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on South East Asia |
| By: | Kyoji Fukao; Kozo Kiyota; Ximing Yue |
| Abstract: | International trade has been a key engine driving Chinese economic growth in recent decades. Yet, long-term analyses of China's trade are still difficult because the country's trade statistics for the post-war period up to the mid-1980s have many shortcomings For example, official customs statistics published by the Chinese government during this period, if they were published at all, do not provide any breakdown by commodity classification. Against this background, we recently compiled new statistics of China's trade during 1952-1964 and 1981-2000 at the 3-digit level of the Standard International Trade Classification, Revision 1 (SITC-R1). The statistics for 1952-1964 and 1981-1987 are based on data we purchased from China's National Statistical Bureau. The data for 1988-2000 are compiled from the Commodity Trade Statistics of the United Nations (UN Comtrade) as a part of our joint work with scholars at the Institute of Development Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO). In this paper, we provide an overview of existing statistics of China's international trade and present our newly compiled statistics. |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:hstdps:d05-147&r=sea |
| By: | Baldwin, Richard |
| Abstract: | The paper argues that East Asian regionalism is fragile since (i) each nation's industrial competitiveness depends on the smooth functioning of 'Factory Asia' - in particular on intra-regional trade; (ii) the unilateral tariff-cutting that created 'Factory Asia' is not subject to WTO discipline (bindings); (iii) there is no 'top-level management' to substitute for WTO discipline, i.e. to ensure that bilateral trade tensions - tensions that are inevitable in East Asia - do not spillover into region-wide problems due to lack of cooperation and communication. This paper argues that the window of opportunity for East Asian 'vision' was missed; what East Asia needs now is 'management' not vision. East Asia should launch a 'New East Asian Regional Management Effort' with a reinforced ASEAN+3 being the most likely candidate for the job. The first priority should be to bind the region's unilateral tariff cuts in the WTO. |
| Keywords: | East Asia; management not vision; noodle bowl; regionalism |
| JEL: | F1 F13 F15 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:5561&r=sea |
| By: | Ma, Hengyun; Huang, Jikun; Fuller, Frank H.; Rozelle, Scott |
| Abstract: | The overall goal of this study is to better understand food-away-from-home (FAFH) consumption in urban China. We use national statistical sources and our own data to examine the trends in FAFH during the late reform period and to analyze the determinants of FAFH demand, examining how different groups of consumers have participated in this new area of consumption. Besides the normal Tobit model for total food expenditure away from home, a system of multivariate Tobit equations was estimated simultaneously for three categories of foods consumed outside of the home. The results show that the rapid increase of FAFH demand, a rise that is fueled by higher incomes, is changing consumption patterns in China’s post-reform urban economy. We also use our findings to illustrate how omission of accounting for FAFH trends by China’s official statisticians has affected the reported trends in national meat supply and demand statistics. |
| JEL: | D1 Q1 R2 |
| Date: | 2006–02–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12499&r=sea |
| By: | Bongchan Ha; Hak K. Pyo |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:hstdps:d05-149&r=sea |
| By: | Toh Mun Heng (Department of Business Policy, Faculty of Business Administration, National University of Singapore, Singapore) |
| Abstract: | In this article, we explore whether regional economic cooperation in the form of growth triangle, made popular during the late 1980s, can continue to be relevant in the face of more formal arrangements as in free trade agreements (FTAs) and other bilateral ‘closer economic partnerships’ (CEPs) initiatives in the recent years. In particular, the discussion is focussed on the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore growth triangle (IMS-GT) which is the pioneering arrangement in Southeast Asia. IMS-GT continues to be a successful mode of cooperation among the three countries and will remain a key and subtle framework for regional economic collaboration amidst the plethora of initiatives relating to FTAs and CEPs. This paper put forth a thesis that GT is part of a spectrum of regional cooperation efforts with convergence interest to be in synchrony with the global value chain. As long as the formation and implementation of GT contribute to the creation of value, it can co-exist with more formal arrangements like the FTAs and CEPs. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sca:scaewp:0606&r=sea |
| By: | Enrico Tanuwidjaja (Singapore Centre for Applied and Policy Economics Department of Economics, National University of Singapore) |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a use of multi-factor seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) in event study analysis to study mergers and acquisitions in Singapore’s financial industry. We also study the cross-sector (banking and insurance)domestic acquisition in Singapore’s financial industry. By contrasting to the use of ordinary least squares (OLS) method, it is found that OLS method seems to underestimate the value of the sample cumulative abnormal returns as compared to SUR. The study also found that post mergers and takeovers in banking and insurance industries tend to have high possibility of negative returns. |
| Keywords: | Event study; Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR); Merger and Acquisition (M&A); Singapore; Financial Industry; Cross-sector |
| JEL: | C50 G14 G21 G22 G34 O53 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sca:scaewp:0607&r=sea |
| By: | Duangkamon Chotikapanich; William E. Griffiths; D.S. Prasada Rao |
| Abstract: | A major problem encountered in studies of income inequality at regional and global levels is the estimation of income distributions from data that are in a summary form. In this paper we estimate national and regional income distributions within a general framework that relaxes the assumption of constant income within groups. A technique to estimate the parameters of a beta-2 distribution using grouped data is proposed. Regional income distribution is modelled using a mixture of country-specific distributions and its properties are examined. The techniques are used to analyse national and regional inequality trends for eight East Asian countries and two benchmark years, 1988 and 1993. |
| Keywords: | Gini coefficient; beta-2 distribution |
| JEL: | C13 C16 D31 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mlb:wpaper:926&r=sea |
| By: | William C. Horrace (Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244-1020); Beyza P. Ural (Department of Economics, Syracuse University); Jin Hwa Jung (Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Seoul National University) |
| Abstract: | A new gender wage gap decomposition methodology is introduced that does not suffer from the identification problem caused by unobserved non-discriminatory wage structure. The methodology is used to measure the relative size of Korean gender wage gaps from 1994 to 2000 across industries, differentiated by industrial knowledge intensity, where knowledge intensity is the extent to which industries produce or employ high-technology products. Korea represents an important case study, since it possesses one of the fast growing knowledge-intensive economies, among industrialized countries. Empirical results indicate that over this period, discrimination (the unexplained portion of the gender wage gaps) in Korea was statistically smaller in knowledge-intensive industries than in industries with low knowledge intensity. Also, discrimination was declining on average over the period. This suggests that continued growth in knowledge-intensive industries in Korea may lead to further declines in the overall gender gap. |
| Keywords: | discrimination, labor markets, wage differential, compensation |
| JEL: | C12 F16 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:max:cprwps:79&r=sea |
| By: | Michael Bleaney |
| Abstract: | This paper considers the currency composition of sovereign debt in the context of risk-sharing through excusable defaults. It is shown that monetary credibility is not a sufficient condition for borrowing in domestic currency. With real exchange rate risk, debt denominated in a borrowing country’s currency can be too state-contingent to support international lending on purely reputational considerations, even when debt denominated in the lending country’s currency is viable. The model can explain the geographical pattern of bond issuance, the phenomenon of “original sin”, and the concentration of defaults on foreign-currency debt. |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:not:notecp:06/02&r=sea |
| By: | Robert Kaestner; Xin Xu |
| Abstract: | In this study, we examined the association between girls’ participation in high school sports and the physical activity, weight, body mass and body composition of adolescent females during the 1970s when girls’ sports participation was dramatically increasing as a result of Title IX. We found that increases in girls’ participation in high school sports, a proxy for expanded athletic opportunities for adolescent females, were associated with an increase in physical activity and an improvement in weight and body mass among girls. In contrast, adolescent boys experienced a decline in physical activity and an increase in weight and body mass during the period when girls’ athletic opportunities were expanding. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that Title IX and the increase in athletic opportunities among adolescent females it engendered had a beneficial effect on the health of adolescent girls. |
| JEL: | I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2006–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12113&r=sea |
| By: | Espen Villanger |
| Abstract: | UN estimate that 20 million are held in bonded labor. Several economic analyses assert that bonded laborers accept these contracts voluntarily, which could imply that a ban would make such laborers worse off. We question the voluntariness of bonded labor, and present a mechanism that keeps workers trapped. With different types of landlords not revealed to the laborer, we show how some landlords manipulate contract terms so that the laborer becomes bonded. Enforcement mechanisms and the monopolistic market for credit thus play a joint role. Providing alternative sources of credit, offer proper conflict resolution institutions over labor-contract disputes and banning could emancipate bonded labor, which would make them better off. |
| Keywords: | Coercion Debt slavery Power Bonded labor Nepal Asia |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:chm:wpaper:wp2006-7&r=sea |