This paper argues that the public–private partnership (PPP) fi nancing modality can work for the poor. To achieve this outcome, governments need to fi rst create the appropriate enabling environment for PPPs to work, and then take further steps to ensure pro-poor benefi ts of infrastructure...

The proliferation of preferential trade agreements in Asia may result in a number of hub-and-spoke confi gurations, with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, People's Republic of China, and Japan competing as regional hubs of bilateral free trade areas. Using a newly developed global...

Fiscal expansion in Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, and the Philippines via increased spending is typically more effective than fiscal expansion via tax rate reduction for stimulating growth. On the other hand, the effectiveness of expenditure versus tax-side automatic...

This pilot empirical study seeks to ascertain how income inequality affects growth by incorporating panel data information into a macroeconometric model. People's Republic of China is used as the pilot fi eld. Provincial urban and rural household data are used to construct income inequality...

Most developing countries in Asia have introduced market-oriented economic reforms and face increasing exposure to global markets. Households in these countries thus have greater opportunities to raise their standard of living. However, they also face riskier environments and typically have to...

This paper explores the factors associated with the development of corporate debt markets using panel data covering 30 countries from 1989 to 2002. The results support Rajan and Zingales's (2003) "interest group" theory of financial development that banks appear to oppose corporate debt market...

This paper takes a fresh look, from a macro perspective, at the issue of aid effectiveness. An important point of departure for this study is that it adopts poverty reduction, as contrasted from economic growth, as the metric for measuring aid effectiveness. In conducting the empirical...

This paper assesses empirically the sustainability and feasibility of the government debt in the Philippines using the No Ponzi Game criterion. Both historical data and forecasts generated by a quarterly macroeconometric model of the Philippines are used in the assessment. Stochastic simulations...

At least part of the effort toward MDG attainment in the social sector could come from improvements in efficiency of delivery mechanisms. Hence, it is important to know which countries - or which regions within countries - are able to attain higher MDG outcomes even after controlling for...

This paper surveys the experience of countries in the East Asian region that have introduced local currency bonds by foreign issuers. The countries that are examined include Australia; Hong Kong, China; Japan; Republic of Korea; and Singapore. It is suggested that there are sound reasons for many...