Asian-Pacific Economic Literature最新文献

Using panel data of the A-share listed firms in China from 2015 to 2021, this article studies the impact of feminism-related public discussions on the promotion of female senior executives. Empirical results find that feminism-related public discussion can push firms to increase the ratio of female senior executives. Further research finds that the effect is more significant in firms whose chairmen are male, firms that are not state-owned enterprises, and firms whose employees are better educated. In addition, economic consequences tests show that when the public pays more attention to feminism, a high ratio of female senior executives can contribute to improving firm value. The findings in this article can be conducive to understanding the influence of public opinion on female career development and firms' decision-making.

The study aims to identify the motives of foreign direct investment in Nepal and analyse the perceived strengths and weaknesses of investment climate. Additionally, it examines the experience of foreign investors in Nepal in terms of further investment plans and net promoter scores attributed to the host country. The study relies on primary data collected from the survey of 65 sampled industries with foreign direct investment, using structured questionnaires. Descriptive analysis has been used to assess the key factors motivating foreign investors. The findings reveal that labour cost, repatriation facility, industrial security, low operating costs, access to neighbouring market/trade openness, and investment and communal hospitality stand out as major motivating factors, while political instability, macroeconomic instability, availability of machinery and equipment, road access, and bureaucracy are the major precluding factors. The policy reforms in Nepal have notably shaped investors' perceptions. Acts like the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act, 1992, and subsequent amendments such as the Foreign Investment and Loan Management, 2021, have significantly motivated investors by improving repatriation facilities and ease of VISA and work permit accessibility. Despite the efforts, land facilitation for foreign investors has been perceived as a weakness. The net promoter score for Nepal is 12 on a scale from −100 to +100, which is positive, albeit low, indicating a substantial gap to attain full promoters and needs to be improved by further enhancing the investment climate.

This study empirically investigates the dynamic effects of weather shock on within-country income inequality. Using panel data of 17 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies, we estimate impulse responses via the local projection method. Moreover, temperature and precipitation shocks, defined as deviations of temperature and precipitation from their historical norms, are exploited to measure country-specific weather shocks. The empirical results reveal the following. First, temperature and precipitation shocks deteriorate income inequality measured by the Gini index; these effects are long-lasting. Moreover, asymmetric effects exist: heat waves and droughts more significantly increase income inequality than cold waves and floods. Lastly, current redistribution policies do not seem to effectively mitigate those adverse effects.

The paper examines the role of the absorptive capacity of Vietnamese manufacturing firms in facilitating the link from Japanese spillovers to the productivity of local firms in the manufacturing sector. By using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and threshold regression model with dynamic panel data from 2005 to 2018, the paper finds the following points. Firstly, the appearance and operation of Japanese firms can bring the positive horizontal labour effect and backward competition effect but it also brings the negative backward labour effect. Secondly, the absorptive capacity of domestic firms can help reduce the negative spillover effects and increase the positive spillover effects. Finally, if domestic firms cannot reach a threshold of absorptive capacity, they will suffer from Japanese spillovers while if they meet the threshold of absorptive capacity, they can enjoy the externalities from the operation and cooperation with Japanese firms.

Market-based environmental regulation is crucial in influencing environmental and socioeconomic development. Carbon emission trading (CET) policy in China has been implemented since 2012 to balance the environment and economy, especially the green total factor productivity (GTFP). Most previous studies have only conducted short-term investigations on the impact of CET on environmental and socioeconomic development. In this study, we investigated panel data from 30 regions in China during 2003–2019, adopted the Global Malmquist-Luenberger and Super-SBM methods to measure GTFP, and employed the propensity score matched difference in difference (PSM-DID) to investigate the effect of CET policy on the environment, GTFP, and secondary industry output. The results indicate that CET policy has a positive influence on carbon emission reduction, contributes to the improvement of GTFP, and provides economic value. Therefore, we believe that CET policy can effectively help China to achieve a win-win scenario of environmental protection and economic growth.