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Consumers in Asian markets often need to make choices between highuncertainty stores and low-uncertainty stores. For example, an iPhone may be purchased from an Apple authorized retailer (a low-uncertainty store) or from an unauthorized seller (a high-uncertainty one). We build a game-theoretical model to capture the crucial roles of store uncertainty and consumer risk aversion in store choice. A model-based explanation is provided for the coexistence of charging a higher retail price and having a higher product demand. Interestingly, our finding shows that store uncertainty and risk aversion have the potential to enhance the overall market profitability under the full market coverage, whereas such profitability will be reduced under the partial coverage.Moreover, we find that consumer learning might not be beneficial to the market as a whole. While consumer learning increases the expected overall market profitability under the partial coverage, such learning actually decreases the expected overall profitability if the market is fully covered. Not only is the precision of signals during learning relevant, but also the number of signals per se plays an indispensable role in the market. In addition, we find that the second-mover advantage possibly enjoyed by a high-uncertainty store is an important force that changes market outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate how depreciation could affect the export sector in selected Asian countries. Theoretically, depreciation will bring positive impact on trade balance. However, it is only possible when the sum of the elasticities of demand for export commodities and demand for import goods is greater than unity. Accordingly, this study found no evidence for the effect of depreciation to improve trade balance of about 14 Asian economies. This was perhaps due to the fact that exports did not respond as expected, mainly due to a decline in terms of trade for primary commodities and manufactured products or due to heavy dependence on import goods which may be more expensive in the local currency. As a second approach, we attempted to narrow down the number of countries understudy into 8 countries that are relatively bigger, industrialized and stable, and in this case we found that depreciation improved trade balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper explores the mechanisms through which finance affects corporate investments and capital accumulation. We separate the effects of financial conditions from those of financial development. Based on a sample of firms from five Asian emerging economies, we find that (i) financial conditions affect firms’ growth opportunities and investment demand, while financial development primarily affects firms’ external financing constraints; (ii) large firms benefit more from improved financial conditions, while small firms benefit more from financial development; and (iii) these effects are asymmetric—in general, stronger when the global financial crisis was unfolding and weaker during the subsequent rebound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose - Accurately forecasting the demand for international health tourism is important to newly-emerging markets in the world. The aim of this study was presents a more suitable and accurate model for forecasting the demand for health tourism that should be more theoretically useful. Design -Applying GM(1,1) with adaptive levels of ct (hereafter GM(1,1)-α model) to provide a concise prediction model that will improve the ability to forecast the demand for health tourism in Asian countries. Methodology - In order to verify the feasibility of the proposed approach, using available secondary and primary data covering the period from 2002 through 2009 obtained from the RNCOS "Opportunities in Asian Health tourism" report. Based on a unique and characteristics database for the health tourism industry, this study applies the adaptive ct in a Grey forecasting model (GM(1,1)-α) to predict the demand for health tourism in Asian countries. Approach - Implementation of demand forecasting in health tourism is examined on the shortterm and limited dataset, due to importance of a minimum the predicated error on underlying basis for the econometric model for health tourism markets. Findings - Key findings present that the optimal value of ct in GM(1,1) can minimize the predicted error. Finally, in the case of the demand for health tourism in Asian countries, using GM(1,1)-α to predict error is clearly better than the use of the original GM(1,1) and time series models. The originality of this research - The originality comes from the analysis of the demand forecasting in health tourism of Asian countries, which provides an easy and accurate method to predict the demand for health medical tourism and ideas for further improvements in the sector of health tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Airlines from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman have gained significant market shares in international air transport. Traditionally travellers have chosen hubs like Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London or Paris as transfer points for trips to Asia. With the inauguration of non-stop services to places like Abu Dhabi, Doha or Dubai, new choices for air travellers have emerged. We analyse data derived from German air transport statistics on the effects of passenger flows between the airports of Düsseldorf and Hamburg to Asian destinations. They suggest that services introduced by Emirates stimulated passenger demand for Asian destinations, while incumbent hubs do not lose transfer passengers. Regarding travel times and connection quality of routings between secondary airports in Germany and Asian destinations, comparing routings of Emirates Airlines and Lufthansa suggests that due to geographic and scheduling constraints, services via Arabia do not constitute a perfect substitute for time-sensitive passengers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this article the author comments on a paper that discusses how the People's Republic of China (PRC) is seen as a global source of demand and growth aside from the U.S. He examines the authors' way of discussing the importance of China being a driving force of Asian economies using figures and the role of PRC using time series econometrics. Further, the author analyzes the structural vector autoregressive (VAR) model used to test the hypothesis that PRC is an engine of growth.

This paper questions the assumption in all of mainstream growth theory that the Harrod natural rate of growth is exogenously determined and independent of the pressure of demand in an economy. We first present a simple statistical technique for estimating the natural rate of growth, and then show how it is possible to test for its endogeneity. The model is applied to ten Asian countries, and the results support the conclusions from previous studies of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Latin American countries that the natural rate of growth is elastic to the actual rate of growth working through induced labor supply and productivity growth. Demand matters for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the status of the global chemical fibre industry after the 2009 economic crisis. It says that the increase of fibres and thread production in China resulted in a 7.8% increase in production. It mentions the annual 8% to 10% rise in the demand of carbon fibres (CF) supplying technical sectors such as the European market. According to Russia Federation (RF) Ministry of Trade data, the production index of chemical products in the country fell by 1.8% at the end of 2009.

Japan was Asia's leading generator of international tourism in the 1980s and 1990s. Japanese tourists make up over 30% of all international tourists to Taiwan and they have been the highest ranking tourist source market since the early stages of the island's tourism development in the 1970s. However, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, the most catastrophic disaster in the past 100 years in Taiwan, had a huge impact on Japanese inbound tourism to the island. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how Japanese inbound arrivals have been affected by the SARS outbreak. A SARIMA with intervention model is used to assess the impact of the epidemic on inbound tourism from Japan to Taiwan in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak. The empirical results indicated that inbound tourism from Japan was devastated by the crisis, particularly during the first 5 months after the SARS outbreak. This study provides some helpful insight for the tourism industry to respond to the impact of exogenous shock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, many studies have attempted to use economic demand models. This paper stresses on the influence of non-economic factors on tourism demand. Some researchers have suggested that tourists from different origins have various cultural and nationalistic backgrounds, and they may interpret visual imagery and experiences differently. Aligning with this suggestion, we have investigated different underlying factors of tourism demand from four continents (Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania). Statistical data are collected from international organisations and 135 countries were covered. Our results showed that there are differences and similarities among the factors in determining the tourism demand. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to forecast inbound tourism to Asia and outbound tourism from Asia by considering the possible impacts of the current financial and economic crisis. The autoregressive distributed lag model is used to calculate the interval demand elasticities, which are then used to generate interval forecasts for inbound tourism to and outbound tourism from Asia. Interval forecasts reduce the risk of complete forecasting failure arising from the uncertainties associated with the crisis. The forecast results suggest that the financial and economic crisis will have a negative impact on both inbound and outbound tourism in Asia but the demand will rebound from 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives and Methods: This article provides an extensive review of literature and an in-depth analysis aimed at introducing potential applications of economic evaluation and at addressing the barriers that could prohibit the use or diminish the usefulness of economic evaluation in Asian settings. It also proposes the probable solutions to overcome these barriers. Results: Potential uses of economic evaluation include the development of public reimbursement lists, price negotiation, the development of clinical practice guidelines, and communicating with prescribers. Two types of barriers to using economic evaluation, namely barriers relating to the production of economic evaluation data and decision context-related barriers, are identified. For the first sort of barrier, the development of the national guidelines, the development of economic evaluation database, planning and use of economic evaluation in a systematic manner, and prioritization of topics for assessment are recommended. Furthermore, educating potential users and the public, making the economic evaluation process transparent and participatory, and incorporating other health preferences into the decision-making framework have been promoted to conquer decision context-related barriers. Conclusions: It seems practically impossible to adopt other countries' approaches using economic evaluation for priority setting because of several constraints specifically related to the context of each setting. Nevertheless, given a better understanding of its resistance, and proper policies and strategies to overcome the barriers applied, it is more than probable that a method with system/mechanisms specifically designed to fit particular settings will be used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the monthly statistics of tourists from four different origins (America, Europe, Asia and Oceania) among seven places in the Asia Pacific region for a period from January 1991 to December 2005, we investigate these 28 time series using the Holt-Winters method, artificial neural network and numerical graphical plots. Interesting comparisons on level fluctuations, trends and seasonal patterns of the time series among the Asia Pacific region are explored. These findings enable us to understand more about the temporal aspect of tourism demand in the Asia Pacific region. In sum, this paper lays out the importance of understanding the trend and seasonality indices in details. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fish demand patterns in nine Asian countries were investigated using a multistage budgeting framework allowing a disaggregated approach to analysing fish consumption. This paper highlights the heterogeneity of fisheries products in terms of species, sources and cultural responses of consumers, factors that are important in fish demand under the Asian setting. Specifically, fish demand by income groups were compared to determine how the low- and high-income households respond to price and income changes. Results showed that the estimated price and income elasticities of all fish types included in the study were relatively more elastic among the poorer households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the economic growth in Asian countries in 2006. Domestic demand reached a 2 year high of 3.3 percent in South Korea and it picked up in many Asian economies. Economic growth in Hong Kong and Taiwan is expected to reach around 5 percent and 4 percent in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Of all the Asian economies that have been adopting export-led development strategies in the last two decades, South Korea has been the most advanced so far in shifting the policy mix to one that supports domestic demand. There have been further improvements in the Japanese economy too.

The article discusses the quantitative and qualitative impact of economic growth in Asia on the international oil market. Quantitative impact signifies the demand for imported oil and its price effect while qualitative impact signifies the relation between oil importers and exporters. The first part presents the political background for economic performance in Asia as well as the rising demand of energy and the continuous quest for imported oil. Market competition between oil importers is discussed in the next section followed by the global impact of oil trading. The last part discusses the relation of Asia in the Middle East and the United States in terms of oil trading, commerce and finance.

Focuses on the economic developments in selected non-OECD countries in 2004. Influence of the tightening of economic policies in China on the growth of foreign trade in Asia; Expected growth of the economy in South America; Improvement of private investment and consumption in Brazil; Strengh of domestic demand for oil and expansionary fiscal policy in Russia; Deceleration of industrial outputs in China.

The five countries of Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are considered to be the major Asian economic ‘Tigers’ behind Asia's growth in the late 1900s. In this paper, we analyze the consumption patterns of these five countries, using the most recent consumption data and employing the system-wide approach. We find that the consumption data from these five countries support a number of empirical regularities, including the ‘law of demand’ and ‘Engel's law’. Based on the estimation results, we find that in all five countries, food, housing and medical care (except in Taiwan) are necessities, while clothing, durables (except in Singapore) and transport are luxuries. Demand for all the commodities is price inelastic. Furthermore, we find that the demand hypothesis, homogeneity, is acceptable for all five countries while Slutsky symmetry is acceptable only for Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. We also find that the preference-independence hypothesis is acceptable for all countries except Japan. Overall, consumption patterns of consumers appear to be similar across the five countries, while some differences exist between Japan and the other four countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deals with a study which estimated environmental goods and services import demand elasticities for selected countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Methods; Results; Discussion.