Natural disasters are on the rise worldwide. There are more and more intense natural disasters - which are defined to cause at least 100 deaths or to affect the basic survival needs of at least 1,000 people - resulting from floods and storms as well as droughts and heat waves. The Asia and the...

In light of the United Nations' (UN) latest urbanization projections, par- ticularly with respect to India and the People's Republic of China, a good understanding is needed of what drives aggregate urbanization trends. Yet, previous literature has largely neglected the issue in favor of...

The global financial crisis of 2008–2009 illustrates how financial turmoil in advanced economies could trigger severe financial stress in emerging markets. Previous studies dealing with financial crises and contagion show the linkages through which financial stress are transmitted from...

Evidence-based economic policies - pragmatic policies that work - played a major role in Asia's success in raising its living standards in the last half century. However, growth prospects are now threatened by rising income inequality and environmental degradation if Asia continues on its...

Developing Asian countries are strengthening their intellectual property rights (IPR) regime as they themselves become producers of intellectual property. At the same time, developing Asia has attracted large amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI) and this trend is expected to continue in...

The development of the service sector in the People's Republic of China has not kept pace with the country's overall economic development. The share of employment in services is still lagging behind that of output and is also below the international norm. Moving from traditional services to...

Financial integration is a multidimensional process through which allocation of financial assets becomes increasingly borderless. This paper assesses the progress achieved thus far in capital market integration in Asia, and compares regional capital market integration with global financial...

This paper studies the effects of the United States' (US) quantitative easing on Asia by examining capital flows and financial markets. After the global financial crisis, Asian economies with more open and developed capital markets experienced greater swings in capital inflows. In particular,...

The service sector is the largest and fastest growing sector in India and has the highest labor productivity, but employment has not kept pace with the share of the sector in gross domestic product and has not produced the number or quality of jobs needed. There is no policy leading to inclusive...

Although Thailand's service sector accounts for almost half of the national income and has a major stake in national employment, its contribution to the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) fluctuates. Moreover, the share of the service sector in GDP is decreasing while many developed...