This paper reviews progress and indicators of trade facilitation in member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The findings show that import and export costs vary considerably in the member countries, from very low to moderately high levels. Tariff and non-tariff barriers...

In this paper, we study the impact of changes in the urban labor force and foreign direct investment on the banking sector, using a dynamic general equilibrium model with a financial sector. Numerical simulations are performed using stylized Chinese data, and bank failures are generated through...

In the 1990s, 600,000 to 1 million North Koreans, or about 3-5 percent of the pre-crisis population perished in one of the worst famines of the 20th century. North Korea is once again poised on the brink of famine. Although the renewed provision of aid is likely to avert a disaster on the scale...

China has become the top FDI destination among all developing countries and remained host to the world's largest share of foreign direct investment receipts since its accession to the WTO in 2001. Given the impressive growth performance and FDI influx into China, the two globalized delta...

Regionalization of trade in East Asia increased in the 1990s, and has been accompanied by a growing number of trade agreements. The wave of trade agreements is in part a response to the need to facilitate trade in order to make regional value chains more profitable. This paper draws on a rich...

Using pooled household level data for the Indian states of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh we find that the size of landholdings is a negative predictor of participation in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP). In state level analysis this pattern survives in Rajasthan but...

This paper examines the role of global currencies in ASEAN exchange rate regimes. The investigation considers the post-crisis era from January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2007 and focuses on the five original members of ASEAN (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) plus Vietnam....

For virtually a decade, the undervaluation of RMB yuan has become an issue of impassioned debate in international monetary economics. This issue kept the academic and policy circles engrossed in argumentative deliberations. That RMB yuan is undervalued is widely acknowledged. With China's...

This paper reviews the propagation of the 2008-2009 financial crisis through China, Japan and the United States (the "triad") and analyzes the responses of these countries from the viewpoints of achieving recovery and returning to a growth path that will be free of the imbalances that limit...