In joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), the governments of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam have agreed to comply with the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) Scheme, which reduces intra-ASEAN tariff rates on certain imports...

This brief explores the Asian Development Bank's technical assistance for expan"This paper begins by outlining the major preferential trade agreements (PTAs) in Asia and other regions and reviewing trends in trade flows. The paper uses a gravity model augmented with several sets of dummy...

This paper investigates the effects of the ongoing changes in industrial structures arising from technology evolution and financial liberalization on the correlations of international equity markets. Results point to the greater influence of industry structures on the international co-movements...

This paper attempts to construct leading indicator systems for the Malaysian and Philippine economies using publicly available economic and financial data, with a view to predicting turning points of growth cycles in the two countries. The results show that during the sample period of January...

"Using an early warning system (EWS) model, this paper provides more empirical evidence on the causes of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, with a view to discriminating between the two hypotheses of "weak fundamentals" and "investors' panic." The results show that there are strong warning signals...

"Indonesia has an impressive record of economic growth and poverty reduction over the past two decades. The growth-poverty nexus appears strong at the aggregate level. Newly constructed panel data on the country's 285 districts (kotamadyas/kabupatens), however, reveal huge differences in poverty...

"Opening of financial services has enormous policy implications for a member country. As demonstrated by the 1997 Asian crisis, mismanagement of financial opening may lead to disastrous economic consequences. Only prudent financial policies, including implementation of commitments under the...

"Among developing member countries (DMCs), Indonesia and the Philippines rank fairly high in the distribution of real GDP per capita in PPP dollars while Bangladesh ranks much lower. In terms of aggregate schooling, the Philippines has secondary and tertiary enrollment rates that are...

"This paper provides evidence of a problem with the influential testing and assessment of Solow's (1956) growth model proposed by Mankiw et al. (1992) and a series of subsequent papers evaluating the latter. First, the assumption of a common rate of technical progress maintained by Mankiw et al....

"The Doha Agenda continues the Uruguay Round's expansion of trade negotiations into behind-the-border policies, regulations, and institutions. This distracts attention from the part of the Agenda most directly linked to poverty reduction and economic development: removal of distortions to...