bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Banking and Enterprise Reform in the People’s Republic of China after the Asian Financial Crisis: An Appraisal
Authors: Holz Carsten , Zhu Tian
Published: June 2023

This paper evaluates recent banking and enterprise reforms in the People’s Republic of China since the Asian financial crisis. It argues that the bad debt problem and the losses in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are highly interdependent, and that both can be traced back to a lack of managerial autonomy, adequate incentive mechanisms, and control structures. However, recent efforts to stabilize the financial system and to reform SOEs do not address these issues, as they are largely redistributive, shifting financial losses between different agents of the economy rather than improving the efficiency of both the financial and real sectors. Major reforms are proposed that properly address the problem of bad debts and SOE losses.
Growth and Poverty Reduction: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Kakwani Nanak
Published: June 2023

This paper develops an inequality-growth trade off index, which shows how much growth is needed to offset the adverse impact of an increase in inequality on poverty. The empirical analysis based on this index shows that pro-poor policies will have a greater payoff for poverty reduction in Thailand, while growth-maximizing policies may be more adequate for Korea and Lao PDR. For the Philippines, a mixture of growth and pro-poor policies may be deemed as adequate. Further, the paper shows that countries with low initial inequality will have a greater poverty reduction payoff from growth, whereas countries with high initial inequality will have a greater poverty reduction payoff from pro-poor policies. Finally, the paper suggests that if our focus is on ultra poverty, then pro-poor policies would be of greater benefit.
Poverty Reduction and Economic Growth: The Asian Experience
Authors: Warr Peter
Published: June 2023

The Asian experience of poverty reduction has varied widely. Over recent decades the economies of East and Southeast Asia have achieved large reductions in absolute poverty incidence, but in South Asia the achievement has generally been less impressive. This paper examines the relationship between these outcomes and the rate of economic growth, both in aggregate and in the agricultural, industrial, and services sectors. It uses available data on the headcount measure of poverty incidence in India; Indonesia; Malaysia; Philippines; Thailand; and Taipei, China over the period from the 1960s to the 1990s, in aggregate and in both rural and urban areas. It then uses this data set to analyze the economic determinants of changes in poverty incidence and attempts to explain the differences in the country outcomes that are obtained. The evidence supports the view that the overall rate of economic growth is much more important than its sectoral composition.
Capital Mobility: Evidence from Sri Lanka
Authors: Cooray Arusha
Published: June 2023

The paper examines the degree to which financial deregulation has contributed to increased international capital mobility in Sri Lanka. In fulfilling this objective the empirical validity of three tests are examined: the Feldstein-Horioka (1980) model; the Sachs (1981, 1982) approach to the savings-investment relation; and the Shibata-Shintani (1998) model. The Shibata-Shintani model is further investigated by relaxing the assumption of a constant real rate of return. Overall evidence points to an increase in capital mobility in the postderegulation period suggesting an enhanced role of the exchange rate in the monetary transmission process.
Four Proposals for Improved Financing of SME Development in ASEAN
Authors: WATTANAPRUTTIPAISAN THITAPHA
Published: June 2023

Small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) are of great socioeconomic significance although their long-term growth and competitiveness have been compromised by the chronic and often acute constraints on their access to formal-sector finance, among other systemic and institutional problems in developing countries, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Largely as a result, SMEs’ share of financing resources is disproportionately less than their relative importance in domestic employment and, to a lesser extent, value added. Proposals to address financing problems on the demand side are made relating to more systematic disclosure of information on finance and governance, and better business planning by SMEs. Parallel capacity building efforts on the supply side include greater reliance on credit information systems, and SME risk scoring and competitiveness benchmarking.
Development Strategies for Inclusive Growth in Developing Asia
Authors: LIN JUSTIN YIFU
Published: June 2023

A continuous flow of technology/ industrial innovation is the key to sustained dynamic growth. Developing countries have an “advantage of backwardness” as they can borrow technology/industry from the developed countries. In an open, competitive market, the optimal technology/industrial structure of a country is endogenously determined by the country’s endowment structure, which is exogenously given at any specific time. However, the governments in most developing countries after World War II adopted an inappropriate development strategy to accelerate the build-up of developed countries’ capital-intensive industries, which deviated from the optimal technology/industrial structure determined by their own endowment structures. This strategy made firms in the priority sectors nonviable in an open, competitive market and was responsible for many policy distortions and for failures in catching up and achieving inclusive growth. A transition to a policy regime that facilitates industrial development along the countries’ comparative advantages is necessary for developing countries to improve their growth performance and to allow the poor to benefit from growth. As many distortions in the developing countries are endogenous to the viability problem of firms in the priority sectors of previous development strategies, governments have to find a way to resolve the firms’ viability problem to achieve dynamic growth in their transition processes.
India: The Past and Its Future
Authors: Rajan Raghuram G.
Published: June 2023

The unshackling of India from its historically low rate of growth has occurred. The challenge of maintaining high growth rates in some states and igniting them in the presently bypassed and marginalized states has to be met squarely. Sustaining high overall growth rates would require that rising inequalities be checked, if not reversed, to broaden the inclusiveness of growth.
Interrelationship between Growth, Inequality, and Poverty: The Asian Experience
Authors: Son Hyun H.
Published: June 2023

This paper examines the relationships between economic growth, income distribution, and poverty for 17 Asian countries for the period 1981–2001. It deals with two distinct but related issues. First, it investigates how much growth is required to offset the adverse effect of an increase in inequality on poverty. This trade-off between inequality and growth is quantified using a tool called the “inequality-growth trade-off index.” The trade-off index measures how much growth in mean income or expenditure will be required to offset a 1 percent increase in inequality, with poverty remaining unchanged. This is an ex ante analysis based only on one period household survey. Second, the paper looks into the issue of pro-poor growth. This is an ex post analysis concerned with whether the growth process in a country has been pro-poor or anti-poor. Pro-poor growth is defined as growth that benefits the poor proportionally more than the nonpoor. By using a measure called the “poverty equivalent growth rate”, which is a composite index of a level of growth rate and the distribution of benefits of growth, the paper examines both (i) how growth in mean income or expenditure has fared in Asia, and (ii) how the benefits of growth are distributed between the poor and the nonpoor.
Reforming the Welfare System in the People’s Republic of China
Authors: Lu Mai , Feng Mingliang
Published: June 2023

This paper reviews the recent progress in welfare system reforms in the People’s Republic of China and looks at the experiences of Japan and Republic of Korea in establishing their modern welfare systems. The paper highlights three priorities for further reform of the People’s Republic of China welfare system. The first is to reduce its dualistic nature by eliminating differences between urban and rural areas in policies, institutional arrangements, coverage, and welfare provisions. The second is to rationalize government social security and welfare expenditures. The third is to rationalize the overall management of the welfare system by (i) reforming the existing compartmentalized government administration of urban cities and rural areas; (ii) encouraging better coordination among various government agencies involved in policy making and administration of the welfare system; and (iii) making the targeting of poverty reduction and social welfare programs more effective.
Inclusive Growth and the New Phase of Poverty Reduction in the People’s Republic of China
Authors: Tang Min
Published: June 2023

Despite remarkable achievements in fighting poverty in the past three decades, numerous challenges remain for the People’s Republic of China. The country’s antipoverty efforts are in a key phase of strategic reorientation. This paper analyzes lessons learned from poverty reduction programs in the country and identifies key areas to be addressed in the next decade. The paper proposes seven policy measures: (i) modifying the poverty threshold to redefine poverty targeting; (ii) enhancing financial institutions’ participation in poverty reduction programs; (iii) providing more equitable access to education; (iv) improving health care for the rural poor; (v) improving the minimum living standard support system in both rural and urban areas; (vi) putting in place a sound public finance mechanism and improving governance in antipoverty efforts; and (vii) enhancing the role of nongovernment organizations in poverty reduction programs.
Income Inequality in the People’s Republic of China and Its Decomposition: 1990–2004
Authors: Lin Tun , Zhuang Juzhong , Yarcia Damaris , Lin Fen
Published: June 2023

This paper estimates income inequality in the People’s Republic of China at the national, regional, and provincial levels using extrapolated unit-level household income data covering urban and rural populations of 23 provinces during 1990–2004. The estimates indicate that income inequality increased significantly during the last two decades, but the extent of the increases was lower than reported in most sources by about 20 percent when regional differences in cost of living are adjusted. The major sources of the increases in inequality were found to be within urban inequality and between urban and rural inequality, with their contribution increasing, respectively, from 15.7 and 12.0 percent in 1990, to 34.0 and 30.4 percent in 2004. The between-region and between-province inequality only accounted for 3.8 and 11.2 percent, respectively, in 2004.
Trade Structure and the Transmission of Economic Distress in the High-Income OECD Countries to Developing Asia
Authors: Jongwanich Juthathip , James William E. , Minor Peter J. , Greenbaum Alexander
Published: June 2023

This paper examines the structure and direction of developing Asia’s trade over the past two decades. The impacts of economic slowdown in high-income Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries on developing Asia in 2009–2010 are then projected through a computable general equilibrium model of world trade and production. The paper shows that despite a jump in intraregional trade—which is found to reflect increasing fragmentation of production with trade in intermediate goods and assembly of final products in the People’s Republic of China—the region remains dependent on external demand from the European Union, United States, and Japan. Simulations indicate the crisis may decrease real income in the region by 6–10 percent over the next two years largely as a result of a fall in exports. Although fiscal stimulus may mitigate these losses, a resurgence of protectionism would work in the opposite direction.
Developing Asia’s Sovereign Wealth Funds and Outward Foreign Direct Investment
Authors: Park Donghyun , Estrada Gemma
Published: June 2023

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) have emerged in developing Asia as a policy response to an unprecedented accumulation of foreign exchange (FX) reserves since 2000. At the same time, developing countries have become an increasingly important source of outward foreign direct investment (FDI). The central objective of this paper is to evaluate the prospects for SWFs to serve as a major conduit for the region’s outward FDI. In principle, FDI represents an attractive means of earning higher returns on FX reserves than traditional reserve assets. In practice, the limited institutional capacity and the political sensitivity of state-led FDI severely constrains the ability of developing Asia’s SWFs to undertake FDI on a significant scale. Therefore, the potential for developing Asia’s SWFs to become major sources of outward FDI is more apparent than real. This paper also explores the implications of the Santiago Principles and the global financial crisis on outward FDI by SWFs.
Outward Foreign Direct Investment from India
Authors: Athukorala Prema-chandra
Published: June 2023

This paper examines emerging patterns and economic implications of Indian foreign direct investment against the backdrop of the evolving role of developing country firms (emerging multinational enterprises) as an important force of economic globalization. The novelty of the analysis lies in its specific focus on the implications of changes in trade and investment policy regimes and the overall investment climate for internationalization of domestic companies and the nature of their global operations. The findings cast doubt on the popular perception of the recent surge in outward foreign direct investment from India as an unmixed economic blessing, given the remaining distortion in the domestic investment climate.
Asian Regional Income, Growth, and Distribution to 2030
Authors: Roland-Holst David , Sugiyarto Guntur , Loh Yinshan
Published: June 2023

As Asia consolidates the economic gains and policy lessons of two generations, it can look to a bright future of sustained growth. More effective policies will even accelerate this growth, provided they recognize the essential agents of trade and productivity growth, as well as the importance of promoting domestic regional demand. Rising incomes promise greater homegrown demand for domestic producers and essential diversification for regional exporters.

This study surveys historical income distribution data from 22 Asian economies, projects the emergence of middle classes in the next 20 years, and examines its role in Asian economies. The study also examines the drivers of growth over this periond using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to forecast GDP and consumption trends.

The findings suggest that Asia can sustain and even accelerate current patterns of poverty reduction and livelihood advancement beyond poverty. Over the next 20 years, about 1 billion people will be added to the 2.7 billion Asian middle class (based on $2-a- day PPP standard). The rate of middle class emergence will be uneven across the region and will depend mostly on initial conditions.

The results also suggest that energy price vulnerability is a critical risk to regional growth—and calls for energy efficiency measures to insure against this risk. The agricultural productivity growth can improve both the incomes of the majority of Asia’s rural poor and the purchasing power of urbanites. Policies that reduce both energy and food costs can therefore be a potent source of new demand for products and services as well as jobs.

Finally, given the importance of labor resources to Asian growth, skills development is the most critical prerequisite for realizing the vast economic potential of Asia. Higher incomes, a larger middle class, and self-sustaining prosperity can only be built on the foundation of a skilled and productive labor force that captures significant value added and channels higher incomes into sustained long-term expenditure, savings, and investment.
The Growth Locomotive of the People’s Republic of China: Macro and Terms-of-Trade Impacts on Neighboring Countries
Authors: Mai Yinhua , Adams Philip , Dixon Peter , Menon Jayant
Published: June 2023

This paper analyzes the impact that terms of trade (TOT) are likely to have on the growth of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) neighboring countries. Two scenarios employing a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework are considered: (i) a convergence scenario, where historical trends are projected; and (ii) a baseline scenario, where technological progress in the PRC is placed in line with that of the United States (US). The results show that the PRC’s technological convergence leads to increased world prices for mining products, and lower world prices for manufactures, especially those exported extensively by the PRC. On the whole, however, the effects on the growth and TOT of the PRC’s neighboring countries are relatively small. The modelling framework used in this study explicitly captures the various offsetting effects that dampen the impact on TOT and contribute to the small impact on growth. Furthermore, the additional capital required to finance the PRC’s growth comes predominantly from domestic savings, placing little pressure on the global supply of capital. Thus, an awakening PRC is unlikely to make a dramatic entrance despite the country’s overall positive impact on the region – although there is nothing to fear, there is also only little to gain.
Effects of Taxation on Migration: Some Evidence for the ASEAN and APEC Economies
Authors: Claus Edda , Claus Iris
Published: June 2023

This paper investigates the effects of taxation on migration. It develops a stylized, two-country model to examine the impact of taxes on labor mobility. The theoretical predictions that taxes affect migration decisions and that educated workers are more responsive to taxation are supported by some empirical evidence for the economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. The empirical application also shows that average tax rates have a larger impact on migration choices than marginal rates. Average tax rates are most important for migrants with secondary education, while marginal rates have a greater influence on the decisions of migrants with tertiary education compared to secondary-educated migrants. The finding that taxation affects migration decisions, in particular of educated migrants, has important policy implications.
Market Integration in the People’s Republic of China
Authors: Chen Qingqing , Goh Chor-Ching , Sun Bo , Xu Lixin Colin
Published: June 2023

Over the last 3 decades, the product, labor, and capital markets of the People’s Republic of China have become gradually more integrated within its borders, though integration has been significantly slower for capital markets. There remains a significant urban–rural divide, and cities in the PRC tend to be undersized by international standards. The PRC has also integrated globally, initially through its special economic zones on the coast as launching grounds to connect with world markets, and subsequently through the PRC’s accession to the World Trade Organization. For future policy considerations, we argue that its economic production needs to be spatially concentrated, and its social services need to be spread out to the interior to ensure harmonious development and domestic integration, through inclusive rural–urban transformations and effective territorial development.
The Global Financial Crisis and Resilience of the Thai Banking Sector
Authors: Nidhiprabha Bhanupong
Published: June 2023

The Thai economy is vulnerable to external shocks because of its high exposure to trade and capital flows. Despite its adverse consequences on the real sector of the Thai economy in 2009, the global financial crisis had little impact on the Thai financial sector. The healthy performance and resilience of Thai financial institutions can be attributed to the financial reforms undertaken after the Asian financial crisis and the favorable macroeconomic environment.
Effectiveness of Capital Controls: Evidence from Thailand
Authors: Jongwanich Juthathip , Kohpaiboon Archanun
Published: June 2023

This paper examines the effectiveness of capital account policies in Thailand during the period 1993–2010. Our results show that policies toward capital account liberalization tend to be more effective than those toward capital account restriction in changing the volume of capital flows. The composition of capital flows also matters for the effectiveness of policy measures. When capital restrictions were introduced in the late 2000s, our results show that there was a switching effect from more capital restricted asset classes toward less restricted ones. This study also finds that the central bank did not gain more monetary autonomy from introducing capital inflow restrictions. However, such restrictions, both inflows and outflows (liability side), could help limit the fluctuations in the nominal exchange rate, especially relative to the US dollar in 2000–2010.
Financial Development in Asia
Authors: Arndt H. W.
Published: June 2023

‘Financial development’ is a relatively modern concept in economics. Its origins go back to the early 1950s when the American economist, Raymond Goldsmith, published a series of monumental statistical studies designed to measure the evolution of financial structure in the course of economic development. But the modern idea of financial development, as a process and as a strategy, is due to two books, both published in 1973: Financial Deepening in Economic Development by E.S. Shaw, and Money and Capital in Economic Development by R.I. McKinnon. They have given rise to a large literature on what has become almost a new branch of economics and have transformed thinking about the role of money, banks and other financial institutions in economic development, and about the policies most likely to enhance this role. The first part of this article outlines what is meant by the process and strategy of financial development; the second part gives some illustrations of the issues drawn from recent Asian experience.
Growth and Efficiency of Small and Medium Industries in ASEAN Countries
Authors: Hiemenz U.
Published: June 2023

There has been increasing interest among policymakers in developing countries in the potential of small-scale and medium-scale industries (SIs and MIs) for generating additional employment opportunities. The rate of labor absorption in the industrial sector has remained low in many developing countries despite relatively high rates of growth of industrial output. It is generally considered that SIs and MIs are more labor-intensive than large-scale industries, and that they therefore could contribute to increasing the level of employment in the industrial sector. It has also been argued that SIs and MIs do not operate as efficiently as larger establishments, i.e., they require more labor and capital per unit of output than large-scale industries. Therefore, the creation of employment opportunities by promoting SIs and MIs could well be at the expense of lower growth in output — a proposition that may not be acceptable to many developing countries…
The Role of Performance Evaluation in the Development Process
Authors: Skeates R. , Whitlam G.
Published: June 2023

The development process, at the national, regional and project levels broadly involves a cycle of progressive steps. These include the identification of objectives, the formulation of plans to meet those objectives, the appraisal and implementation of programs or projects, and the evaluation of performance, the results of which are to be considered in the reformulation of objectives and plans. The success of development management depends not only on how well these activities are performed, but also on how well they are integrated…
South Pacific Developing Countries: Development Issues and Challenges
Authors: Tsusaka Akira
Published: June 2023

The South Pacific developing countries face unique problems and special challenges, many of them caused by geographical factors, in their economic development efforts. Nevertheless, it must be remembered that the peoples of the South Pacific have in the past adapted to their environment and have created societies whose social and cultural values, especially that of a sense of community and mutual obligation, have survived and must continue to be the mainspring of progress. The greatest economic challenge to the countries is, perhaps, turning the disadvantage of their geography into advantage, most notably by exploiting the immense ocean areas which are under their control…
National Saving and Financial Development in Asian Developing Countries
Authors: Abbott Graham J.
Published: June 2023

National saving finances the bulk of investment in all but a few Asian developing countries, though the extent to which foreign savings (i.e., inflows of external financial resources) have been used to supplement national savings to finance investment has increased in several of these countries since the mid-1970s (see Table 1). This trend cannot be sustained. Foreign aid is not likely to increase at the rate experienced in the past while debt-servicing problems have reduced the capacity of most developing countries to raise loans in foreign capital markets. These countries will have to raise their national saving rates (the ratio of gross national saving to gross national product) if they want to keep their investment rates (the ratio of gross national investment to gross national product) at about the level they have averaged in recent years. But apart from this immediate consideration, higher national saving rates are needed to provide the basis for self-sustained growth and development…
Trade and Development: Theory and Asian Experience
Authors: Findlay Ronald
Published: June 2023

The last four decades have seen significant changes in the economies of Asian countries. War-ravaged Japan has been transformed into one of the major industrial economies of the world. It is admired widely for its economic and business management in responding rapidly and flexibly to technical progress and structural changes in the world economy. The Republic of China, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea and Singapore have grown even faster than Japan in the last 10-15 years. Their presence is being increasingly felt in the industrial markets of the world; formerly they were minor centers for the export of primary products and the entrepot trade. The primary exporting countries in South and Southeast Asia have generally improved their standards of living, based on their rich natural resource endowments, and they have also ventured increasingly into manufacturing not only for their domestic markets but also for export. The People’s Republic of China and India still contain the bulk of the poorest in the world, but they have also shown improvement in their economies and have made hopeful social progress…
U.S. Trade Policy and Asian Development
Authors: Baldwin Robert E.
Published: June 2023

Trade policy of the United States is of particular importance to developing countries in Southeast and East Asia. It is in this region that an economic development revolution has occurred over the past 25 years which future historians may compare with the Industrial Revolution in Western Europe. The major impetus to the impressive and, in some instances, remarkable economic growth of these countries has been international trade, specifically, the importation of capital goods and needed intermediate inputs and the export of manufactured goods to developed countries. The United States has been a major participant in that trade; hence, U.S. trade policies are of vital concern to countries in Southeast and East Asia…
ASEAN’s Experience in Regional Economic Cooperation
Authors: Wong John
Published: June 2023

Economic cooperation in the context of the Third World sometimes assumes value overtones that tend to dwarf the conventional neoclassical economic consideration of such efforts in terms of efficiency of use and pooling of resources. The concept of regional economic cooperation is commonly viewed in the Third World as a “good thing”, likely to promote peace and stability of a region and so foster its economic development to the benefit of all countries concerned. It is often in such vague and broad terms, and even on ethical grounds, that the case for regional economic cooperation is advanced…
Private Direct Investment, Finance and Development
Authors: Michalopoulos Constantine
Published: June 2023

For countries embarking on development, foreign direct investment has for a long time provided needed capital, technical know-how and managerial expertise. During the 1970s, however, its role as a source of finance for development was overshadowed by the spectacular increase in commercial bank lending to developing countries. In the early and mid-1980s, as new voluntary commercial bank lending was sharply curtailed and many developing countries continued to encounter difficulties in servicing past debt, and as prospects for significant increases in official development assistance dwindled, interest has again been directed to increase foreign private investment as a means of development finance…
The Shadow Economies: Steps toward Estimating Their Size in Asian Countries
Authors: Morgan Theodore
Published: June 2023

When a tax is imposed, a regulation introduced, or welfare measures implemented, then an incentive structure is created also. People will consider, with the zeal that self-interest nurtures, how a tax or burdensome regulation can be avoided (legal) or evaded (illegal), or how gains from the welfare system maximized…
Entrepreneurship and Technology in Economic Development
Authors: Ozawa Terutomo
Published: June 2023

Entrepreneurship and technology are key elements of innovation. Nevertheless, economists have long considered them as external to the economic system, although their consequences are fully recognized and emphasized in economic analysis. It is only in the recent past that some economists have begun to conceptualize and study the nature of innovation. In the 1950s and 1960s, attempts were made for the first time to measure statistically the contributions of increased capital and labor to growth. These studies showed that a substantial portion of growth was left unaccounted for by mere quantitative increases in the conventional inputs of capital and labor. And this “residual” was interpreted to represent a single variable, namely, technological progress…
Migrant Workers and Remittances: Issues for Asian Developing Countries
Authors: Quibria M. G.
Published: June 2023

The sharp increase in the price of oil in 1973 led to a massive accumulation of revenues by the oil-producing countries in the Middle East and the emergence of that region as a “growth pole” within the developing world. The large-scale investment programs, especially in infrastructure, on which these countries embarked required a labor force which was far beyond their available human resources in terms of size and composition. These countries, therefore, undertook plans for the importation of foreign workers on a contractual basis to fill well-defined jobs for short periods of time. This arrangement had two advantages. First, the countries did not have to wait for their indigenous labor supply to develop. Second, they did not have to invest huge amounts in social infrastructure, since the workers – mostly single males – were hired for relatively short periods. Many Asian developing countries took advantage of this labor market and large numbers of workers emigrated to the Middle East, especially after 1975. An important feature of this migration has been its composition of predominantly lower levels of managerial and skilled workers, in contrast to the migration of highly skilled and professional people – also referred to as the “brain drain” – from developing to developed countries…
Monitoring and Evaluation of Benefits in Agriculture and Rural Development
Authors: Staub William J. , Koppel Bruce
Published: June 2023

In the last two decades, developing countries in the Asian and Pacific region have made large investments in agricultural, irrigation and rural development projects. Many of the projects have been assisted by bilateral and multilateral development agencies. While the rapid progress in agricultural and rural development in the region since the mid-1960s can be directly associated with these investments, the performance of many projects has fallen short of expectations. This situation has led to increasing attention being given to the design and implementation of projects. As a result, new initiatives have been taken to improve the performance of projects. These range from efforts to increase the participation of beneficiaries in the designing and operations of projects to improvements in project management procedures and skills. This article focuses on one initiative that has implications for almost all efforts to improve the efficiency of these investments, namely, monitoring and evaluation of the benefits of development projects…
Trade Liberalization and Economic Growth in Europe and the United States
Authors: Giersch Herbert
Published: June 2023

Four decades ago, Hayek and Schumpeter – two giants among the social philosophers of this century – foresaw an irreversible shift towards centralization and bureaucracy. Five decades ago, the American Keynesians, notably Alvin Hansen, predicted secular stagnation. They envisaged a saturation of consumer wants, declining population growth, and a dearth of opportunities for autonomous investments that arise from inventions and innovations and from the existence of a geographic frontier. Both predictions turned out to be wrong. A cyclical decline was mistaken for a trend, similar to the Communist Manifesto which, a century before, had misjudged a period of relative stagnation as an indicator of the inevitable breakdown of the market system…
Trade Negotiations and Developing Countries in the Asian and Pacific Region
Authors: Kim Kihwan
Published: June 2023

Since the subject of the New Round on multilateral trade negotiations was raised at the annual meeting of the “contracting parties” of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1982, there has been considerable discussion on the New Round in various international forums. The preparatory process has not been very smooth, but at long last, the countdown has started…
Trade between Asian Developing Countries: Record and Prospects
Authors: Campbell Burnham O.
Published: June 2023

Recent developments along with the dynamics of growth suggest that trade between developing countries must expand if they are to achieve satisfactory rates of economic growth. This is so, even though in a free trade world, there may be no benefits in directing trade one way or another. Left to the market, trade will follow demand along lines of comparative advantage. However, when protection is present, when markets are not alike in marketing infrastructure, tastes differ, and demand is growing at different rates in different parts of the world, policy steps may be necessary to gain the maximum advantage from trade, including those designed to increase trade among specific groups of countries. In this article, emphasis will be on one of these groups, the Asian developing countries…
Falling Commodity Prices: Implications for Asian and Pacific Developing Countries
Authors: Kohli Kedar N. , Ali Ifzal
Published: June 2023

In recent years, the prices of major agricultural commodities, metals and minerals, including crude oil, declined sharply, leading to a collapse of commodity markets in 1985 and 1986. The movement in the terms of trade to the detriment of countries exporting primary commodities is of growing concern to many Asian and Pacific developing countries. This article attempts to assess the impact of falling commodity prices on these countries. First, it briefly analyzes the factors contributing to the decline in prices. Then, it examines the effects on the availability of foreign exchange and domestic resources for developing countries and considers the need for economic adjustments in these countries. Finally, it outlines the implications for multilateral development agencies and draws some conclusions from the discussion.
Optimizing the Role of the Public Sector: Constraints and Remedial Policies
Authors: Pliatzky Leo
Published: June 2023

How should public sector industries be run? Does it matter if they make a loss? Is it possible for them to be run efficiently when governments are involved? Is privatization the only solution? In Britain, this debate is largely closed, for the time being at least, but I sense that these questions are live issues in many of the developing countries of Asia…
Asian and Pacific Developing Economies: Performance and Issues
Authors: Bhatia V.G.
Published: June 2023

The year 1987 was important for many of the developing countries in the Asian and Pacific region since it was four decades earlier that these countries achieved their political independence. It seems, therefore, an appropriate time to review the past economic performance of the developing countries in the region and assess their future prospects. While the outlook for most of them appears optimistic, a number of problems persist and are likely to remain for some time to come. It is undeniable, however, that generally the achievements of the region as a whole have been impressive.

The Asian and Pacific region is both large and diverse, if for no other reason than the sheer size and distribution of its population (see Table 1). It accounts for more than half the people of the world. The population of the People's Republic of China alone is 1 billion, and more than 1 billion live in South Asia. About 360 million people live in Southeast Asia and more than 50 million in Hong Kong, Republic of Korea and the countries in the South Pacific.
Urbanization and Spatial Development in the Asian and Pacific Region: Trends and Issues
Authors: Pernia Ernesto M.
Published: June 2023

The spatial dimension of development became a major concern in developing countries in the mid-1960s. A combination of factors brought this about, including the acceleration of both population growth and rural-urban migration, growing employment and income distribution problems, the tendency of growth in some regions to lag behind that in others, and the phenomenon known as core-periphery polarization. Further, there has been an increasing realization that urbanization and the spatial concentration of economic activity are directly related to the distribution of the benefits of development and the satisfaction of human needs, since both people and resources have specific locations. Because of such constraints as friction of space, market segmentation, inadequate information and imperfect mobility, the access to resources and services or to the benefits of development in general continues to be patently uneven. The development experience of countries in the Asian and Pacific region and elsewhere indicates that there is no spontaneous smoothing mechanism built in the economic growth process or that if such a mechanism exists, it operates at a painfully slow pace…
Small Manufacturing Enterprises and Employment in Developing Countries
Authors: Little I.M.D.
Published: June 2023

In the 1970s a number of international institutions, and development activists, became very concerned that growth in developing countries was not reaching the poor. In particular, industrial development was capital intensive and absorbed little of the rapidly increasing labor force. An increased demand for unskilled labor was surely an essential component of any program to alleviate poverty. This concern for employment was soon linked to the advocacy of small-scale enterprises which were widely believed to offer more employment than larger enterprises for any given amount of investment. Some international institutions, including the World Bank, tried to steer more of their loans toward small-scale enterprises; and some developing countries, especially India, intensified measures to support and protect such enterprises…
The Changing External Debt Situation in the Asian and Pacific Region
Authors: Schelzig Werner M.
Published: June 2023

In recent years, the key debt indicators of most developing countries in the Asian and Pacific region have changed dramatically, with their debt-service ratios rising from the low teens well into the twenties and thirties and beyond. Along with declining terms of trade and capital flight, rising debt-service payments reduced the resources available for domestic absorption per unit of foreign exchange earned. Concurrently, the inflow of fresh capital slowed down considerably, especially that portion coming from direct foreign investment. If current trends remain unchecked, liquidity and solvency problems may lie ahead for several Asian and Pacific developing countries. They may be forced to restrict additional foreign borrowing at the expense of investment and growth. As their development efforts are being constrained by a considerable debt overhang, their living standards are bound to be affected.
Economic Prospects and External Economic Relations of Thailand
Authors: Tambunlertchai Somsak
Published: June 2023

Among the developing economies in Asia, Thailand stands out in terms of economic growth and stability. Recently, it has been receiving increasing attention by the international community, and there are high hopes that it will soon join the ranks of newly industrializing economies (NIEs). However, as in the case of other economies, the economy of Thailand has experienced several critical periods in reaching its present stage of development, and there are many economic problems that are yet to be resolved…
Socioeconomic Characteristics of Poverty: Macro and Micro Aspects
Authors: Mizoguchi Toshiyuki
Published: June 2023

Poverty is one of the most important issues facing economic and social policy today. Many attempts have been made to classify the poor and analyze the causes of poverty. However, many unsolved puzzles remain due to the fact that poverty is multi-dimensional in nature, having originated from a diverse range of conditions. In addition, concepts of poverty have changed over the years. In the early 1950s, when pioneer work on poverty was first undertaken by Rowntree and others, the poor were defined as families whose total (current) earnings were insufficient to obtain the bare essentials for survival…
Shelter for the Poor: Housing Policy in Singapore
Authors: Lim Chong-Yah , Tay Boon-Nga
Published: June 2023

Poverty is said to exist when households lack sufficient monetary income to purchase some arbitrarily defined “necessities” of life. The main minimum subsistence consists of essential consumption of food, housing, clothing and medical care. Households could be rendered poor as a result of loss of income due to illness, temporary unemployment, or temporary disability. However, poverty is more problematic when households are permanently poor. Among other things, insufficient property wealth, low personal ability and inadequate education and training are the main factors trapping households in poverty…
Development Strategies for Growth with Equity: The South Asian Experience
Authors: Chakravarty Sukhamoy
Published: June 2023

During the 1950s, which saw the rise of development economics as a separate sub-discipline of economics, constraints imposed by the levels of domestic savings and investment on economic growth of developing countries were at the center of discussions and debates on development strategies. Later on, toward the late 1960s and early 1970s, the concerns of development economists and also international agencies shifted to issues relating to employment, income distribution and poverty, as some of the early optimism about the capital-centered approach to the development process did not always produce the desired results. However, more recently from the late 1970s onwards, debates on development strategies have concentrated more on issues relating to structural adjustments, trade and other types of economic reforms, including the role of the market mechanism. This shift in emphasis in recent years, though arising out of objective circumstances, is rather unfortunate in more than one sense since, in my opinion, the objectives of generating more employment opportunities and the eradication of poverty have, if anything, greater relevance today for many developing countries, especially those in South Asia.
Domestic Resource Mobilization in Developing Asia: Four Policy Issues
Authors: Fry Maxwell J.
Published: June 2023

In a neoclassical world, intertemporal utility maximization ensures that each household plans its consumption expenditures optimally over its life cycle. Saving is simply the residual between that optimal consumption stream and the household’s income path. Under such ideal conditions, there are no policy issues. In the real world, however, there are at least four major obstacles to this utility-maximizing outcome: (i) financial market imperfections, often aggravated by government; (ii) misguided fiscal policies, particularly with respect to deficit financing; (iii) overpopulation, since children can provide a substitute for saving for old age in some societies; and (iv) foreign debt buildup, since each developing country faces an upward sloping supply of foreign saving. This means that unrestrained foreign borrowing can result in a country-specific risk premium that is too high from the social welfare viewpoint…
The Role of Public Enterprises in the National Economy
Authors: Newbery David M.
Published: June 2023

Public enterprises are state-owned production units that market their output and are thus directly involved in the market process, unlike the state provision of roads, defense, and law and order which are provided, not marketed. Their existence raises the fundamental question of why they are in the public sector, and more generally, where the boundaries between the public and private sector should be drawn. Until recently few development agencies raised such questions—it was taken for granted that the state had a central role to play in accelerating development in developing countries, even when there were concerns about the efficiency of the public sector. The debt crisis prompted international agencies to look more carefully at public sector deficits, and they expressed concern at the extent to which public enterprises contributed to those deficits and increased public and foreign debt because of poor profitability…
Real Exchange Rates, Price Competitiveness and Structural Adjustment in Asian and Pacific Economies
Authors: Intal Ponciano S.
Published: June 2023

Economic outwardness is a critical pillar of the new development policy consensus; it is also the emerging policy bias in a number of developing countries. Economic outwardness entails: (i) a relatively neutral policy stance between exports and import substitutes, and (ii) a relatively open domestic economy towards foreign market competition, technology and investments. Economic outwardness—together with the fostering of competition domestically, a simple, transparent and flexible government regulatory framework, and investments in human capital formation—strengthens the linkages of a country with the rest of the world and facilitates the flow of products, resources and technology that are essential in the drive to improve labor and total productivity domestically, which ultimately determines the robustness of the country’s trade, growth and welfare performances…