nep-sea New Economics Papers
on South East Asia
Issue of 2013‒09‒24
eleven papers chosen by
Kavita Iyengar
Asian Development Bank

  1. Philippines: Selected Issues By International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
  2. Malaysia: Financial Sector Stability Assessment By International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
  3. Myanmar: 2013 Article IV Consultation and First Review Under the Staff-Monitored Program By International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
  4. The Growth Comeback in Developing Economies: A New Hope or Back to the Future? By John C Bluedorn; Rupa Duttagupta; Jaime Guajardo; Nkunde Mwase
  5. Local Entrepreneurship in Vietnam’s Rural Transformation. A Case Study from the Mekong Delta By Benedikter, Simon; Waibel, Gabi; Birtel, Serge; Bui, Cuong The; Tran, Be Thanh
  6. Malaysia: Publication of Financial Sector Assessment Program Documentation—Detailed Assessment of Observance of Core Principles for Effective Deposit Insurance Systems By International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
  7. Malaysia: Publication of Financial Sector Assessment Program Documentation—Detailed Assessment of Implementation of IOSCO Objectives and Principles of Securities Regulation By International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
  8. Empirical Evidence on the Long-Run Neutrality Hypothesis Using Divisia Money By Tang, Maggie May-Jean; Puah, Chin-Hong; Awang Marikan, Dayang-Affizzah
  9. The Application of the Minimum Food Security Quota (MFS-Quota): Malaysia By Ruiz Estrada, Mario Arturo
  10. Development policies and income inequality in selected developing regions, 1980-2010 By Giovanni Andrea Cornia; Bruno Martorano
  11. Sunshine works -- comment on"the adverse effects of sunshine: a field experiment on legislative transparency in an authoritarian assembly" By Anderson, James H.

  1. By: International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
    Keywords: Tax collection;Tax revenues;Revenue mobilization;Tax policy;Workers remittances;Capital inflows;Business cycles;Selected issues;Philippines;
    Date: 2013–04–18
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:13/103&r=sea
  2. By: International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
    Keywords: Financial sector;Banks;Islamic banking;Financial institutions;Bank supervision;Bank resolution;Liquidity management;Deposit insurance;Risk management;Anti-money laundering;Combating the financing of terrorism;Financial system stability assessment;Malaysia;
    Date: 2013–02–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:13/52&r=sea
  3. By: International Monetary Fund. Asia and Pacific Dept
    Keywords: Article IV consultation reports;Economic growth;Financial sector;Monetary policy;Floating exchange rates;Multiple currency practices;Fiscal policy;Debt sustainability analysis;Economic indicators;Staff Reports;Public information notices;Staff-monitored programs;Myanmar;
    Date: 2013–08–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:13/250&r=sea
  4. By: John C Bluedorn; Rupa Duttagupta; Jaime Guajardo; Nkunde Mwase
    Abstract: Growth takeoffs in developing economies have rebounded in the past two decades. Although recent takeoffs have lasted longer than takeoffs before the 1990s, a key question is whether they could unravel like some did in the past. This paper finds that recent takeoffs are associated with stronger economic conditions, such as lower post-takeoff debt and inflation levels; more competitive real exchange rates; and better structural reforms and institutions. The chances of starting a takeoff in the 2000s was triple that before the 1990s, with domestic conditions accounting for most of the increase. The findings suggest that if today’s dynamic developing economies sustain their improved policies; they are more likely to stay on course compared to many of their predecessors.
    Keywords: Economic growth;Low-income developing countries;Brazil;Korea, Republic of;Indonesia;Mozambique;Cambodia;Development;Cross country analysis;Economic models;growth, takeoff, development, low-income countries, convergence
    Date: 2013–05–30
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:13/132&r=sea
  5. By: Benedikter, Simon; Waibel, Gabi; Birtel, Serge; Bui, Cuong The; Tran, Be Thanh
    Abstract: Empirical evidence from developing countries has illuminated the vital role private business development plays in rural transformation and the creation of off‐farm livelihoods. Since ‘renovation’ (Đổi mới) was promulgated by the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1986, Vietnam has experienced rapid growth and development through the transition from state to market. While de‐collectivization and the return to householdbased rural production reduced poverty and increased growth, entrepreneurship development in the form of Small and Medium Enterprises(SME) has emerged as a strong agent for socio‐economic diversification. The Mekong Delta, located in the Southwest of Vietnam, is a rural setting traditionally reliant on agriculture but has been facing rapid rural transformation over the past three decades. Against a background of agrarian modernization, economic liberalization, international integration and environmental change, this report explores the diversity of entrepreneurial activities and SME development in typical peri‐urban and rural settings of the region. Empirical findings on the trajectory of rural entrepreneurship development, enterprise characteristics, and the social profiles of business owners are presented. Beyond that, changes brought about by rural enterprises for livelihood diversification, social security and labor market dynamics are disaggregated and discussed by different business types and corresponding modus operandi (growth‐oriented vs. livelihood‐oriented enterprises). Finally, the results are contrasted with current government notions of promoting SMEs development as a driver of economic growth. Diverging from the government’s vision for boosting SME development in the context of rural industrialization, the large majority of private business establishments in the Mekong Delta are micro‐enterprises which operate at subsistence levels, while growth‐oriented SMEs remain the exception. Consequently, there is a need to reconsider policy formulation for more sustainability in the rural SME sector.
    Keywords: Entrepreneurship development, SME, rural transformation, Mekong Delta, Vietnam
    JEL: O14 O18 Z13
    Date: 2013–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49866&r=sea
  6. By: International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
    Keywords: Financial Sector Assessment Program;Deposit insurance;Banking sector;Islamic banking;Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes;Malaysia;
    Date: 2013–03–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:13/60&r=sea
  7. By: International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
    Keywords: Financial Sector Assessment Program;Securities markets;Capital markets;Securities regulations;Reports on the Observance of Standards and Codes;Malaysia;
    Date: 2013–03–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfscr:13/59&r=sea
  8. By: Tang, Maggie May-Jean; Puah, Chin-Hong; Awang Marikan, Dayang-Affizzah
    Abstract: By employing Fisher and Seater’s (1993) long-run neutrality test, the researchers tested the monetary neutrality proposition in Singapore for the period of 1980-2009. Empirical findings show that monetary neutrality does not hold in Singapore when both the simple-sum money and Divisia money are employed. As both the simple-sum and Divisia monetary aggregates are non-neutral, monetary authorities may consider their use as a monetary policy tool affecting real economic activity.
    Keywords: Monetary Neutrality, Divisia Money, ARIMA Model
    JEL: C12 C43 E50
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50020&r=sea
  9. By: Ruiz Estrada, Mario Arturo
    Abstract: This paper proposes the uses of the Minimum Food Security Quota (MFS-Quota) by Ruiz Estrada (2010). Consequently, the MFS-Quota was applied on the case of Malaysia. The main objective of the MFS-Quota is to calculate the approximate amount of annual food storage that any country needs to prepare for a potential natural disaster or social conflict. Moreover, any country is able to build its own MFS-Quota according to their agriculture production system(s) and its food national policy focus respectively.
    Keywords: Food security; economic development; Malaysia
    JEL: B40
    Date: 2013–09–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:49970&r=sea
  10. By: Giovanni Andrea Cornia (Università degli Studi di Firenze); Bruno Martorano
    Abstract: The paper discusses the income inequality changes which have taken place in a few representative developing regions during the last 30 years. While inequality rose in the majority of the countries of these regions in the 1980s and 1990s, the last decade was characterized by a bifurcation of inequality trends. This divergence offers the possibility to contrast the experience of virtuous regions (Latin America and parts of East and South-East Asia) and non-virtuous regions (the European economies in transition and China) so as to draw useful lessons. Since the global economic conditions affecting inequality in these countries were not too dissimilar and since no major variations in endogenous factors were evident across the regions analysed, the difference in inequality trends between virtuous and non-virtuous regions was most likely due to institutional factors and public policies. An econometric test confirms that the reduction of inequality is possible even under open economy conditions if a given set of appropriate macroeconomic, labour, fiscal and social policies is adopted by governments.
    Keywords: trends in income inequality, factor income distribution, democracy, policy reforms, international economic integration, international crisis, China, South East Asia, Latin America, transition economies of Europe.
    JEL: D31 E60 I38 J08 P51
    Date: 2013
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:frz:wpaper:wp2013_13.rdf&r=sea
  11. By: Anderson, James H.
    Abstract: Transparency -- sunshine -- is often touted as a core element of the governance agenda, and one that is most important in environments with low transparency to begin with. In a provocative paper published in the American Political Science Review, Edmund Malesky, Paul Schuler, and Anh Tran present the results of a creative experiment in which they provided an additional spotlight on the activities of a random sample of delegates to Vietnam's National Assembly. They report that the effect of sunshine was negative, that delegates subject to this treatment curtailed their speech, and that those who spoke most critically were punished through the subsequent election and promotion processes. The present paper argues that Malesky, Schuler, and Tran's results, if interpreted correctly, actually predict a net positive effect of transparency. The differences in interpretation stem primarily from three sources: the interpretation of regression results for models with interaction terms, the interpretation of the variable for Internet penetration, and significant pre-treatment differences between treated and control delegates. For the context in which more than 80 percent of delegates operate, Malesky, Schuler, and Tran's results predict a positive but insignificant effect of transparency. In addition, Internet penetration, itself a measure of access to information, is positively associated with critical speech. The paper draws lessons for the design and interpretation of randomized experiments with interaction effects.
    Keywords: Technology Industry,Educational Technology and Distance Education,Information Security&Privacy,Disease Control&Prevention,Economic Theory&Research
    Date: 2013–09–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6602&r=sea

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