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Macroeconomic Imbalance, External Debt, and the Financial System in Laos Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2024-03-12 Fumiharu Mieno, Kazue Demachi
External public debt exacerbation and macroeconomic destabilization in Laos are attributed to the subsequent complications of excessive foreign capital investments in the mining, power, and transport infrastructure sectors during the economic boom of the 2010s. This study examines the Lao economy from three perspectives: real sector growth, the characteristics of external fundraising, and the domestic
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Fiscal Sustainability in Indonesia: Policies and Progress Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-27 Vid Adrison
This paper investigates fiscal sustainability in Indonesia and draws comparisons with Malaysia and Thailand. The analysis encompasses an evaluation of fiscal rules, fiscal performance, and an assessment of fiscal sustainability across these three countries. Given that the Coronavirus Disease (COVID‐19) pandemic affected budget deficits in each country starting in 2020, the empirical assessment utilizes
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Comment on “Flexible Inflation Targeting and Macroeconomic Performance: Evidence from ASEAN” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-19 Somkiat Tangkitvanich
Nookhwun and Waiyawatjakorn (2024) represent the first systematic empirical assessment of Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) inflation targeting frameworks. Specifically, Nookhwun and Waiyawatjakorn examine the role of ASEAN countries' inflation targeting frameworks in reducing inflation levels and volatility, stabilizing economic growth, and maintaining a robust financial system. Nookhwun
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Deconstructing Deglobalization: The Future of Trade is in Intermediate Services Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-10 Richard Baldwin, Rebecca Freeman, Angelos Theodorakopoulos
This article contests the idea that the world has entered a post-globalization era. It argues that rapid globalization has evolved rather than ended. Even though the global goods trade-to-GDP ratio reached its zenith 15 years ago, the rapid rise of services trade has persisted and now accounts for one-fifth of international commerce. The paper makes a statistical and logical case that the future of
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Can the World Trade Organization Act as a Bulwark Against Deglobalization? Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Simon J. Evenett
Whether existing multilateral trade commitments really deter larger trading nations from taking steps that further weaken cross-border commercial ties is assessed here. Evidence from salient commercial policy episodes of recent years is combined with information on the actual leeway available to G-20 members under extant World Trade Organization rules. The upshot is a bleak assessment of the capacity
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Comment on “Can the World Trade Organization Act as a Bulwark Against Deglobalization?” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-02 Junji Nakagawa
Evenett (2024) makes a well-evidenced argument on the capacity of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules to contain deglobalization. His argument is straightforward. He argues that the WTO rules offer little constraint on state-led deglobalization. He justifies this argument with three sets of evidence. First is the set of evidence from recent high-profile commercial policy episodes such as the US–China
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Comment on “Deconstructing Deglobalization: The Future of Trade is in Intermediate Services” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-17 Ayako Obashi
The degree of globalization is often assessed using a conventional measure of global trade openness, namely the ratio of world trade in goods to world gross domestic product (GDP). This conventional measure of globalization peaked in 2008 at the onset of the Great Trade Collapse, which is treated by some commenters as a sign that the world has entered an era of delocalization. However, looking only
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Supply Chain Decoupling: Geopolitical Debates and Economic Dynamism in East Asia Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-09 Mitsuyo Ando, Kazunobu Hayakawa, Fukunari Kimura
Supply chain decoupling in the US–China confrontation has generated serious uncertainties for private businesses. This paper focuses on machinery international production networks in East Asia and tries to find quantitative evidence on supply chain decoupling by using international trade statistics, particularly from the viewpoint of middle powers such as Japan. While data on the sectoral level of
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International Finance and Geopolitics Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-05-30 Barry Eichengreen
Recent events, notably financial sanctions imposed on Russia by the USA and its geopolitical allies together with mounting economic and political tensions between the USA and China, have highlighted the role of geopolitics in shaping global monetary and financial relations. What these developments imply for the future will turn on how US–China tensions play out. In what follows I consider two scenarios:
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Comment on “Higher Education in the United States: Laissez-Faire, Differentiation, and Research” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-04-17 Takatoshi Ito
I read Urquiola (2023) with a keen personal interest as well as an academic interest. In my 47-year professional life, half was spent in US academia and the other half in Japanese academia. From time to time, I have compared Japanese universities with their US counterparts. Table 1 is a summary of my experiences. Table 1. Stereotype comparison of US and Japanese “research” universities USA Japan Public
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Comment on “The Evolution of University–Industry Linkages in Thailand” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-04-01 Saowaruj Rattanakhamfu
Thailand has set itself the target of becoming a developed country by 2037. To achieve this goal, the nation must enhance its technological capabilities to produce higher-value-added products. Over the past two decades, Thailand has worked to improve its competitiveness through innovation by increasing research and development (R&D) investment. The country's gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD)
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Comment on “Transforming Malaysia's Higher Education: Policies and Progress” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-03-25 Cassey Lee
Investment in education is right as regarded one of the most important strategies for social and economic development in the long term. Historically, the private and social returns to schooling are higher at the primary and secondary levels compared to the tertiary level. However, as countries become more developed and wealthier, the returns to tertiary education could exceed that of primary education
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Comment on “Higher Education in the United States: Laissez-Faire, Differentiation, and Research” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-03-06 Michael Spence
I have served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard and as dean of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. As a result of these 15 years of experience in academic administration, I learned quite a lot about the history of these institutions, their competitors, and their modes of operation and financing. Urquiola's (2023) account of the origins and current industry configuration
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Comment on “Japan's Higher Education Policies under Global Challenge” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-03-05 Takeo Hoshi
Yonezawa (2023) points out that the Japanese government started to put Japan's top universities at the core of the national economic policy in the last couple of decades. Improving the quality of Japanese universities and establishing closer collaborations with the government and industry are now considered essential for reinvigorating Japan's economic growth. The government wanted the universities
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Comment on “Transforming Malaysia's Higher Education: Policies and Progress” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-02-26 Morshidi Sirat
Tham and Chong (2023) examine measurement issues pertaining to indicators used in assessing the achievement and performance of Malaysian higher education. The data presented are evidence of the need to seriously rethink the measurements used for monitoring quality improvements, which are perennial higher education challenges in the Malaysian context. The study makes reference to two higher education
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The Evolution of University–Industry Linkages in Thailand Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-02-19 Patarapong Intarakumnerd, Anittha Jutarosaga
This paper aims to examine the evolution and major transition of Thailand's higher education system and its contribution to deepening and broadening local university-industry linkages (UILs), especially in Thailand's high-tech, mid-tech, and science-based industries. The ties with universities were deployed differently across sectors. Key driving factors are individual firms' strategies and efforts
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Higher Education in the United States: Laissez-Faire, Differentiation, and Research Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-02-19 Miguel Urquiola
The U.S. higher education system stands out in three dimensions. First, it has the highest number of leading research universities. Second, it displays significant differentiation: multiple types of institutions offer services that differ in cost, prestige, etc. Third, it has a laissez-faire/free-market orientation: private and public entities are free to open schools and compete; essentially all schools
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Japan's Higher Education Policies under Global Challenges Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-02-19 Akiyoshi Yonezawa
Over the past 20 years, Japan's higher education policy has been strongly influenced by national policies for achieving world-class excellence as a tool for economic and social development. However, Japan's universities, especially the top universities, have faced difficulties in maintaining an international presence, both in terms of academic excellence and the development of globally competitive
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Emerging and Near Future Challenges of Higher Education in East Asia Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-02-02 Hugo Horta
Continuing the advances made in the later parts of the 20th century, East Asian economies and their higher education systems rapidly evolved in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Most East Asian countries are categorized as advanced economies with developed societies; however, issues such as aging populations, debt levels, and decreasing salary premiums for education are becoming increasingly
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Transforming Malaysia's Higher Education: Policies and Progress Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2023-01-27 Siew-Yean Tham, Pui-Yee Chong
Malaysia's higher education sector has a substantial number and diverse types of public and private providers, which have contributed toward improving access. Over time, with improved access, there are increasing policy efforts directed toward improving the quality of higher education to meet the desired human capital needed for advancing economic development. This paper assesses three key areas that
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Comment on “What the Welfare State Left Behind—Securing the Capability to Move for the Vulnerable” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-12-04 Keisuke Kawata
Gotoh and Kambayashi (2022) tackle important topics, including proposing a new measurement of human welfare and capturing some of the problems under COVID-19. Their measurement is based on the capability approach, and it is their ultimate goal to reexamine the transformation of publicness in contemporary Japan. I agree that Gotoh and Kambayashi's paper can significantly contribute to economic research
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Comment on “Social Justice and Affirmative Action in Malaysia: The New Economic Policy after 50 Years” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-09-26 Muhammed Abdul Khalid
The debate on affirmative action and the New Economic Policy (NEP) in Malaysia is controversial, and often attracts mixed and emotional responses to its relevance and achievements. Lee (2022) is an attempt to reset the affirmative action agenda in Malaysia by anchoring it on the principles of equality and fairness, and deserves serious consideration by policy makers. Some of the key points of Lee (2022)
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Comment on “Social Justice and Affirmative Action in Malaysia: The New Economic Policy after 50 Years” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-09-26 Kwame Sundaram Jomo
Any meaningful assessment of Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP) (Lee, 2022) should be historical. One question which arises here is how one does historical political economy. After all, there are many different schools of political economy, even if few have addressed “affirmative action.” A key question is how one treats normative issues that inevitably come up. How one understands notions such as
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Comment on “What the Welfare State Left behind: Securing the Capability to Move for the Vulnerable” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-09-26 Cassey Lee
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased poverty and inequality within and across countries (Narayan et al., 2022). The World Bank (2020) has estimated that between 88 million and 115 million more people moved into extreme poverty globally in 2020. Some countries fared worse situations than others because of the weak responses from governments in terms of the adequacy of the health system, the vaccination
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What the Welfare State Left Behind—Securing the Capability to Move for the Vulnerable Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-09-18 Reiko Gotoh, Ryo Kambayashi
The purpose of the present paper is to measure the disadvantage of the vulnerable in contemporary Japan, focusing on their capabilities in moving both outside and inside the home. Our research interest is to find a new informational base other than consumption expenditure, which provides a strong clue about how to assess the eligibility for social support. We examine theoretical methods to apply the
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Comment on “How Inequality Affects Trust in Institutions: Evidence from Indonesia” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-09-08 Takayuki Higashikata
Suryahadi et al. (2022) address the challenging task of identifying how income inequality affects trust in others, organizations, and institutions through a cross-section analysis of Indonesia. As previous studies have suggested, the extent of trust is considered an important factor for economic development, for example, by reducing transaction costs. This has led many social scientists to analyze
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Social Justice and Affirmative Action in Malaysia: The New Economic Policy after 50 Years Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-08-17 Hwok-Aun Lee
Malaysia's New Economic Policy (NEP), promulgated in 1971, established a two-pronged national social justice agenda of poverty reduction, and social restructuring or pro-Bumiputera affirmative action. This distinction of these policy objectives must be appreciated, but various misconceptions, especially regarding affirmative action, have resulted in polarization and stalemate after 50 years of the
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Comment on “Siamese Twin Failures: Structural and Regulatory Transformations in Unequal Thailand” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-08-10 Richard F. Doner
Kanchoochat (2023) provides a useful, multi-level approach to accounting for Thailand's inequality problem, a problem that has persisted despite overall economic growth. Kanchoochat not only rightly links the problem to the country's weak structural transformation, that is, its persistently high agricultural employment and low agricultural productivity, but also highlights the supply-side of the picture
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Siamese Twin Troubles: Structural and Regulatory Transformations in Unequal Thailand Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-07-27 Veerayooth Kanchoochat
This paper takes an institutional approach to inequality in Thailand by exploring the country's structural and regulatory transformations. It discusses how Thailand's transition from agriculture to industry and services has been impeded by both the demand and supply sides of government subsidies since the 1950s. The relative failure of structural transformation has slowed down economic catch-up and
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How Inequality Affects Trust in Institutions: Evidence from Indonesia Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-07-27 Asep Suryahadi, Ridho Al Izzati, Daniel Suryadarma, Teguh Dartanto
Trust is an important ingredient to improve economic performance and people's welfare by alleviating market failures caused by imperfect information, costly enforcement, or coordination failures. Using the World Values Survey 2018, we estimate the impact of village and district levels inequality on trust in institutions in Indonesia. We find that higher village level inequality has a negative effect
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Income and Wealth Inequality in Asia and the Pacific: Trends, Causes, and Policy Remedies Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-07-13 Juzhong Zhuang
The Asia–Pacific region's rapid growth and poverty reduction in recent decades have been accompanied by rising income and wealth inequality. Technological progress, globalization, deregulation and market-oriented reform, and financialization have generated many new opportunities, but rewarded capital more than labor, benefited skilled workers more than the unskilled, widened spatial inequality, and
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Comment on “Why Fintech Is Not Changing Japanese Banking” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-06-05 Yuko Kawai
Iwashita (2022) argues that Japan's FinTech is underdeveloped as banks and their customers, especially the elderly and conservative corporate customers, cling to the traditional financial service formats. He further argues that the supremacy of banking services before the Internet era may have hindered changes on the supply side, that is, the service level was sufficiently convenient therefore the
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Comment on “Why Fintech Is Not Changing Japanese Banking” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-05-13 Teruo Nakatsuma
Although the term “fintech” has now filtered down into everyday language, fintech services have not yet been fully integrated into everyday life, at least in Japan. Iwashita (2022) overviews the current disappointing state of fintech in Japan, assesses which conditions keep fintech services from taking off, and discusses potential “game changers” that would pave the way for fintech services to gain
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Why Fintech Is Not Changing Japanese Banking Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-04-22 Naoyuki Iwashita
Several years have passed since fintech first attracted attention in Japan. Although various new fintech services have emerged due to deregulation and policies to promote fintech's development and adoption, the overall composition and functioning of Japan's financial industry has not changed significantly despite fintech advances in other economies. The industry in Japan continues to be dominated by
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Comment on “Measuring Digital Financial Inclusion in Emerging Market and Developing Economies: A New Index” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-02-23 Yan Shen
Khera et al. (2022) provides a novel measurement of digital financial inclusion using a three-stage principal component approach (PCA) for 52 emerging market and developing economies. Based on this new index, they have found that the adoption of digital financial services has been a key driver of financial inclusion, and countries/regions in Africa and Asia and regions have achieved greater progress
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Comments on “Fintech and Financial Inclusion in Southeast Asia and India” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-02-23 M. Chatib Basri
Morgan (2022) writes an interesting and valuable survey on fintech and financial inclusion in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India. This paper is very timely and topical. It provides a good and informative description of the development of financial technology and digital payments in India and ASEAN. This paper also shows how fintech can help promote financial inclusion. Morgan
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Comment on “Fintech and Financial Inclusion in Southeast Asia and India” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-02-14 Kaori Iwasaki
Morgan (2022) provides a comprehensive analysis of the Fintech scene and its influence on financial inclusion in Southeast Asia and India. He describes how Fintech can contribute to promoting financial inclusion which poses a pressing challenge in this region. Among the various categories of Fintech, Morgan focuses on digital payments and alternative finance, taking account of their importance in enhancing
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Fintech and Financial Inclusion in Southeast Asia and India Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-01-30 Peter J. Morgan
Financial inclusion, that is, access of excluded households and small firms to financial products and services, is seen as a way to promote more inclusive growth by providing the previously unbanked with access to means for savings, investment, consumption smoothing, and insurance. Financial technology (Fintech), that is, using software, applications, and digital platforms to deliver financial services
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Comment on “Big Data in Asian Central Banks” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-01-29 Tsutomu Watanabe
My first comment is on why central banks have started using big data in the first place. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, private financial institutions and investors extensively used big data, “alternative data” in their terminology, in predicting the future of stock prices. Central banks, including the Bank of Japan (BOJ), were concerned that with the rapid growth in the use of big data by the
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Measuring Digital Financial Inclusion in Emerging Market and Developing Economies: A New Index Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2022-01-20 Purva Khera, Stephanie Ng, Sumiko Ogawa, Ratna Sahay
Adoption of technology in the financial services industry has been accelerating in recent years. To assess its contribution to financial inclusion, we develop a novel digital financial inclusion index covering 52 emerging market and developing economies. We find that (i) the adoption of digital financial services has been a key driver of financial inclusion; and (ii) there is wide variation across
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Big Data in Asian Central Banks Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-12-22 Giulio Cornelli, Sebastian Doerr, Leonardo Gambacorta, Bruno Tissot
The present paper reviews the use of big data in Asian central banks, leveraging on a survey conducted by the Irving Fischer Committee on Central Bank Statistics (IFC) of the Bank for International Settlements. It reveals four main insights. First, Asian central banks define big data in an encompassing way. Second, they show higher interest in big data, including at the senior policy level. Third,
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Comment on “Sustainable Health Financing for COVID-19 Preparedness and Response in Asia and the Pacific” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-09-28 Toshiaki Iizuka
Kwon and Kim (2022) summarize the impact of COVID-19 on health and the economy in Asia and the Pacific and how countries have responded to the challenge. In addition, they propose ways to strengthen the health care system so that governments can better prepare for a pandemic. This is a timely study because many countries worldwide are still struggling with dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic successfully
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Comment on “Responses to COVID-19 in Southeast Asia: Diverse Paths and Ongoing Challenges” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-09-19 Nada Wasi
The article by Amul et al. (2022) reviews the responses to COVID-19 taken by four Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam. The country characteristics and controlling measures being put in place are discussed. Amul et al. focus on comparing six dimensions of the responses: (i) leadership; (ii) public risk communications; (iii) health system preparedness; (iv) economic
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Comment on “Economic Impacts of SARS/MERS/COVID-19 in Asian Countries” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-09-02 Marcus Noland
Tanaka (2022) is a clearly written survey of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian economies. It covers the single sector SIR (susceptible, infected, recovered) epidemiological macro-model and discusses results from this class of models for Asian countries. Then, relaxing the model to allow heterogeneity across sectors and workers, the paper examines the impact of the pandemic in Asia. The paper
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Economic Impacts of SARS/MERS/COVID-19 in Asian Countries Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-30 Satoshi Tanaka
This paper surveys the recent literature on the economic impacts of SARS, MERS, and COVID-19, which Asian countries have experienced in the past two decades. In particular, we provide a detailed summary of how each of the past infectious diseases has impacted on the Asian economies and the extent of that impact. This paper also documents how the governments of Asian countries have responded to the
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Comment on “Health and Public Health Implications of COVID-19 in Asian Countries” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-29 Rei Goto
Miyawaki and Tsugawa (2022) review the impacts of COVID-19 on public health, particularly in Asian countries, as well as the current knowledge about its pathogenesis, treatment, and prognosis. They report that Asian countries had more strict physical distancing policies during the early phase of the pandemic and fewer cumulative cases and deaths on average compared with those of European Union countries
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Comment on “Sustainable Health Financing for COVID-19 Preparedness and Response in Asia and the Pacific” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-24 Randall P. Ellis
Kwon and Kim (2022) make a useful contribution to understanding differences among various Asian and Pacific countries to the COVID-19 pandemic, but more importantly, the paper points out the importance of maintaining adequate funding and marshaling large scale health care resources to combat pandemics by quickly identifying and treating cases, organizing care, case tracing, sharing information, and
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Comment on “Is there a Trade-off between Covid-19 Control and Economic Activity? Implications from the Phillips Curve Debate” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-20 Jonathan Skinner
The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the economic landscape around the world. Countries and local governments have addressed the pandemic in different ways, but the one common tension has been the goal of reducing infections and serious illness or deaths at a minimal cost to economic activity. Quantifying the trade-offs is therefore a critical task for any policies designed to address both short-term
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Comment on “Is there a Trade-off between Covid-19 Control and Economic Activity? Implications from the Phillips Curve Debate” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-17 Keiichiro Kobayashi
Fukao and Shioji (2022) point out that the correlation between the number of infections and the output gap is analogous to the Phillips curve relationship between the inflation rate and the output gap. The pandemic Phillips curve, given by equation (11) in Fukao and Shioji, implies that an increase in economic activity today increases the number of infected tomorrow. Fukao and Shioji show that there
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Is There a Trade-Off between COVID-19 Control and Economic Activity? Implications from the Phillips Curve Debate Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-09 Mitsuhiro Fukao, Etsuro Shioji
In this paper, we argue that the roles of public policies concerning COVID-19 can be better understood in light of the past discussions on the Great Inflation of the 1970s and the 1980s. Like the Phillips Curve in macroeconomics, the pandemic presents a trade-off between economic activities and something undesirable, which is, in this case, infection. Like the Phillips Curve, this apparent output-infection
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Health and Public Health Implications of COVID-19 in Asian Countries Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-08-01 Atsushi Miyawaki, Yusuke Tsugawa
This paper discusses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on population health in Asian countries. Compared to European countries, Asian countries, in general, experienced much fewer COVID-19 cases and deaths. The underlying factors in this difference would include the earlier and more stringent nonpharmaceutical interventions, differences in the age structure, the geographical characteristics in Asia
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Sustainable Health Financing for COVID-19 Preparedness and Response in Asia and the Pacific Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-07-26 Soonman Kwon, Eunkyoung Kim
To make health systems more resilient to shocks and crises, it is critical for governments to invest in core health system functions such as financing, service delivery, and governance. Ensuring sufficient resources for health is necessary for basic infrastructure including vaccines; the overall level of health expenditure and the public sources of funding are important. Funding for public health services
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An Assessment of Abenomics: Evolution and Achievements Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-07-18 Takatoshi Ito
This paper evaluates the first two arrows of Abenomics. The first arrow, aggressive monetary policy, was successful in lifting the Japanese economy out of deflation, although the 2% inflation target was not achieved. The real economy and financial markets recovered strongly. Unconventional monetary policy was successful through the channels of the yen and stock prices. The second arrow, “flexible”
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Comment on “Assessment of Abenomics: Evolution and Achievement” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-06-17 Marcus Noland
Ito (2021) is a bit like Hamlet without the Prince. It reviews the first and second arrows of Abenomics (monetary and fiscal policy) and assesses them largely successful in managing aggregate demand. But the third arrow, structural reform, which was meant to raise the potential growth rate, remains off-stage, and is implicitly judged a failure. The paper amounts to “two cheers” for Abenomics. To establish
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Comment on “Assessment of Abenomics: Evolution and Achievement” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-07-01 Shin-ichi Fukuda
Ito (2021) is a wonderful survey article assessing Abenomics. It is a well-balanced and appropriate discussion of Abenomics, particularly, the first arrow (that is, unconventional monetary easing) and the second arrow (that is, flexible fiscal spending). Although I basically agree with Ito's discussion, I have three comments. My first comment is on the general assessment of how effective Abenomics
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The Post‐Abenomics Japanese Economy: Editors' Overview Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-07-01 Takatoshi Ito,Kazumasa Iwata,Colin McKenzie,Shujiro Urata
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Comment on “The Welfare Implications of Massive Money Injection: The Japanese Experience from 2013 to 2020” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-05-03 Mitsuhiro Fukao
Watanabe (2021) analyzes the welfare of the household sector holding massive amounts of money under the Bank of Japan's quantitative expansion of monetary base. He tries to measure the welfare cost by estimating a demand function for M1 (cash and liquid deposits held by the household and corporate sectors) using Japanese data. Under a normal positive-interest rate regime with a zero storage cost of
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Comment on “The Welfare Implications of Massive Money Injection: The Japanese Experience from 2013 to 2020” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-04-30 Ippei Fujiwara
Watanabe (2021) starts with the question: “Why was the Kuroda bazooka unsuccessful?” “The BOJ has not achieved its target of 2%, and there is little prospect that it will be achieved in the near future.” Watanabe (2021) argues that there were two unforeseen events that prevented the Kuroda bazooka from working efficiently. The first is coined as “Things that were expected to happen but did not happen
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Comment on “An Assessment of Abenomics from the Labor Market Perspective” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-04-25 Isamu Yamamoto
Given Japan's circumstances of a rapidly aging population and a shrinking labor force, it is noteworthy that the number of employed person increased by more than 2.78 million over the period 2000–2019 according to Japan's Labor Force Survey. This corresponds to a 1.1 percentage point increase in the employment rate among those aged 15 or more years old. Kawaguchi et al. (2021) analyze the increase
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Comment on “An Assessment of Abenomics from the Labor Market Perspective” Asian Economic Policy Review (IF 3.0) Pub Date : 2021-04-21 Yukiko Abe
Kawaguchi et al. (2021) use data from the Labour Force Survey of Japan to examine the changes in employment rates from 2000 to the present. They show that Japan's employment rate has risen by 1.1 percentage points from 2000 to 2019, despite the continued population aging. According to their decomposition results, had the participation behavior stayed constant at the 2000 level, the employment rate