This study examines the impact of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) on participation in global value chains (GVCs) among South Asian economies, specifically Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. This research offers new empirical insights into the relatively underexplored relationship...

This study explores the intricate links between remittance inflow and energy consumption in South Asia, a region characterized by high levels of migration abroad and remittance inflows. The present study provides a thorough analysis of vigorous energy utilization in the context of South Asian...

This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of South Asia. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross domestic product per...

Growth in South Asia is on track to exceed earlier expectations and reach 6.6 percent in 2025, but is expected to slow to 5.8 percent in 2026. While this short-term outlook is subject to downside risks, over the longer term, artificial intelligence (AI) could promote growth by boosting...

Literature links food insecurity to adverse welfare outcomes, including the educational performance of children. This paper investigates whether food insecurity, exacerbated by recent food inflation, has hindered schoolchildren's recovery from learning loss following coronavirus disease-related...

Examining the persistence of volatility transmission over an extended timeframe, regardless of specific events, reveals significant importance, as it uncovers the inherent fundamental and structural drivers that give rise to volatility. However, previous research in South Asia is minimal and has...

At the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) campaign in 2015, stunting among under 5-year-olds remained a major challenge in South Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia lagging behind-a phenomenon known as the "Asian enigma." This paper revisits the issue, focusing on...

Frequent political uncertainty, governance challenges, financial inaccessibility, and inconsistent policy environments in South Asian countries undermine investor confidence and obstruct the development of capital markets. Thus, this study is motivated to investigate the long-term and short-term...

This working paper presents insights and lessons learned from the ILO's 2025 South-South and Triangular Cooperation (SSTC) workshop on digital case management systems. Convened in Bangkok, the workshop gathered representatives from South Asia, South-East Asia, and Southern Africa to address the...

South Asia is the most climate-vulnerable region among emerging market and developing economies. With governments having limited room to act due to fiscal constraints, the burden of climate adaptation will fall primarily on households and firms. Awareness of climate risks is high; more than...

This study examines the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in South and Southeast Asia from 2006 to 2022, using a comprehensive panel dataset and multiple econometric techniques. The baseline estimation employs Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS), with...

Understanding how e-commerce platforms are affecting the small, informal firms that sell on them is a question of growing importance to researchers and policymakers in developing countries. This paper examines this question using data from surveys of firms selling on two e-commerce platforms in...

This edition of the Macro Poverty Outlooks periodical contains country-by-country forecasts and overviews for GDP, fiscal, debt and poverty indicators for the developing countries of South Asia. Macroeconomic indicators such as population, gross domestic product and gross domestic product per...

The main objective of this study is to test the impacts of lending by various types of financial institutions on poverty, employment, and new business startups. The study is based on seven equations estimated through the ordinary least squares (OLS) technique and censored TOBIT equations. These...

The present study was done to evaluate the causal relationship amid the enablers of successful transition of management succession in family-owned business in South Asian Nations. This was an empirical study where owners of family-run business across various South Asian countries were...

Grandparents are an integral part of family support systems, serving as both providers and consumers of instrumental, financial, and emotional care. They also play a central role in transmitting cultural and financial capital to their grandchildren. Grandparenting, which refers to the care,...

Growth prospects for South Asia have dimmed. The global economic environment has become more challenging and is a source of heightened downside risks. After a decade of repeated disruptions, South Asia's buffers to cushion new shocks are slim. Tackling some of its greatest inefficiencies and...

This paper draws a concise overview of the economic relationship between the European Union (EU) and selected Asian regions in the context of the twin transition - green and digital. A series of significant initiatives adopted in recent years to consolidate the cooperation with these regions are...

"South Asia Migration Report 2024 documents key themes of remittances, resilience, and rehabilitation from the region. This volume: - Includes dedicated fieldwork to map migration within and outside South Asia; - Analyses the impact of Covid-19 on migrants and migration in South Asia; - Highlights...

The study aims to investigate the long and short-run impacts of women's reproductive health and women's empowerment on their economic opportunities in South Asia. The paper employs panel autoregressive distributed lag for eight South Asian countries from 1991 to 2021. The results reveal that...

Foreign aid, remittance, and foreign direct investment have a significant role in shaping and promoting globalization and these factors also play avital role in determining health quality in developing countries. Developing countries, especially South Asian countries still need research and...

This study analyzes the integration of South Asia into global value chains (GVCs) through a value-added decomposition framework that distinguishes simple and complex participation modes. Using the Asian Development Bank Multi-Regional Input-Output database, which spans two decades, the study...

This paper attempts to shed light on an analytical model that examines both direct relationship between board gender diversity and energy firms' performance and an indirect connection in which earnings management is a mediating variable that is affected by the board gender diversity, which in...

Global evidence is mounting that more gender diversity in banking, including having more women in leadership, leads to better outcomes for organizations, their employees, and investors. There is increasing recognition of the importance of workforce diversity and equity along various dimensions,...

The eastern South Asia region (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal) has extensive networks of all the main modes of surface transport for the movement of goods, both within and between countries. However, goods transport in the region is heavily dependent on a single mode-road...

Global evidence is mounting that more gender diversity in banking, including having more women in leadership, leads to better outcomes for organizations, their employees, and investors. There is increasing recognition of the importance of workforce diversity and equity along various dimensions,...

In 2022-2023, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) initiated a multi-country research study focusing on women's advancement in private commercial banking in South Asia. The study covered 20 private commercial banks across three countries - Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. As the largest...

Ensuring liquidity is critical for the functioning of banks. This study investigates the functional form of bank profitability and liquid asset holdings. We test for an inverted Kuznets curve-shaped quadratic polynomial relationship using generalized least square regression on an unbalanced...

The study investigates the implementation of trade routes and their impact on the regional economic integration of Central and South Asia. It uses three indices, the Trade Complementarity Index (TCI), Similarity Index (SI), and Trade Diversification Index (TDI), to evaluate the level of regional...

The inflow of FDI brings many economic benefits including more employment opportunities, sharing of modern knowledge, and the transfer of needed capital to aid the depressing domestic investment. In view of this, the current study aims to find out the empirical impact of the governance quality...