Cities and towns in the Pacific region face significant risks from natural hazards. These risks are projected to increase with climate change and increasing urbanization, yet they are not well understood. As a complementary technical report to Livable Pacific Cities and Towns: Urbanization...

Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are experiencing a rapid urban transition in the context of intensifying climate and disaster risks. Responding to these challenges requires more than incremental action. The Livable Pacific Cities and Towns report sets out a strategic framework for resilient...

This paper examines the interplay between financial inclusion and FinTech in shaping banking stability, with a focus on economies in the Asia and Pacific region. Using an unbalanced panel dataset from 21 economies from 2000 to 2021, the paper finds that financial inclusion enhances banking...

The East Asia and Pacific region has made remarkable progress on poverty reduction, transforming the economic lives of hundreds of millions of people. With growth prospects dimmer in a world that is increasingly polarized, the question of what it will take to convert the success in poverty...

This paper explores how the evolving platform economy is reshaping the economic landscape across Asia and the Pacific, and how countries in this diverse region are navigating emerging opportunities and challenges. It situates platform work within the broader context of the region's economic...

This paper examines the economic effects of the global energy transition and the large uncertainty surrounding future fossil fuel demand on countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Under the paper’s baseline, coal demand is expected to shrink by 15 percent by 2035, although depending on global...

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted global aviation networks, with long-haul connectivity particularly affected. This study assesses the evolving competitive positions of sixteen major hub airports in the Asia-Pacific region by analyzing their transfer-connectivity performance before and...

Economic growth in East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) has remained resilient amidst increased trade restrictions and still-elevated global policy uncertainty. Overall regional growth is projected to slow in 2026 but that is largely because of deceleration in China amid persistent weakness in...

The increasing prevalence of aging populations in the Asia-Pacific region has led to significant changes in the demand for labor in caregiving, domestic, and healthcare sectors, particularly in economies such as Singapore, Japan, and Australia. These structural-demographic shifts have...

Amidst the polycrisis of 2018-2024, Asia-Pacific trade flows exhibited a structural resilience that contrasts with traditional theoretical predictions of severe trade contraction under high uncertainty. This study investigates these resilience dynamics using a structural gravity model estimated...

This paper uses results from leading biophysical models in an established macro-economic modeling framework to offer insights on potential economic consequences of climate change in Asia and the Pacific. The analysis covers shocks in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, energy demand, capital (from...

Asia-Pacific region especially is a developing region for airlines regarding competition, industrial development, and national perspective, COVID-19 had a destructive and re-definitive impact on the total aviation systems of the region. This study aims to perform a comprehensive analysis of the...

The World Bank's Pacific Economic Update (PEU) highlights critical challenges facing 11 Pacific Island countries (PIC-11), including a global economic slowdown and trade policy uncertainty, set against the backdrop of vulnerabilities from limited diversification, natural hazards, and...

The impact of intellectual capital on green innovation has been extensively studied at the firm level. However, the influence of moderating factors on this dynamic at the national level remains underexplored in previous studies. This study examines the role of institutional quality in moderating...