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on Central and Western Asia |
| By: | Dale Squires |
| Abstract: | Asian's remarkable economic growth brought many benefits but also fuelled threats to its ecosystems and biodiversity. Economic growth brings biodiversity threats but also conservation opportunities. Continued biodiversity loss is inevitable, but the types, areas and rates of biodiversity loss are not. Prioritising biodiversity conservation, tempered by what is tractable, remains a high priority. Policy and market distortions and failures significantly underprice biodiversity, undermine ecosystems and create perverse incentives, leading to over-consumption and under-conservation. Properly priced biodiversity creates price signals and incentives that account for all contributions from biodiversity and ecosystems. Habitat conservation remains the centrepiece of biodiversity conservation. The next steps forward include selected command-and-control measures and economic policies that eliminate perverse incentives and creating positive ones along with improved enforcement. |
| Keywords: | Asia; biodiversity conservation; policy; sustainable growth; economic incentives |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201413&r=cwa |
| By: | Kelley Lee |
| Abstract: | Asia and the Pacific is undergoing a remarkable economic transformation, which is occurring at an exceptional pace. There is clear evidence of an equally rapid epidemiological transition in the region. This article sets out the policy challenges of building healthy societies in the context of rapid economic change. The region's location at the crossroads of contemporary globalisation, resulting in intensified population mobility, large-scale trade and investment, and pressures to take collective action on shared problems, adds to the complexity of this task. The article argues that health is integral to building stable and sustainable societies, and that there are opportunities to develop more holistic approaches that bring together hitherto separate policy spheres. |
| Keywords: | health policy; globalization; epidemiological transition; global governance; health care reform |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201405&r=cwa |
| By: | Peter Timmer |
| Abstract: | Food security in Asia and the Pacific presents a frustrating paradox. At one level, huge progress has been made in the past half century in bringing most of the population out of poverty and hunger. Measured by the key determinants of food security—improved availability, access, utilisation and stability—food security has never been at higher levels. Large pockets of food-insecure populations remain in the region, especially in South Asia, and continued efforts to reach these households are necessary. At the same time, food security strategies in Asia are mostly in disarray. Most countries are protecting their rice farmers and providing high price supports, but high rice prices hurt the vast majority of the poor. Continued efforts to stabilise rice prices are understandable politically and desirable economically, but much more open trade regimes for rice will help food security throughout the region. |
| Keywords: | food security; role of rice; Asia and the Pacific; price stablisation; behavioural political economy |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:een:appswp:201406&r=cwa |
| By: | Wahyoe Soedarmono (Universitas Siswa Bangsa Internasional, Faculty of Business / Sampoerna School of Business - un); Amine Tarazi (LAPE - Laboratoire d'Analyse et de Prospective Economique - Université de Limoges : EA1088 - Institut Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société) |
| Abstract: | From a sample of commercial banks in Asia Pacific over the 1994-2009 period, this study highlights that banks in less competitive markets exhibit lower loan growth and higher instability. Such instability is further followed by a decline in deposit growth, suggesting that Asian banks are also subject to indirect market discipline mechanisms through bank market structure. This study therefore sheds light on the importance of enhancing bank competition to overcome bank risk and strengthen financial intermediation. This study also advocates greater reliance on market discipline to promote bank stability. |
| Keywords: | Bank competition; loan growth; risk; market discipline; Asia Pacific |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00947575&r=cwa |
| By: | Bowo Setiyono (LAPE - Laboratoire d'Analyse et de Prospective Economique - Université de Limoges : EA1088 - Institut Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société); Amine Tarazi (LAPE - Laboratoire d'Analyse et de Prospective Economique - Université de Limoges : EA1088 - Institut Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of the interaction of disclosure and ownership structure on bank risk. Using a sample of 209 commercial banks from Asia during the 2004-2010 period, we find that disclosure is negatively associated with income volatility and that such an impact is stronger in the presence of block holders and institutional ownership and weaker with insider or government ownership. Our results also provide evidence that better disclosure ensures greater stability as measured by individual bank default risk. Furthermore, a deeper investigation shows that disclosure on income statement, loans, other earning assets, deposits, and memo lines plays a stronger role in limiting risk than disclosure on non-deposit liabilities. |
| Keywords: | Bank risk; disclosure index; bank ownership |
| Date: | 2014–02–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00947590&r=cwa |
| By: | Akar, Gizem; Balkan, Binnur; Tumen, Semih |
| Abstract: | This paper documents two new facts linking firm-size and gender pay gaps to informal employment using micro-level data from Turkey. First, we show that the firm-size wage gap, defined as larger firms paying higher wages to observationally equivalent workers, is greater for informal employment than formal employment. And, second, we find that the gender pay gap is constant across different firm-size categories for formal employment, while it is a decreasing function of firm size for informal employment. These two facts jointly suggest that the informality status of a job is a valuable source of information in understanding the underlying forces determining firm-size and gender wage gaps. We propose and discuss the relevance of alternative mechanisms that might be generating these facts. |
| Keywords: | Informal employment; wage differentials; firm size; gender discrimination; THLFS. |
| JEL: | C21 E24 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2014–02–21 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:53835&r=cwa |