Asian-Pacific Economic Literature最新文献

The increasing importance of non-tariff measures (NTMs) in international trade today presents a challenge for developing countries that are following an export-led growth strategy. This paper investigates the effects of NTMs on Vietnamese exports. It considers NTMs imposed by importing countries and by the Vietnamese government itself. We find that for importing countries' NTMs the technical measures have a positive effect on Vietnamese exports, especially intermediate goods. Final products seem to be the target of non-technical measures used by importing countries. With regard to Vietnam's export-related NTMs, technical measures seem to be effective in increasing Vietnam's exports of final products to importing countries with a level of per capita income below US$11,462. For those importing country markets, the positive marginal effect of Vietnam's export-related technical measures on exports of final products is higher in poorer countries. On the other hand, the non-technical categories tend to negatively affect Vietnamese exports of intermediate goods.

Excessive support from banks and governments to poorly-performing firms, making them zombie firms, distorts financial resources—a common factor in firm innovation. Using a large sample of Chinese industrial firms, this paper investigates the impact of zombie firms on the innovation of healthy firms. The results indicate that the prevalence of zombie firms reduces the patent output of healthy firms and seriously jeopardises innovation. Endogeneity analyses and robustness checks validate the results. Further analysis reveals that zombie firms distort the credit resources of healthy firms, especially those that are state-owned or in high-tech industries, thereby reducing innovation output. However, the higher financial marketisation of provinces can alleviate this negative effect. This study contributes to an understanding of the negative consequences of zombie firms due to the distortion of credit and provides some policy implications for the disposal of zombies to promote high-quality economic development.

Manufacturing is the primary engine of economic growth in Malaysia. This study uses data on 14,705 manufacturing firms in Malaysia to reveal that technology and labour-intensive firms have significant negative and positive effects, respectively, on gig employment. Furthermore, firm size and growth are negatively associated with gig employment, while firm age has a positive association with such employment. Interestingly, the location variable indicated that firms in highly industrialised and relatively developed states in Malaysia (e.g. Selangor) are less inclined towards gig worker recruitment. This study provides an essential input to the dearth of literature on the gig economy, especially from the firm perspective. Also, it guides policymakers in designing industrial policies in line with changing employment trends, thereby reducing labour market disruptions.

Using data collected on female sex workers (FSWs) in Yangon, Myanmar, we compare the prices of sexual services offered to investigate whether prices are associated with the place where they find clients—after controlling for FSW and client characteristics and types of services provided. Compared with FSWs in brothels, workers who find clients online charge 62 per cent higher prices, while those in massage parlours charge 39 per cent lower prices. In addition, we find evidence that suggests street-based FSWs earn less than those in brothels. No price differentials are observed among FSWs finding clients in karaoke clubs and in brothels. These findings imply worksites play a vital role in determining the price of sex services in Yangon. We further investigate why these place-based price differentials arise. We describe the plausible characteristics of the price negotiation process, including the matching process and client information, and discuss how these work to yield place-based price differentials at various worksites.

The economic and social consequences of remittances are attracting greater attention from scholars and policymakers. This study investigates how international remittances affect income inequality in a highly out-migration and remittance-dependent country, the Philippines. This study shows that the inequality-remittances nexus is inverse U-shaped, suggesting that remittances have an income-equalising effect only after a threshold level, validating the existence of a remittance Kuznets Curve. The findings are robust to various measures of income inequality. Also, Lind and Mehlum's (2010) test of an inverse U-pattern between inequality and remittances verifies this non-linearity.

This paper systematically reviews the literature on corruption and anti-corruption in China with a view to identifying opportunities for future research. We find that the research on corruption in China covered in existing literature is relatively narrow and theoretically insufficient. Specifically, studies mainly examine the corruption in firms, certain micro fields, and political fields; by contrast, studies on corruption in macro fields are scarce. In addition, extant studies on anti-corruption in China largely centre on examining the impact of the current anti-corruption campaign on firms, while analysis on the effects of anti-corruption policy actions by the Chinese government is inadequate.