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on South East Asia |
| By: | Le Thi, Nga (School of Economics, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam); Heshmati, Almas (University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City) |
| Abstract: | Labor market conditions (LMC) play an important role in business development (BD) and provincial income, yet their interaction at the provincial level in Vietnam remains underexplored. This study examines how LMC are associated with BD and Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) per capita across 63 provinces during 2018–2023, using data from the Vietnam General Statistics Office (GSO) and the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). A simultaneous equation framework estimated by three-stage least squares (3SLS) is applied to capture the interdependence between enterprise density and GRDP per capita. The findings reveal a nonlinear and bidirectional relationship, with diminishing marginal effects at higher development levels. LMC and selected PCI dimensions are associated with enterprise activity and income differences, while regional disparities persist. The results highlight the importance of balanced regional development, improved labor allocation, and stronger institutional quality to support sustainable BD and reduce provincial gaps. |
| Keywords: | business development, labor market conditions, Provincial Competitiveness Index, GRDP per capita, Vietnamese provinces |
| JEL: | J21 J24 L26 R11 C33 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18954 |
| By: | Molina, Teresa (University of Hawaii at Manoa); Tan, Cara (California Policy Lab) |
| Abstract: | Using population census data, this paper documents substantial variation in municipality-level measures of upward and relative education mobility across the Philippines. Regressions that control for a rich set of covariates leave one-fifth of the variation in upward mobility and two-thirds of the variation in relative mobility unexplained. To explore the extent to which these measures capture meaningful variation that can be changed by government policy, we exploit municipality-level variation in exposure to a national conditional cash transfer program. Exposure to the program significantly increased average municipality education and upward mobility but had no significant effects on relative mobility. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational mobility, conditional cash transfers, education, Philippines |
| JEL: | J62 I24 I38 |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18921 |
| By: | Thu Thi Phuong Nguyen (Mekong Development Research Institute); Tinh Doan (Adelaide University and University of Economics , Ho Chi Minh City); Maria Isabel Santana (University of East Anglia); Huong Thi Pham (University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the joint role of education and health in wage determination and labour-force participation among Vietnamese working-age individuals, using pooled 2014-2020 Viet Nam Household Living Standards Survey data and a health-augmented Mincerian framework with Heckman selection correction. Comparing hourly and monthly wage specifications reveals a severity gradient in the healthrelated wage penalty: under the broad morbidity measure, poor health reduces monthly earnings by approximately 9% with no significant hourly wage effect, consistent with a reduction in working time; under the narrower bedridden-days measure of poor health, poor health also reduces hourly wages by approximately 7%, alongside a larger monthly wage penalty of approximately 16%, consistent with a productivity loss due to poor health among those who remain at work. Education does not significantly moderate the wage penalty but is positively associated with labour-force participation among severely ill individuals. Returns to education range from approximately 4.5% to 4.8% per additional year. The findings suggest that the economic cost of poor health in Viet Nam is severity-dependent and operates partly through labour-force attachment, with implications for policies addressing paid sick leave and social health insurance. |
| Keywords: | Returns to education; Health; Wage penalty; Heckman selection; Viet Nam |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2026-12 |
| By: | Huong Thi Pham (University of Economics, Ho Chi Minh City); Tinh Doan (Adelaide University and University of Economics , Ho Chi Minh City); Canh Nguyen (Dong Thap University) |
| Abstract: | Vietnam’s expansion of university admission pathways has raised questions about whether high school (HS) transcripts or national exam scores better predict student success. Examining five entry cohorts (11, 127 students) at a Mekong regional university, this study compares how high school grades and national exam scores forecast first-year college performance across different fields of study. Results show that high school transcripts are a stronger and more reliable predictor of university academic performance than single-occasion national exam scores. Overall high school academic rank also serves as a clear indicator of achievement, with top-ranked high school students consistently outperforming their peers in college. The strength of these admission measures varies by discipline, showing the strongest predictive power in Natural Science and Technology programs and the lowest in Education. These findings demonstrate that consistent high school performance offers a clearer and more reliable forward-looking signal of university readiness than a single exam. Higher education leaders should retain transcript-based entry while standardising high school grading practices and adopting field-specific admission criteria. These findings support the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training’s decision to retain high school transcripts in university admissions despite some public calls for their abolition. |
| Keywords: | admissions pathway; predictive validity; first-year GPA; transcript vs. exam; higher education, Vietnam |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:adl:wpaper:2026-13 |
| By: | Laura Eline Slot (UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement); Mechthild Donner (UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement); Isabelle Piot-Lepetit (UMR MoISA - Montpellier Interdisciplinary center on Sustainable Agri-food systems (Social and nutritional sciences) - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement) |
| Abstract: | Digital tools are often used by businesses as communication and connecting technologies. However, it is not well understood how these digital technologies affect the (sustainable) transformation of global value chains. This paper is based on a case study of the coffee value chain in Vietnam. Vietnam is an important producer in the coffee sector, but faces many environmental and social issues. The question is how digitalisation can lead to sustainable transformation. The case study included observations, interviews with value chain actors, and reading grey literature and company websites. The results showed that foreign policies influence digital technology use in coffee production in Vietnam. To follow these policies, large trading companies in the mainstream sector develop digital traceability systems. However, they sometimes seem to bypass the diversity of smaller actors in the value chain. Although small businesses in alternative value chains use similar digital tools, they operate on a smaller scale based on direct contact. Nevertheless, these alternative value chains are in a niche market and struggle with profitability. Our paper has contributed, via an empirical case study, to an understanding of the dynamics between digitalisation and sustainable transformation pathways in global value chains. |
| Keywords: | Agro-ecological value chains, Sustainable business models, Agri-food system, Sustainable transformation, Digitalisation |
| Date: | 2026–06–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05746880 |
| By: | Wang, Reuben Xianwei |
| Abstract: | In global urban discourse, the modernist tower-and-slab high-rise is almost universally pathologized as a spectacular failure of top-down social engineering. From Western public housing projects to post-communist concrete blocs, these monoliths are widely viewed as deterministic monuments to alienation and the limits of authoritarian high modernism. This paper challenges that architectural determinism by examining a stark global outlier: Singapore. In the city-state, high-modernist public housing not only survives but thrives, sheltering eighty percent of the population in highly livable, wealth-generating estates. By analyzing this spatial anomaly, this paper argues that the physical reality of the high-rise is not inherently criminogenic or socially isolating. The widespread global decay of this typology was fundamentally a downstream symptom of neoliberal abandonment and the hollowing of the welfare state. Singapore’s exception is sustained by fiercely guarded political-economic conditions: a radical state monopoly on land, the mobilization of captive domestic capital, and an ideological commitment to housing as a perpetual nation-building project. Ultimately, the Singaporean outlier proves that when insulated from market abandonment and continuously adapted to civic metis, the high-modernist high-rise ceases to be a dystopian relic, functioning instead as a highly livevable urban form. |
| Date: | 2026–09–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:xws3b_v1 |
| By: | Paras Kharel (South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment); Kshitiz Dahal (South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics and Environment) |
| Abstract: | The deadly floods of 26 August 2026 obliterated the most important route connecting landlocked Nepal with its northern neighbour. This has raised questions over the future of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Nepal, where no project has gotten off the ground since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in 2017. From the perspective of Nepal's interests, the appropriate yardstick for measuring BRI's relevance and success is not seamless Sino-Indian trade through Nepal but Sino-Nepali connectivity. In the wake of the Himalayan disaster, a situation where significant bilateral initiatives are seen neither for the reconstruction of the corridor to the Rasuwa port nor the building of viable all-season alternative routes will diminish the relevance of BRI to Nepal. The Cooperation Framework, signed in 2024 to operationalize the MoU, has enough space and flexibility for China's flagship international initiative to rise to the occasion. The immediate onus is on the Government of Nepal to assess the physical devastation and determine the way forward to reestablish all-season overland connectivity with China—the Rasuwa route or an alternative or both—and the support it would need from the world's second largest economy to make the restoration quick and durable. This could feed into the " step-by-step implementation plan ", as stipulated in the Cooperation Framework, for the development and execution of the (re)construction project. The new government in Nepal has an opportunity to make (re)building a resilient road link with China its signature project, signaling a decisive shift away from the time and cost overruns that plague infrastructure projects, while also mitigating geological risks and climate-proofing the infrastructure to the extent possible. The BRI rubber is yet to hit the road in Nepal. To the question what has BRI delivered in the Himalayan nation, a well-built, resilient road capped by well-equipped customs facilities could be a simple yet powerful answer. |
| Keywords: | Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Nepal floods, Nepal-China trade, geopolitics, India; transit, infrastructure |
| JEL: | F13 F14 F15 F21 F22 F24 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:saw:rpaper:rp/26/01 |
| By: | Estelle X Liu; Jibingxin Han |
| Abstract: | China's urban housing system is structurally segmented: market-based residential housing accounts for only about 40 percent of occupied urban dwellings, with the remainder split between rental and legacy housing acquired outside the market. Using 2000–2020 Population Censuses and the 2019 China Household Finance Survey, this paper documents that housing tenure is systematically associated with distinct household consumption patterns. Conditional on income, wealth, and household characteristics, legacy homeowners exhibit lower discretionary consumption and higher income responsiveness than renters, while market homeowners' consumption is closely tied to housing wealth. These patterns are stable across survey waves and broadly consistent with panel-based evidence, pointing to structural balance-sheet differences across residential regimes as important correlates of household consumption behavior in China. |
| Keywords: | China; housing market; housing misallocation; household consumption; affordability; household balance sheets |
| Date: | 2026–09–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/193 |
| By: | Omer Siddique (Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad) |
| Abstract: | This policy viewpoint analyzes the main reasons for low productivity in Pakistan, along with proposing a set of actionable policy recommendations to address them. In Pakistan, economic growth has generally been driven by input accumulation rather than by improving productivity growth. Pakistan's TFP and GDP growth move together, and whenever TFP growth has increased, the GDP growth has also increased, and vice versa. As a result, Pakistan's export-oriented manufacturing has struggled to compete globally. With a growing labor force, which has reached over 83 million according to the latest Labour Force Survey (LFS 2024-25), the need to shift from growth based on input accumulation to skill-based productivity has increased manifold. Pakistan's productivity experience shows that episodes of economic liberalization and reform have generally been associated with stronger TFP growth. On the other hand, periods characterized by restrictive policies, such as import restrictions and exchange rate control, have coincided with weaker productivity performance (Siddique, 2022a; Siddique, 2022b). This makes a strong case for reducing misallocation of resources, which has resulted from a long history of incentive-based and protectionist policy regimes, and improving the competitive environment by removing distortionary policies to increase productivity growth. Improving productivity growth will help in making Pakistan's industrial sector dynamic, which will ultimately improve export competitiveness. Such a scenario will put the economy on the path of sustainable growth and development. |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pid:pviewp:2026:65 |
| By: | Jayun Lee (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) |
| Abstract: | China’s low-altitude economy is an emerging composite industry centered on the low-altitude flight of manned and unmanned aircraft, including drones (unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs) and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and combined with applied services in logistics, tourism, and urban management.<p> Since its elevation to a national strategic industry in 2024, policy, markets, and technology have advanced together at an accelerating pace, and being written into the 15th Five-Year Plan as a strategic emerging industry in 2025 has established it as a medium- to long-term national strategy. The market is expanding quickly, from CNY 670 billion in 2024 to roughly CNY 1.5 trillion, or about KRW 280 trillion, in 2025, and routine operations are spreading through logistics, tourism, and urban management.<p> The industry’s development rests above all on a three-tier division of labor that binds three things into a single working structure: institutional and standards design by the central government, pilot zones operated by local governments, and technology and service delivery by private fi rms. Korea has strong technological capabilities in drones and urban air mobility (UAM), but gaps remain in institutions, infrastructure, and supply chains.<p> Drawing on China’s experience, Korea needs to consider, step by step, building institutional foundations ahead of deployment, establishing city-scale demonstration systems, and pursuing cooperation on international certification. |
| Keywords: | low-altitude economy; drones; eVTOL; China; industrial policy; K-UAM |
| JEL: | L93 L52 O25 O33 O53 |
| Date: | 2025–08–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kietrp:023645 |
| By: | Kyung-In Hwang (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) |
| Abstract: | Talk of a crisis in Korea’s battery industry has not subsided. Slowing demand for electric vehicles, China’s expanding market share, and mounting policy uncertainty in major economies have arrived together, and the earnings of Korean firms have suffered as a result. What deserves attention, however, is that this recent weakness does not stem from any stagnation in the global battery industry. World battery demand continues to rise in existing markets, on the intensive margin, and demand in new applications, on the extensive margin, has lately been expanding quickly.<p> This paper shows that the root cause of the crisis in Korea’s battery industry lies not in the electric vehicle chasm itself but in an erosion of competitiveness in the country’s core market and core product. It further argues that the industry’s center of growth is shifting structurally from electric vehicles to energy storage systems (ESS), and it focuses on the US ESS market, which is growing on the strength of expanding renewable generation and the spread of AI data centers. The United States is combining tariff policy with the supply chain restrictions attached to the advanced manufacturing production credit (AMPC) to reduce its reliance on Chinese ESS and build a supply chain centered on itself. These policy changes are expected to open new growth opportunities for Korean battery firms that have established production bases on US soil.<p> ESS is critical infrastructure underpinning the global energy transition and the spread of the AI industry. Building ESS into a new engine of growth for Korea’s battery industry will require using US supply chain policy strategically, and it will also require expanded policy support to strengthen the domestic battery materials industry, to upgrade the systems through which Korea responds to industrial and trade policy in major economies, and to build capability in next-generation ESS technology and system integration (SI). |
| Keywords: | ESS; AI data centers; AIDC; secondary batteries; power grids; tariffs; domestic production tax credit |
| Date: | 2026–08–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kietrp:023647 |