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on South East Asia |
| By: | Shrestha, Prakash Kumar |
| Abstract: | This paper examines changes in the balance sheets of the banking system in five East Asian economies which were affected by the 1997 Asian Crisis. These countries have persistently accumulated foreign currency reserves since the crisis. This paper estimates the impact of reserve accumulation on some important balance sheet variables such as liquid assets, credits and deposits of the banking system by applying panel data techniques. Estimates using data from Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia show that reserve accumulation has a positive impact on the liquid assets and deposits of the banking system, but not on credit flows, after controlling for the effect of other potential variables. -- |
| Keywords: | international reserves,central banks,banking systems and East Asian countries |
| JEL: | F31 E58 G21 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201248&r=sea |
| By: | Nehru, Vikram (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the complementary and competitive roles of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Asia given the backdrop of a changing world in which development priorities and challenges are changing rapidly and the rapid expansion of financial flows to developing countries is challenging the influence of these organizations. The paper highlights changes to the international aid architecture, its increasing fragmentation, the rise of non-traditional donors, and recent efforts at improving aid coordination. With this background, the paper examines the roles of the World Bank and ADB in Asia, provides some comparisons of their performance, notes their overlapping responsibilities, and explains current approaches to coordination and cooperation between them. |
| Keywords: | world bank; asian development bank; asia; international aid |
| JEL: | F34 O10 O19 |
| Date: | 2012–10–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0385&r=sea |
| By: | Wignaraja, Ganeshan (Asian Development Bank Institute); Ramizo, Dorothea (Asian Development Bank Institute); Burmeister, Luca (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | Trade integration and free trade agreement (FTA)-led cooperation between Asia and Latin America has increased since the early 2000s. Using new criteria, this paper examines whether Asia-Latin America FTAs have facilitated market-led integration by liberalizing trade and behind the border regulatory barriers. Overall Asia-Latin America FTAs provide the foundations for inter-regional integration by liberalizing goods and services trade as well as some regulatory barriers. Future FTAs can support deeper integration by reducing residual regulatory barriers. Other policy priorities include forming a large inter-regional FTA, stimulating business use of FTAs and accelerating structural reforms. |
| Keywords: | asia; latin america; free trade agreements; inter-regional liberalization; trade integration; market-led integration |
| JEL: | F15 O24 O53 O54 |
| Date: | 2012–09–25 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0382&r=sea |
| By: | Yuzuru Miyata; Indrawan Permana |
| Abstract: | Since decade 80`s, colonies of illegal settlements began rapidly increasing in many urban areas of cities in Indonesia. During the decade, urban population living in slum areas was recorded about 54% of total urban population particularly in mega cities of Indonesia. Nonetheless, that percentage was increasing to be 69.12% in decade of 90Âfs. In line with that, in term of size, illegal settlement also increased to be 46.13% and 52.32% in decade 80`s and 90`s respectively (NUSSP, 2007). This urban phenomenon has been identified not only taking place in big cities but also taking place in small-medium cities with less than a million of population (Soegijoko et al ed, 2005). Aimed at to better understand the manner in which the illegal settlements come into being in Palangkaraya city, Indonesia, previously Permana and Miyata (2009) have developed a general equilibrium model of Palangkaraya city, Indonesia. Differing from Fujita`s model (Fujita, 1989), the model took into account land heterogeneity in a city thus rendering a typical land type of most cities in river basin areas. The model incorporated the expected flood damage rate (EFDR) on household assets. The EFDR itself is employed to predict the damage by the river flood since flood occurrences are stochastic and such appropriate flood data is not recorded well. Applying the general equilibrium modeling approach, one can derive the conclusion that the bid rents by low income households get higher than those by high income households in flood prone areas. This is the contrary conclusion being highlighted as compared with that in the traditional urban economics. This paper aims to show and discuss results of the numerical simulation of the model thus analyzing configuration of residential land use pattern in Palangkaraya city, Indonesia. The paper is organized as follows: Section 1 is for introduction. Section 2 is the general equilibrium model. Section 3 is the numerical simulation. And finally section 4 is aimed for conclusion. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p592&r=sea |
| By: | Rahul Sen; Sadhana Srivastava (Auckland University of Technology (AUT)) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the current state of participation of India in the international production networks(IPNs) of manufacturing industries in Asia, and identifies the constraints and challenges for India's deeper participation in the near future. |
| Keywords: | India, international production networks, intra-industry trade, Asia, PTA |
| JEL: | F13 F14 F23 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esc:wpaper:11812&r=sea |
| By: | Jörg Peters; Christoph Strupat; Colin Vance |
| Abstract: | In recent years, rural electrification and access to television have spread rapidly throughout the developing world. The values and cultural norms embodied in television programming have potentially profound implications for influencing behavior, particularly as regards reproductive decisions. Using household panel data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS), this paper explores the effect of television ownership on the use of modern contraceptives in rural Indonesia. Although results from a pooled regression suggest a statistically significant and positive relationship between contraceptive use and television ownership, this finding is not robust to fixed effects estimates that control for time-invariant unobserved characteristics. By contrast, several other individual and community-level determinants, most notably the presence of midwives and health services, are statistically significant in the fixed effects model. We conclude that the growing corpus of cross-sectional evidence on a link between television and contraception should be interpreted cautiously. |
| Keywords: | Contraceptive use; television; fertility; technology adoption; rural development |
| JEL: | J13 O12 O33 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rwi:repape:0365&r=sea |
| By: | Plummer, Michael G. (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | This paper considers emerging commercial policy challenges facing the Asia-Pacific region in light of the impasse reached at the Eighth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in December 2011. It underscores that, while marginal liberalization of trade barriers under the Doha Development Agenda may not be forthcoming in the short- or even medium-term, the WTO has been successful in erecting a rules-based system of global governance and continues to be extremely important to the future health of the international trading system. Nevertheless, one can expect the current trend toward bilateral and regional free-trade areas (FTAs) will continue, particularly since it is easier to make progress toward “deep integration” in a smaller group of like-minded countries than in the context of the general WTO membership. |
| Keywords: | world trade organization; doha development agenda; post-doha agenda; new regionalism; asia-pacific; free trade areas |
| JEL: | F13 F15 |
| Date: | 2012–10–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0384&r=sea |
| By: | Pangaribowo, Evita Hanie |
| Abstract: | This study evaluates the impact of the ‘Rice for the Poor’ program – an almost universal program of Indonesian Social Safety Net Program in the time of economic crisis. The program aimed to protect poor households from the negative effects of economic crisis through providing highly subsidized rice price. To assess the impact of the ‘Rice for the Poor’ program, this study utilizes matching estimator approach combined with difference in difference method. The rich longitudinal dataset used in this study enables matching estimator and difference in difference approach to provide accurate estimate of the program’s impact on its beneficiaries. Heterogeneous impact of the program shows that the program has a limited impact on the neediest group. It is found that the ‘Rice for the Poor’ program has a limited impact on the bottom income households. The program has only enabled the poorest households to increase their meat and dairy products expenditures though the treatment effect is very large. The ‘Rice for the Poor’ program has also led to an unintended impact where non targeted households have gained more from the program. The findings suggest that applying conditionality might reduce the errors of inclusion and give more desirable effects for the poor. |
| Keywords: | Impact evaluation, ‘Rice for the Poor’, nutrient-rich food, Food Security and Poverty, I38, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc12:134755&r=sea |
| By: | Iskandar, Deden Dinar; Wuenscher, Tobias; Badhuri, Anik |
| Abstract: | This study is intended to provide the clue regarding the determinants of compliance with environmental tax under imperfect monitoring and the presence of bribery, motivated by the case of Indonesia. The study is expected to contribute on environmental policy and tax compliance literatures, particularly by examining the impact of financial reward under the presence of bribery, aside of others conventional compliance instruments such as tax rate, audit, and sanction. In addition to financial reward, this study also incorporates the bribe explicitly as a determinant of compliance. The study employs theoretical and experimental approaches. While theoretical analysis find that the compliance will decrease with tax rate and increase with audit, sanction, financial reward, and the bribe rate; the experiment findings indicate that the impact of each determinant are vary according to the existence of bribery. Despite the difference, both approaches show that the bribery indeed hampers the compliance on environmental tax. The bribery encourages the polluting firms to aggressively evade the environmental tax as the tax rate increase and curbs the positive impact of financial reward in enhancing the compliance. |
| Keywords: | Environmental Tax, Compliance, Theoretical Approach, Laboratory Experiment, Environmental Economics and Policy, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc12:134977&r=sea |
| By: | Jacob Funk Kirkegaard (Peterson Institute for International Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents new micro-level data consisting of individual greenfield investment projects and mergers and acquisitions as a source for detailed analysis of services sector cross-border investment flows among the Asian Development Bank (ADB) regional membership in Asia. The new transactional foreign direct investment (FDI) data are methodologically distinct from traditional BPM5-compliant FDI data but found to yield generally comparable aggregates, when compared with the latest available International Monetary Fund (IMF) data from the Comprehensive Direct Investment Survey for the ADB regional membership. The services sectors are found to receive considerably larger amounts of foreign investment, when compared with the Asian region's manufacturing and raw materials sectors. OECD countries account for roughly three-quarters of total recorded inward services sector FDI of about $2 trillion, relatively evenly split between the United States, the EU-27, and regional OECD-level-income countries. The presence of sizable regional "upward flowing" services sector investments into OECD-level-income economies is verified. Preliminary policy conclusions are drawn based on the new transactional FDI data results concerning prospects for regional services sector liberalization, threshold income levels for inward services sector FDI, upward-flowing regional services FDI, and preferred modes of services sector investments. |
| Keywords: | Services sector FDI, East Asia, greenfield, M&A, upward-flowing FDI |
| JEL: | F21 F23 L8 N75 O14 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp12-16&r=sea |
| By: | Diakantoni, Antonia; Escaith, Hubert |
| Abstract: | International trade moved from "trade in goods" to "trade in tasks" and effective protection rates (EPRs) are back to the analytical stage. They measure the overall protection that sectoral value-added is receiving from applied tariffs. The paper calculates sectorial EPRs for 10 Asian-Pacific countries between 1995 and 2005 and proposes simple methods aimed at isolating the specific contribution of changes in tariff policies, in production structure or in real exchange rates. International input-output matrices allowed also to compute and compare the average propagation length of a shock linked to a sudden change in tariff duties, identifying sectors most deeply interconnected. |
| Keywords: | Tariff; Input-Output; Effective Protection; Trade in Value Added; International Outsourcing |
| JEL: | F13 O47 F23 F17 C15 C67 O14 |
| Date: | 2012–09–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41723&r=sea |
| By: | Siti Hamizah Mohd (Department of Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia); Ahmad Zubaidi Baharumshah (Department of Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia); Stilianos Fountas (Department of Economics, University of Macedonia) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the links between inflation, its uncertainty and economic growth in five ASEAN countries over the period 1980: Q1-2011: Q3. We rely on the Exponential GARCH (EGARCH) model to explore the causal relationship among the three variables. The major findings are: (i) inflation uncertainty increases more in response to positive inflation surprises than to negative surprises in all countries; (ii) inflationary shocks affect positively inflation uncertainty as predicted by the Friedman-Ball hypothesis; (iii) there is no evidence to suggest that inflation uncertainty causes inflation, and; (iv) there is evidence that inflation affects growth negatively, both directly and indirectly (via the inflation uncertainty channel). The indirect effect is clearly stronger as it applies in all countries in the sample. |
| Keywords: | inflation, inflation uncertainty, output growth, ASEAN |
| JEL: | C22 E31 E52 |
| Date: | 2012–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mcd:mcddps:2012_07&r=sea |
| By: | Michael P. Cameron (University of Waikato); Peter A. Newman (University of Toronto); Surachet Roungprakhon (Rajamangala University of Technology Phra Nakhon); Riccardo Scarpa (University of Waikato) |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the marginal willingness-to-pay for attributes of a hypothetical HIV vaccine using discrete choice modeling. We use primary data from 326 respondents from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2008-2009, selected using purposive, venue-based sampling across two strata. Participants completed a structured questionnaire and full rank discrete choice modelling task administered using computer-assisted personal interviewing. The choice experiment was used to rank eight hypothetical HIV vaccine scenarios, with each scenario comprising seven attributes (including cost) each of which had two levels. The data were analyzed in two alternative specifications: (1) best-worst; and (2) full-rank, using logit likelihood functions estimated with custom routines in Gauss matrix programming language. Knowledge of the relative importance of determinants of HIV vaccine acceptability is important to ensure the success of future vaccination programs. Future acceptability studies of hypothetical HIV vaccines should use more finely-grained biomedical attributes, and could also improve the external validity of results by including more levels of the cost attribute. |
| Keywords: | HIV vaccine; willingness-to-pay; conjoint analysis; discrete choice; Thailand |
| JEL: | I19 |
| Date: | 2012–09–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wai:econwp:12/11&r=sea |
| By: | Eiji Ohno; Masafumi Morisugi; Phouphet Kyophilavong; Hiroshi Sao |
| Abstract: | Diarrhea mortality risk due to water pollution is one of serious problems that threaten human life in Asian developing countries. This study aims to provide basic data for the cost benefit analysis of countermeasures against diarrhea in Laos and Vietnam, and measures the value of statistical life (VSL) concerning diarrhea mortality risk by using the contingent valuation method (CVM). In this study, we have conducted interview survey in Laos and Vietnam in 2011 and 2010. The content of questionnaire sheet is to ask the willingness to pay (WTP) of residents to have a right to obtain improved water resources in their daily usages and avoid diarrhea mortality risk due to water pollution. By using the data set, we can know how much the residents want to pay for risk reduction, and know how much they evaluate their own life in monetary term, which is the VSL. Also, by summing up the WTP and comparing with the implementation cost, we can know whether or not they will agree to implement some policies or infrastructures. This kind of methodology, the CVM, is directly linked to context of cost-benefit analysis under uncertainty. The outputs of this study are our first attempt to approach the water resource conflict problem of Mekong River. It is apparent that consistent effort to find out certificate values of water resource for each region is urgent and necessary matter, and as an extension of it, we hope to collect the guideline at last to avoid such the worst catastrophic situation. As a result, we have derived the damage cost function of diarrhea, which includes the mortality risk change as its variable. By using the function, the WTP for reducing diarrhea mortality risk, where 20, 40, 60 and 80 persons will be saved every 100,000 population annually, has been measured 9.580, 11.131, 12.038 and 12.682 US$ per year in Laos and 41.932, 47.256, 50.371 and 52.581 US$ per year in Vietnam, respectively. And the VSL has been measured 47,898, 27,827, 20,064 and 15,853 US$ in Laos and 209,660, 118,141, 83,952 and 65,726 US$ in Vietnam, respectively. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p595&r=sea |
| By: | Tatsuaki Kuroda |
| Abstract: | In 2011, Japanese firms suffered great losses due to the Great East Japan Earthquake as well as Thailand floods. One of the reasons for their repetitive damages is that they depend on spatially dispersed supply chain. Basically, outsourcing becomes more attractive for final goods producers due to prevailing scale economy in modern machinery industries. The fragmentation of trade also works as dispersion or disintegration force as well. In addition, some firms have dispersed their plants against the risk of big earthquakes assumed around Tokyo or Nagoya (i.e., more developed metropolitan areas). In this case, however, such behavior brought about the contiguous damages for firms ironically. In the present study, we first build up a theoretical model that is able to explain the disintegration of production process over space due to scale economy or other factors of fragmentation. It is based on a multi-level Hotelling type spatial competition model in order to capture the characteristics of supply chain over space and cascade of risks. We assume a three level structure of circles. Consumers are distributed evenly over the lowest circle. On the second circle, there are final goods producers, for whom intermediate goods producers provide differentiated inputs from the top circle. Each producer can choose for a differentiated part between the integrated production in the her own plant and the disintegrated pattern where final good producers buy inputs from some intermediate goods producers located at different places. In the latter, she should pay for transport costs to buy the input though. We show recent technical tendency of some factors such as reinforced scale economy at each stage of production may provide advantages of disintegration. Once the equilibrium distribution or location of intermediate goods producers and final goods producers is determined, we evaluate it by the location risk such as earthquake. It means, for example, that firms with dispersed supply chain may be likely to suffer relatively small but often damages if location risks are evenly distributed over the space. Moreover, we could examine the optimal location of firms including location risk for a given ÂgutilityÂh function of firms. |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p604&r=sea |
| By: | Ghafele, Roya; Gibert, Benjamin |
| Abstract: | The counterfactual impact analysis of fair use amendments in Singapore undertaken here demonstrates that flexible fair use policy positively influences growth rates in private copying technology industries. In 2010, five years after the policy intervention, Singapore’s fair use amendments are correlated with a 3.33% increase in value-added (as % of GDP) for private copying technology industries. Prior to the amendment of fair use policies, private copying technology industries experienced - 1.97% average annual growth. After the changes were introduced, the same industries enjoyed a 10.18% average annual growth rate. This resulted in a total increase of € 2.27 billion in value-added for private copying technology industries in that period. The results show that, prior to fair use amendments, the private copying industries in Singapore were in recession. After fair use amendments, this group experienced a rapid increase in growth rates and continued to exhibit strong growth over the five year period. Crucially, the control group, a set of technology manufacturers/services, was not significantly affected by the fair use amendments in Singapore. The counterfactual impact of fair use policies on the control group, five years after the amendment, is shown to be correlated with a 0.01% increase in value-added (as % of GDP). Despite experiencing fluctuating growth rates, the control group exhibited steady, albeit small, recession relative to the entire economy both before and after the fair use amendments. Though the year-on-year growth rates of the control group fluctuated significantly, the period-averages were closer in magnitude than the other two groups (3.89% pre-amendment growth and -0.22% post-amendment growth). This suggests that the control group was not significantly affected by the fair use amendments. This is a positive finding that enables us to better isolate the impact of fair use on the two industrial groups of interest. The counterfactual impact analysis results in Singapore indicate that the growth of private copying technologies has had a negligible impact on copyright industry revenue. For 2010, fair use policy was correlated with a -0.23% reduction in value-added (as % of GDP) for copyright industries. The copyright group enjoyed an average growth rate of 14.16% before the amendments were introduced (a total increase of over € 274 million in value-added). This slowed to 6.68% for the period after the amendments were introduced and resulted in a total increase of over € 158 million in value-added. There was no significant change in growth rates for the copyright group before and after fair use amendments when measured in terms of real economic growth (value added as % of GDP). While growth certainly slowed down in absolute terms, the industry group nevertheless continued to grow after the intervention. Moreover, the magnitude of the change was minimal in comparison to the private copying group. The results indicate that the growth rate of copyright industries leveled out after the fair use policy intervention and consequently that the value-added (as % of GDP) of the copyright industry group remained relatively constant over the entire period. While copyright industry growth rates slowed to a limited extent, copyright markets did not experience a significant negative impact. Moreover, this impact was offset by substantially higher growth rates in private copying technology industries. We suggest fair use amendments in Singapore did not negatively affect the copyright industries significantly because private copying technologies, which experienced high growth as an industry group after the fair use amendments, increase the value of copyrighted works to consumers. While one might expect a rise in private copying technology industries to result in a significant recession for the copyright industries, this has not been the case in Singapore since the introduction of more flexible fair use policy in 2005. The counterfactual impact analysis results for the Singapore case study show that fair use policy is correlated with higher growth rates in private copying technology industries while having a very limited impact on copyright industries. |
| Keywords: | Fair Use amendments; Singapore; Private Copying Technologies; Value Added in technology manufacturers and services |
| JEL: | O38 O34 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–10–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:41664&r=sea |
| By: | Das, Udaibir S. (Asian Development Bank Institute); Oliva, Maria A. (Asian Development Bank Institute); Tsuda, Takahiro (Asian Development Bank Institute) |
| Abstract: | We examine some of the macro-financial dimensions of sovereign risk and propose a conceptual framework that captures risks other than just the default risk. Morphed under a multi-dimensional notion of sovereign risk, we argue that the existing empirical methodologies to measure sovereign risk cover only partial aspects of sovereign risk and fail to capture its macro-financial dimensions. We highlight a menu of tools that could be used to tackle the broader notion of sovereign risk, and suggest that authorities should actively use them to manage the macro financial dimensions of sovereign risk and before those risks feed into the real economy. |
| Keywords: | sovereign risk; default risk; macro-financial dimensions |
| JEL: | E43 F30 F34 |
| Date: | 2012–10–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:adbiwp:0383&r=sea |
| By: | Renwick, Alan W.; Revoredo-Giha, Cesar; Philippidis, George; Bourne, Michael; Reader, Mark A.; Lang, Ben |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the economic impacts of the reforms both on the EU sugar sector but also more globally and examines the intended and unintended consequences of the reforms. This provides insights into the likely impacts of the further reforms proposed for 2015 – namely the removal of sugar beet quotas within the EU. We find, in line with other studies that whilst the reforms have improved the economic efficiency of the EU sugar sector the nature of the reform process has meant that these gains have not been maximised. This is due to the fact that production was cut in some of the more efficient regions of Europe as well as the least efficient. Our modelling highlights that the reforms have led to alternative trade patterns emerging both internally within the EU as well as externally. Internally, cessation of production in a number of countries provides opportunities for those remaining in production. Externally the significant decline in EU sugar on the world market has provided opportunities for other countries. It would appear that Brazil and Thailand have been amongst the main beneficiaries of the disappearance of EU sugar from the world market. |
| Keywords: | GTAP model, Agricultural Policy, EU Sugar Regime, Agricultural and Food Policy, Crop Production/Industries, |
| Date: | 2012–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:aesc12:134706&r=sea |
| By: | M. Ali Khan (Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University); Kali P. Rath (Department of Economics, University of Notre Dame); Yeneng Sun (Department of Economics, National University of Singapore); Haomiao Yu (Department of Economics, Ryerson University) |
| Abstract: | We present a comprehensive theory of large games in which players have names and determinate social-types and/or biological traits, and identify through four decisive examples, essentially based on a matching-pennies type game, pathologies arising from the use of a Lebesgue interval for player's names. In a sufficiently general context of traits and actions, we address this dissonance by showing a saturated probability space as being a necessary and sufficient name-space for the existence and upper hemi-continuity of pure-strategy Nash equilibria in large games with traits. We illustrate the idealized results by corresponding asymptotic results for an increasing sequence of finite games. |
| Keywords: | Large games, social-type, traits, idealized limit game, saturated probability space, pure-strategy Nash equilibrium, closed-graph property, upper hemi-continuity, asymptotic implementation |
| JEL: | C62 D50 D82 G13 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rye:wpaper:wp035&r=sea |
| By: | Federico Biagi; Juraj StančÃk |
| Abstract: | In this paper we look at the evolution of the R&D intensity gap between the EU and its major competitors using data from the Industrial Scoreboard covering the period 2002-2010. We focus on R&D intensity and we assess whether the gaps relative to major competitors arise from differences in industrial composition (structural component) or differences within sectors (intrinsic component). The paper is divided in two parts. In the first part of the paper we first present the evolution of the R&D intensity gap between the EU and its major competitors (US, Japan, BRIC, Asian Tigers) and then we look more closely at the role and evolution of the structural and intrinsic component for each pair-wise comparison, by looking at four basic macro-sectors defined in term of their R&D intensity. In the second part of our work we concentrate on the EU-US R&D intensity gap and, by applying firm level analysis, we test whether the results obtained by the statistical decomposition of aggregate R&D intensity are confirmed. In particular we test whether there is evidence of across-sector variability in R&D intensity and whether, within sectors, EU and US firms are performing differently, controlling for size, cyclical effects, common macroeconomic shocks and company’s age. Age is important for at least two reasons. First, young companies might have more problems in finding access to funds necessary in order to invest in R&D. Second, young companies might have to be especially aggressive in terms of innovation if they want to enter and succeed in markets where incumbents already exist. Therefore, our aim here is also to document the age profile for R&D intensity and to verify whether the R&D intensity gap between EU and non-EU companies is related to age of the firm. Finally we check if R&D intensity is affected by the abundance of internal funds (as captured by the profit/sales ratio), if this relationship changes with the age of the company and if the latter shows across-regional variation. Our results from firm level analysis indicate that there is evidence of strong across-sector variation and some evidence of within-sectors-across-region variation, which –however- is not always in favour of the US. Moreover we find that R&D intensity tends to decrease as firm size increases (as measured by the number of employees), that the age profile for R&D intensity behaves very differently in the two regions and that young companies in the EU exhibit a much higher reactivity to lagged profits-to-sales ratio, when compared to their US counterpart. We believe that this is an indication that the conditions for accessibility and cost of funds differ significantly across the two regions. Keywords: R&D Intensity, EU R&D gap JEL Codes: L16, O30, O57 |
| Date: | 2012–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa12p321&r=sea |
| By: | Alberto Lanzavecchia (University of Padova) |
| Abstract: | This study extends research on the social performance of microfinance institutions. The research methodology is based on Grameen Progress out of Poverty IndexTM (PPITM) for Cambodia applied to a sample of borrowers randomly extracted from a Cambodian microfinance institutionÕs loan portfolio. Dataset has been directly collected through in-house interviews. Main questions discussed here are: (1) Is microcredit targeted to poor people? (2) Has the poverty rate of the sample changed in last six months? and (3) What percentage of male vs. female clients is poor? We found an average poverty likelihood of about 8.1%, estimated at the day of the interview, steady over a period of six months and not statistically different between male and female borrowers. This evidence might be related to business geographical location or targeting. Actually, PPI too much relies on asset ownership rather than on cash flows and saving capacity. Despite the general wisdom microcredit is targeted to the Òpoorest among the poor peopleÓ, this is utterly consistent with a sound and safe (micro)banking activity, aimed at sustainable results. Here comes a call for a triple bottom line performance evaluation on microfinance institutions: economic, social and environmental effects of their activities. |
| Keywords: | microcredit, social performance, poverty index, case study, Cambodia. |
| JEL: | G29 O16 I32 |
| Date: | 2012–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pad:wpaper:0149&r=sea |