Eugenia Go, Sam Hill, Maria Hanna Jaber, Yothin Jinjarak, Donghyun Park, Anton Ragos
{"title":"Developing Asia's fiscal landscape and challenges","authors":"Eugenia Go, Sam Hill, Maria Hanna Jaber, Yothin Jinjarak, Donghyun Park, Anton Ragos","doi":"10.1111/apel.12412","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12412","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While tax revenues steadily rose in the decades prior to the onset of COVID-19, they continue to lag well behind high-income countries and some developing peers. The region continues to rely predominantly on indirect taxes, particularly relatively efficient consumption taxes. However, developing Asia's tax structure is less progressive compared to high-income countries. Government expenditures on education and health, vital for promoting equitable growth, were comparatively modest. Substantial fiscal policy stimulus in response to COVID-19, combined with the impact of the downturn on revenues, has severely weakened public finances in many countries. The combination of falling revenues and higher spending during COVID-19 has markedly widened deficits and caused a further rise in debt levels that were already rising. As the pandemic recedes, governments will need to carefully calibrate fiscal consolidation to safeguard fiscal sustainability while protecting the poor and vulnerable.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"225-258"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140677457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sook Rei Tan, Jacob Wood, Haejin Jang, Caroline Wong, Changtai Li
{"title":"Tourism-induced growth and quality of life: the Singapore story","authors":"Sook Rei Tan, Jacob Wood, Haejin Jang, Caroline Wong, Changtai Li","doi":"10.1111/apel.12413","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12413","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The influx of international tourists may affect the economic growth of destination countries by influencing the quality of life (QoL) of residents, the effects of which are unclear ex ante. Therefore, this study utilises the autoregressive distributed lag model to examine tourism-induced growth by taking into consideration the residents' QoL using Singapore as a case study. We also consider the factor of heterogeneous tourism demand by regions of origin in a market-based analysis using seemingly unrelated regression, motivated by the assumption that consumers from different markets differ widely over their preferences. This study seeks to contribute to an understanding of tourism as a source of sustainable economic development and as such provides important policy implications for practitioners and scholars alike.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"204-224"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140566746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Belt and Road Initiative and export variety: 1996–2019","authors":"Yuxin Lu, Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz","doi":"10.1111/apel.12408","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12408","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines the association between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and export variety (EV). We propose three hypotheses on how BRI may foster export markets (destinations) or export product lines. The estimates are based on a dataset constructed specifically for this analysis, covering 183 countries and linked with trade data from 1996 to 2019. We apply the instrumental variable (IV) approach in regressions for covering the endogeneity. The results indicate that participation in BRI is negatively related to EV. Specifically, we find evidence that, on average, BRI participants have less EV (by product and by destination) and greater export concentration. As regards participation in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and BRI meanwhile (AIIB_BRI and AIIB_MOU), the results show a more negative effect. And there are heterogeneous effects of BRI across different economies and sectors.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"171-203"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140567226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Albert Winsemius and Singapore: Here it Is Going to Happen, Euston Quah, Luke Nursultan Iuldashov and Zach Lee, World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd, Singapore 2022. Pp. xlvi + 965. ISBN 978 981 12 2965 7","authors":"Anne Booth","doi":"10.1111/apel.12410","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12410","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"259-261"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140372873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, Basic Books, London, 2023. 546 pp. ISBN 13:978-1399804455","authors":"Neil Byron","doi":"10.1111/apel.12411","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12411","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"261-264"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140375374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nguyen Bich Ngoc, Luu Hai Dang, Ngo Thi Tuyet Mai, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hong, Do Thi Huong, Tran Hoang Ha
{"title":"Heterogeneous trade effects of technical non-tariff measures: Vietnamese agricultural imports","authors":"Nguyen Bich Ngoc, Luu Hai Dang, Ngo Thi Tuyet Mai, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hong, Do Thi Huong, Tran Hoang Ha","doi":"10.1111/apel.12406","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12406","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates the impact of technical non-tariff measures (NTMs), specifically technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS), of Vietnam on agricultural imports and the role of deep trade agreements. This issue has been primarily focused on advanced countries but rarely studied for developing countries. The estimates indicate that the impacts of technical NTMs on imports from least developed countries (LDCs) and non-LDCs are heterogeneous in terms of the measures' sophistication level. Simple technical NTMs, namely labelling, marking, and packaging requirements, increase agricultural imports from LDCs, while there is no significant impact on those from non-LDCs. Other categories of TBT and SPS NTMs impede imports from LDCs, while benefiting imports from non-LDCs. In addition, we found that deep trade agreements can ease the burdens of technical NTMs, but this is limited to imports from non-LDCs. The findings of this study can help policymakers in better regulating agricultural imports to prevent harmful imports with minimal impacts on the benefits from trade.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"131-144"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140380042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Impact of non-tariff measures on the survival of China's fresh fruit exports","authors":"Shiguang Peng, Le Wang, Lei Xu","doi":"10.1111/apel.12407","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12407","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Using data at the HS-6 product level, this study presents evidence on the export survival of China's fresh fruit during the period 2002–2019, and identifies the impact of non-tariff measures (NTMs) on the hazard rate of trade disruption. The results show that the average length of 2239 trade spells is 5.16 years. Notably, 67.04 per cent of these spells are no more than three years long, whereas only 7.95 per cent are more than 18 years long. Compared with major fruit-exporting countries, the trade spell distribution of China's fresh fruit exports lacks advantages. The hazard rate can reach 0.41 in the first year of export and is negatively duration dependent. The implementation of NTMs by importing countries has significantly increased the hazard rate. The positive effect of NTMs on the hazard rate is primarily driven by non-technical measures. Notably, technical barriers to trade measures decrease the export hazard rate of China's fresh fruits with comparative advantages, because these measures focus on product quality. Meanwhile, non-technical measures increase the export hazard rate of such fruits; this may be because of the possible shock on the relevant fruit industry in the destination market.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"145-170"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140236144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Influence of social pension on well-being and health of the rural elderly: the case of South Korea","authors":"Jiyeon An, Taehyun Ahn","doi":"10.1111/apel.12402","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12402","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines whether a social pension for the elderly population affects the well-being and health of older adults in rural areas and whether pensions are more effective in rural areas than in urban areas. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we exploit a difference-in-difference specification that compares changes in well-being and health in rural areas for those who are 65 or older relative to the younger population before and after a pension reform. We also consider a triple-difference specification to investigate the rural–urban difference. The results reveal that the expansion of the social pension significantly improved cognitive function and alleviated depressive symptoms among the rural elderly, but it had little impact on well-being or other health measures such as subjective health status. We also find that this impact has been more effective in rural than in urban areas. Our findings suggest that social pensions can be crucial in enhancing cognitive functioning and mental health for rural elderly individuals and emphasise the effectiveness of pensions for rural elderly populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"57-74"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140016649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does an economic crisis deflate education bubble and inequality? Lessons from South Korea 1997–2020","authors":"Taiwon Ha","doi":"10.1111/apel.12403","DOIUrl":"10.1111/apel.12403","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Rapid education expansion has been a main driver of the remarkable economic growth in South Korea for last decades. However, in recent times, its excessive education credentialism is considered a hurdle against further developments. This study examined whether education bubble and inequality decreased during the Asian Financial Crisis 1997–98, the Global Financial Crisis 2008–09, and the COVID-19 pandemic 2020. It tracked quarterly distributional changes in private education expenditure of Korean households with Changes-in-Changes. The findings indicate that Korean households postponed private education expenditure cut in the first quarter of the crises to prevent their children from falling behind in severe education competition. Then, they temporarily downsized it in the second quarter. During the pandemic, vulnerable students experienced higher fluctuations in private education expenditure than they did in previous crises closely related to disproportionate effects of the pandemic on household income and consumption expenditure. Therefore, this study suggests more expansionary measures for disadvantaged students to recover from a learning loss and improving the public education system as a fundamental measure to mitigate severe private education dependency.</p>","PeriodicalId":44776,"journal":{"name":"Asian-Pacific Economic Literature","volume":"38 1","pages":"75-92"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140016865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}