The newly independent Timor-Leste has established itself as one of the fastest growing economies in Asia and the Pacific. A concentration of economic activity in the capital has, however, raised the concern that the better off members of society are capturing most of the benefits. This study...

The widespread adoption of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have been advocated on the premise that it will result in significant savings in electricity and reduced carbon emissions. Using a household level survey of electrical lighting and usage in Pakistan, we examine the decision to...

We use a newly developed indicator of production sharing and processing trade to investigate the determinants of such trade in the context of a gravity model. The Network Trade Index measures countries’ interdependence through the extent of trade in parts and components for further processing...

Human capital refers to the ability and efficiency of people to transform raw materials and capital into goods and services, the consensus being that these skills can be learned through the educational system. The concept of human capital, necessarily, is related to the productivity of workers....

This paper analyzes the equity of opportunity in basic education and infrastructure services in seven developing countries, namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam. The analysis applies a method developed by the World Bank called the Human...

This study examines gender inequality in labor markets in Asia and the Pacific, with a focus on the structural drivers of women’s labor force participation. Demographic survey data indicate that in Asia’s lower-income countries, economic necessity is an important push factor behind women’s...

A host of external (global and regional) and internal (country-specific) factors affect Multinational Enterprises’ Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) decisions. Differentiating the two entry modes of FDI (mergers and acquisitions [M&A] and Greenfield investment), this paper aims to empirically...

This paper presents the results of a choice experiment study undertaken to value electricity service attributes in Madhya Pradesh, India. Primary data was collected from 2,083 households using stratified random sampling method. Results show that existing service is very poor and consumers have...

This paper proposes and analyzes one possible reason why some countries get stuck in the middle-income trap: the role played by the changing structure of the economy (from low-productivity activities into high-productivity activities), the types of products exported (not all products have the...

This paper assesses the impact of government fiscal policies on income inequality in Asia. It discusses the role and effectiveness of redistributive fiscal policies and quantifies the effects of taxation and government expenditure on income distributions. Panel estimation for 150 countries with...