Journal of Asian Economics最新文献

{"title":"An aging population and sustainable government debt: The case of Korea","authors":"Kwangyong Park","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101831","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101831","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Although we have recently seen fiscal stress rising in many countries due to an increase in government spending and a rapidly aging population, there has been little research into fiscal sustainability while explicitly taking into account the fiscal stress caused by population aging. In this paper, we follow the same methodology as seen in Bi (2012) and examine the fiscal space of Korea, which has one of the fastest aging populations. This analysis shows that ignoring population aging leads to an over-estimation of fiscal space as large as 130% of GDP. Both increasing social security spending and supporting the National Pension significantly affect fiscal space. Finally, it is shown that fiscal sustainability and National Pension reform are closely related.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101831"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142533790","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tax incentives and corporate digital transformation: Evidence from China’s accelerated depreciation policy","authors":"Qianbin Feng ,&nbsp;Ying Ge ,&nbsp;Lexin Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101832","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101832","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Corporate digital transformation is a significant path for industrial upgrading and sustainable development. This study employs China’s accelerated depreciation (AD) policy as a quasi-natural experiment to explore the impacts of tax incentives on the digital transformation of enterprises. Using panel data of China’s listed companies from 2010 to 2019, we find that AD policy significantly promotes firms to engage in digitization practices through the channels of firm investment and firm innovation. We also find that the policy effects are more pronounced for firms with a higher level of digitization, firms with stronger financial constraints, non-state-owned enterprises, and firms located in East China. Moreover, we also present a positive relationship betweendigital transformation and firm performance. Our study supplements the literature on the determinants of digital transformation and provides insights into how tax policy shapes firms’ incentives to be more digitized.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101832"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142533789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reducing farmland abandonment by raising women’s education levels: Evidence from China","authors":"Yongmin Luo,&nbsp;Shenqi Ding,&nbsp;Fuzheng Xiang,&nbsp;Lujun Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101825","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101825","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With the rapid industrialization and the growing demand for male labor in urban industries, agricultural production in many developing countries presents obvious feminization features. Accordingly, improving the education level of rural women is the key to increasing farmland return and reducing farmland abandonment. Using data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), this study examines the effect of rural women’s education on farmland abandonment. The results reveal that for each increase in the education level of a hostess in a rural household, the abandoned farmland of that household decreases by 40 m². The increase in women’s education level can promote the use of the Internet, help households access credit, and better control the costs of agricultural production, thus curbing farmland abandonment. In addition, women’s education can play a stronger role in reducing farmland abandonment for rural areas where the land rental market is well developed, as well as for families whose male hosts go out to join non-farm work.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101825"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142444967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"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 heterogenous capabilities on export performance amid the digital transformation","authors":"Kyunam Kim ,&nbsp;Hyuk Chung","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101829","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101829","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We investigate the effects of adopting digital technology on export performance of Korean manufacturing firms amidst the digital transformation. We recognize firm-level capabilities should be closely associated with adoption of rapidly progressing digital technology but also with export performance. And our data indicates that the most common purpose of digital technology adoption is to launch new products to the market. Hence, we consider that technology adoption is a strategic and purposeful decision to gain competitive edge mostly by producing new product, and treating technology adoption exogenous can be misleading. Due to the endogeneity and selection issues in technology adoption, the endogenous switching regression is applied to this study as Coad et al. (2020). On technology adoption decision, we find external innovative resources from strategic alliance in addition to internal innovative capabilities stand out. Given technology adoption decision, internal capabilities like patent rights and international affiliation are complementary factors to export growth. The treatment effect analysis has implications as follows: the result on contribution of technology adoption to export growth for actually adopting firms is rather small, and shows heterogenous innovation, organizational, and external capabilities are still critical factors as much as new products embedding high-end digital technology; the result on non-adopting firms indicates potential of advanced digital technology to improve export performance by helping to produce such new products if they were actually capable to do it. In sum, our findings provide another evidence that structurally positive interaction between innovative activities and export performance as Aw et al. (2011), since adoption of digital technology to products itself is innovative in the digital transformation. Furthermore, the result is consistent with the capability theory in that heterogenous innovative and complementary capabilities determine strategic technology adoption and export performance simultaneously. Finally, our findings indicate that the digital transformation might be still at the early stage. The fact that Korean firms have adopted advanced digital technology mainly for new products can be interpreted as an indicator of early development stage of transformation, since firms concentrate on product innovation than process innovation to gain competitive edge at the early stage (Utterback and Abernathy, 1975). Thus, we expect that further evolution of digital transformation can facilitate process innovation, then contribute to firm performance by improving cost efficiency that should be tackled in the upcoming study.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101829"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142433224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The productivity spillover effect of foreign divestment: Evidence from Chinese industrial enterprises","authors":"Chunxiao Si ,&nbsp;Changyuan Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101824","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101824","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Foreign divestment in China is garnering increasing social attention. This study investigates the productivity spillover effects of foreign divestment based on Chinese industrial enterprise data from 2000 to 2007. Our findings indicate that foreign divestment negatively impacts the total factor productivity (TFP) of incumbent enterprises, especially through backward linkages. We examine potential mechanisms based on the characteristics of divested and incumbent enterprises. The closure of foreign-invested enterprise disrupts industrial connections, whereas the sale of foreign equity to domestic shareholders strengthens local industrial linkages, thus presenting an opposite effect. Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (HMT)-invested enterprises tend to local sourcing, leading to divestment effects through backward linkages. Conversely, non-HMT enterprises, with a higher capability to provide differentiated intermediate goods, primarily exhibit forward linkage effects. Further analysis reveals that incumbent enterprises with lower technological capabilities are more dependent on their foreign suppliers and customers. Domestic non-state-owned enterprises and those in regions with lower economic development or marketization levels also have less stable input-output relationships. As a result, these enterprises are more susceptible to the vertical spillover effects of foreign divestment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101824"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142444965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does increasing robot density exacerbate wealth inequality?","authors":"Nan Jia ,&nbsp;Xueling Yan ,&nbsp;Shule Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101830","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101830","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article expands the economic consequences of applying automation technology beyond the labor market to encompass wealth distribution. It empirically investigates the effects of changes in robot density on household wealth inequality and potential mechanisms. By using three-digit industry codes provided by the China Census 1 % sampling data in 2015, this paper achieves a more accurate matching of industrial robot data with individual data and employs instrumental variables to alleviate potential endogeneity bias. This paper finds that increasing robot density exacerbates the inequality of family wealth, and this effect has a particularly significant impact on young labor force and workers with low education. Its impact mechanism may come from the inequality of employment difficulty and the increase of the non-transferability of human capital. This study is of great importance to deeper understand the economic consequences of the accelerated use of automation technology and accurately formulate public policies to narrow the wealth gap.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101830"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142533822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Does government-driven infrastructure boost green innovation? Evidence of new infrastructure plan in China","authors":"Fan Zhang ,&nbsp;Feng Wang ,&nbsp;Shujie Yao","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101828","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101828","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The role of government-driven investment in improving environmental quality has long been an essential concern of environmental research. Using a spatial difference-in-differences model, this study investigates the influence of government-driven new infrastructure investment on green innovation. Based on a panel dataset of 276 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2019, we find a positive effect of high-speed rail (HSR) and smart city (SC) construction on green innovation. Compared with cities that are unconnected to the HSR network, those that are accessible by HSR experienced a 20.6 % increase in per capita green patents. In addition, being a SC planned by the government is associated with 14.8 % more green patents per capita than other cities. Moreover, government-promoted new infrastructure has significant spatial spillover effects on green innovation in adjacent cities. Regional sensitivity is found in promotional and spatial spillover effects. The findings of our study offer essential insights for developing effective policies for advancing infrastructure modernization and environmental protection simultaneously.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101828"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142433315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cost of escaping air pollution: A way to prevent excessive expansion of industrial areas","authors":"I-Chun Tsai","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101823","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101823","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To pursue economic growth, many emerging markets prioritize providing land and resources to industries rather than people, resulting in people being forced to relocate. This paper uses Taiwan’s largest industrial city (Kaohsiung) as an example to discuss the negative spillover effect brought about by its most polluted industrial area (the Kaohsiung Linhai Industrial Park, KLIP). This study finds that the proximity between residences and the pollution sources and air pollution severity both cause housing prices to decrease. The results also show that among different air pollution indicators, SO₂ concentration exerts the largest influence on housing prices. This may be because the SO₂ emitted by large coal-fired power plants and oil refineries in the KLIP is linked to pollution-based haze and creates a visible atmospheric brown haze. By discussing the industrial park’s air pollution problem, this paper illustrates the harm of the overdevelopment of an industrial park. To prevent people’s relocation events resulting from the overdevelopment of an industrial park occurring in the future, we must regularly estimate the shadow price that residents living near the industrial park are required to pay to escape air pollution. This paper also puts forward suggestions that contribute to the sustainable development of industrial parks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101823"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142433316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Inflation targeting and monetary policy response in India","authors":"Abhay Pratap Raghuvanshi,&nbsp;Wasim Ahmad","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101822","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101822","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>India adopted the Flexible Inflation Targeting (FIT) regime in 2016 under the mentorship of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). With FIT’s introduction, the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission channels required a re-visit and this paper is a valuable contribution in this direction. Using the multivariate model with an augmented Bayesian set- up, we find that FIT-MPC has strengthened the credit and interest rate channels while their impact on output has weakened. The impact of Operation Twist – a set of unconventional measures pursued during the pandemic is visible. Overall, the findings highlight the overhauling effect of monetary policy transmission in the Indian context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101822"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142444966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Confucian culture, public education expenditure, and economic growth","authors":"Junbing Zhu","doi":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101827","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.asieco.2024.101827","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Confucian culture has been found to have significant effects on economic outcomes, yet current studies seldom delve into its impact on regional economic growth in China and the role of government behavior as a mechanism. From the perspective of government response to public demands for education, this paper examines whether Confucian culture fosters economic growth by driving up public education expenditure. Using panel data at the prefecture-level over 2003–2018 and taking the historical population density of <em>jinshi</em> in the Ming and Qing Dynasties as the proxy of the Confucian culture, the empirical analysis is done mainly through pooled OLS and IV analysis. Results show that Confucian culture has a significant and positive effect on economic growth, which can be partially explained by its positive influence on public education expenditure. The channel still holds after controlling human capital in regression. Further discussion of the clan culture and local governors’ cultural backgrounds suggests that higher public education expenditure results from the local government’s passive response to public demands for education. Thus, local governments are suggested to widen and improve the channels for expressing public demands and increase public education expenditure while balancing public demands and the need to boost economic growth.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47583,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Economics","volume":"95 ","pages":"Article 101827"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2024-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142444964","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}