This paper reviews what the profession has learned during the last 25 years about East Asia's growth using growth accounting exercises and estimations of production functions. The publication of Alwyn Young's (1992, 1994, 1995) and Jong-Il Kim and Lawrence Lau's (1994) studies, and Paul...

Over the last decade, developing Asia's deeper global financial linkages have been accompanied by greater financial integration. As the region becomes more interconnected, a key priority is to ensure that the dynamic environment is supported by better coordinated and potentially consistent...

The paper reexamines the issue of decoupling. By focusing on the recent trends of international trade and financial linkages in Asia, the paper reviews the evolution of regional business cycle synchronization and investigates macroeconomic interdependence between emerging East Asia and G3...

This paper examines the process of upgrading of the Indian garment industry through a survey of 100 firms in three clusters in Delhi National Capital Region (NCR), Tirupur, and Mumbai in 2012. Upgrading could be of three types: process, product, or functional. Product upgrading entails producing...

This working paper assesses the positive cobenefits of promoting green and clean energy in Asia. It first defines what is meant by “clean” energy across the four technological systems of cooking, renewable electricity, energy efficiency, and urban transport. Then, drawn from a synthesis of...

The world faces growing challenges of aging populations. Asia is no exception with rapidly increasing life expectancies and falling fertility rates. To help policy makers address these issues, this paper examines three sociopolicy options: (i) extending the retirement age, (ii) augmenting labor...

Improvement in human capital is essential for rapid, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth in Myanmar. Investments in health and education — including technical and vocational education and training — are essential to engineer a productive labor force that can contribute to and benefit...

Tepid trade growth since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis (GFC) has been partly attributed to sluggish demand from developed countries. However, data reveals that developing countries play a bigger role in holding back trade growth, while developed countries show quite robust import growth....

This paper examines the trends in skill and activity upgrading in global value chains (GVCs) and the drivers of upgrading in Asian economies. It uses the newly constructed ADB Multi-Region Input-Output Tables as well as occupation data on jobs by educational attainment and business activities,...

Local currency bond markets in emerging Asian economies have expanded dramatically since governments took steps to end the currency and maturity mismatches that savaged borrowers in the region's financial crisis nearly 20 years ago. Encouraged in part by regional cooperation programs such as the...