adopted, the challenge of defining and measuring inclusive growth, and the unclear mode and impact of public participation in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the opportunities presented by the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to Japan to revitalize its trade policy, bolster economic growth, and increase participation in regional multilateral fora for the 21st century. Despite its strengths, Japan has continued to face problems caused by its economic, political, and strategic policies. The Japanese economy has been stagnant for the last several decades, and Japan needs to take bold steps to ameliorate this situation. Politically, domestic political paralysis has had a negative impact on Japan's alliances and partnerships and eroded Tokyo's ability to act as a major player in the increasing vital and important Indo-Pacific region. Connected to this, it is imperative for Japan to engage itself deeply in Asia in ways that increase strategic trust. This paper will also highlight the necessary reforms Japan must undertake to take full advantage of the benefits of the TPP, as well as what the TPP might mean for its relationship with both the US and other regional partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that it is timely for educational researchers in Asia, and Singapore in particular, to generate cultural- and empirical-knowledge bases in school leadership that will speak to the specific interests of Asian students, educators and practitioners. As economic and social development across Asia gathers momentum, the more advanced Asian systems of education, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, will increasingly have the resources and expertise to launch significant research programmes in school leadership and organisational change, thereby challenging the persistent and present dominance of Anglo-American perspectives. The paper reports a planned large scale research programme for school leadership and organisational change in Singapore. Support for such a programme from all three major stakeholders – the Ministry of Education (MOE), the National Institute of Education (NIE) and school leaders and teachers – is conditional on the research programme leading to school improvement and better student outcomes. The paper sketches the politico–cultural–economic conditions of Singapore in which such an agenda has been formed; describes the main features of the research programme; and then relates its features to a possible broader Asian and international research agenda in school leadership. The planned Singapore programme has congruence with a future international research agenda advocated by scholars for the field of educational leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper very briefly surveys current research on Asian economic development, and also discusses several recent papers on the contributions of economic history to understanding development. I then review the contributions of the papers in this special volume of Explorations in light of these two literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an assessment of the mainstreaming of fisheries in national development plans and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers within the Asia-Pacific region. Fisheries and aquaculture in the region make a significant contribution to world fisheries production. Importantly, those directly involved in the sector are predominantly small-scale artisanal producers, a group traditionally regarded as extremely vulnerable in poverty terms. Therefore, mainstreaming - integrating a sector into every stage of the national policy process - may have important welfare implications for those drawing livelihoods from the industry. This paper examines the significance of fisheries and aquaculture to developing Asia-Pacific economies, and evaluates the extent to which the sector has been mainstreamed in national development and poverty reduction strategies using a content analysis framework. We conclude that the representation of fisheries issues, the recognition of sectoral poverty, policy responses, and stakeholder representation, is typically greater than in other fish producing regions, and there are many examples of best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of 'the rise of China' on the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and its implications for Japan. Japan has traditionally enjoyed a dominant position in the Bank, as it has enjoyed a dominant position in Asia. However, with the balance of power in the region tipping in China's favour, one might expect that this would be reflected in the ADB as well. This paper argues that despite the worsening Sino-Japanese relationship, the ADB has facilitated the development and maintenance of shared expectations between the two parties over the future direction of development assistance, representing an oasis of liberal institutionalism in a relationship increasingly characterised in realist terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aid effectiveness literature contains about 100 papers that see aid as a treatment given to poor countries to generate development. 68 of these papers provide a total of 543 comparable estimates of the effect of aid on growth, which are the data of our meta-analysis. We consider two questions: (Q1) Are the estimates converging to a clear result over time as aid agencies gain experience, models become better and data accumulates? We find that the results do have a positive average, but it is small, insignificant and falling. (Q2) Can we identify the main factors that explain the large differences in the results? We find that much of the variation between studies can be attributed to publication outlet, institutional affiliation, data and specification differences. However, some of the difference between studies is real. In particular, the aid-growth effect is stronger for Asian countries. The meta-analysis indicates also the existence of indirect channels, which need to be further explored. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

Among the most remarkable events in the world during the last half-century has been the notable economic growth, social transformation and poverty reduction that has taken place in Asia. The March 2002 issue of the 'Journal of Asian & African Studies,' contains nine papers, authored by economists, sociologists and anthropologists, covering five countries in the region including India, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. These papers suggest that rather than making land reform the centerpiece of the strategy for rural development and poverty reduction, the government should give priority to investments in physical and social infrastructures, agricultural research and technology transfer and enforcement of contractual arrangements and property rights. The paper by Saurabh Sinha, Michael Lipton and Shahin Yaqub is closely related to the Baulch and McCulloch paper in that it also is concerned with transitory changes in household welfare.

The fraction of U.S. college graduate women who ever marry has increased relative to less educated women since the mid-1970s. In contrast, college graduate women in developed Asian countries have had decreased rates of marriage, so much so that the term 'Gold Misses' has been coined to describe them. This paper argues that the interaction of rapid economic growth in Asia combined with the intergenerational transmission of gender attitudes causes the 'Gold Miss' phenomenon. I present a simple dynamic model then test its implications using U.S. and Asian data on marriage and time use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs Granger causality tests to examine linkages between economic growth, measured by changes in real per capita GDP, financial maturity, measured by an index - calculated by using principal component analysis, and the diffusion of telecommunications technology (DTT) in 21 Asian countries over the period 1961-2012. We advance on previous studies with (a) advanced estimation procedures (panel cointegration techniques and panel Granger causality tests); and (b) the inclusion of all three potentially two-way interacting variables conjointly. Our findings are not uniform: they vary based on the region and country that is studied. We find that in the case of Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates and for Total Asia, financial maturity leads to economic growth, lending support to the supply-leading hypothesis. This implies that economic growth depends upon the level of financial maturity of the countries. In the case of Hong Kong, South Korea, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Vietnam, economic growth leads to financial maturity, lending support to the demand-following hypothesis. This implies that economic growth determines the level of financial maturity. For Bangladesh, Philippines, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Total Asia, financial maturity leads to economic growth, in line with the supply-leading hypothesis. In case of China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Iran, Thailand, Kuwait, East Asia, South Asia, and West Asia, economic growth and financial maturity cause each other, lending support to both the demand-following and supplyleading hypotheses. Furthermore, in the case of India, Malaysia, and Philippines, economic growth leads to DTT, congruent with the demand-following hypothesis. On the other hand, in the case of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Asia, South East Asia, and Total Asia, DTT leads to economic growth, lending support to the supplyleading hypothesis. By contrast, for China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, and East Asia, economic growth and DTT are self-reinforcing and subject to feedback consistent with both the demand-following and supply-leading hypotheses. Finally, in the case of Hong Kong, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates, South East Asia, and Total Asia, DTT leads to financial maturity, lending support to the supply-leading hypothesis, while for China, India, Kuwait, Qatar, and West Asia, financial maturity leads to DTT, lending support to the demand-following hypothesis. In case of Malaysia, financial maturity and DTT cause each other thus supporting both the demand-following and supply-leading hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the idea that in the Asia-Pacific region the relationship between economic growth, industrial transformation and the rise of service industries in general, and producer services in particular, appears to be different to that found in North America or Europe. After an exploration of the context for producer services growth, some simple indices for measuring the relative position of Asia-Pacific producer services in the global context are used to demonstrate that they are apparently less prominent than expected. More robust data, including case studies, are needed to substantiate this preliminary paper. The paper concludes with the elements of an agenda for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asian financial regionalism was born in response to the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997–1998. The centrepiece of financial regionalism was the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI), an emergency liquidity mechanism created by the ASEAN+3. It embodied both a clear interpretation of what had gone wrong in 1997–1998 and an understanding of the need for institutions that would be politically viable despite Sino-Japanese rivalry. Enforcement under CMI relied on the ‘IMF link’ – release of funds would be predicated on crisis countries' initiating negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a means of reducing moral hazard, enforcing conditionality and diverting blame from the leading creditors, Japan and China. The global financial crisis of 2008–2010 and the eurozone crisis that followed have inspired important changes meant to address CMI's economic gaps, including accelerated adoption of ‘CMI Multilateralization’ (CMIM), the creation of a new surveillance unit (ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Organization, or AMRO), and the establishment of a new precautionary line. Many observers have remarked that these developments weaken the IMF link, which had effectively subordinated CMI to the IMF. While the moves appear to demonstrate a more confident, autonomous regionalism and a relative devaluation of the US-dominated global financial institutions, this paper argues that in fact, the ASEAN+3 states have again unearthed the underlying politics of divided leadership and mutual suspicion. CMIM is now threatened by the renewed potential for internal divisions. Further complicating the picture, both China and Japan have recently established large bilateral swap lines outside of the CMIM framework with several of their ASEAN+3 partners, raising the question of whether CMIM is moving towards political irrelevance even as it has arrived at a high water mark in its institutional development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There has been a bias in standard international migration data collection and research toward immigration and destinations while emigration origins have been neglected. This has hampered our ability to provide a substantial empirical base for migration and development policy decision making in origin areas. While improvement of migration data collection in origin countries remains an important priority, this paper argues that much can be learned about emigration from low income countries from immigration data in high income destinations. Migration stock and flow data from Australia are used to provide information on the scale and nature of movement between Asia and Australia. It establishes that there are important but different flows in both directions which belie traditional conceptualisations of south-north migration and this has significant implications for the effects of migration on economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]