Asian Economic Journal最新文献

This paper quantifies the performance of five alternative monetary policy regimes in controlling macro volatility in a small open, emerging economy. The effects of supply, demand and external shocks are analyzed using a generic structural macro model and Monte Carlo simulation, calibrated to the case of Sri Lanka. Investigated regimes separately target the exchange rate, monetary aggregates, nominal GDP, the consumer price index inflation rate and a Taylor composite of output gaps and inflation. The results suggest that nominal GDP targeting minimizes real GDP volatility, and when stabilizing economic welfare is the objective, volatility is minimized under inflation targeting and Taylor policy rules. The IT regime is most effective under demand and external shocks, which have grown more prominent as product and financial markets have opened.

In the face of keen competition, what is the optimal investment strategy for enhancing a firm's core competency? Which types of intangible investments should be encouraged? What are the effects of intangible investments on innovation performance? Intangible assets have long been recognized as important sources of firms' innovation and long-term growth. In a departure from the approach of traditional studies on intangible investments that mainly focus on the R&D input, in this study we explore the performance implications of non-R&D investments. Using uniquely compiled firm-level panel data of Taiwanese manufacturing firms for the years 2001, 2006 and 2011, we find that intangible investments positively contribute to firms' production and innovation performance. Among three categories of intangible investments, the empirical results show that economic competency contributes the most to the growth in the value of firms' output, and innovative property is the main driver facilitating the development of product innovation. Policy and managerial implications are also developed and investigated.

Firms in developing countries face security risks and suffer from weak institutional support. In theory, managerial talent is pivotal in firms' assessment of external risks and implementing operational changes in response. Using managers' experience as a proxy for managerial talent, this study estimates its mediating role in determining firms' security costs in a threatened environment. The study uses survey data from 1700 formal firms covering 13 sectors and 17 locations in Pakistan. The nonlinear effects are estimated at different percentiles of the distribution of managerial experience. The main finding is a positive effect of the risk of terrorism on firm security costs, which is decreasing in managerial experience. This effect is robust against alternative specifications. The issue of endogeneity of the variables of interest is tackled using the instrumental variables approach. The implications and limitations of the findings are noted.

The paper examines the bank lending channel of the monetary transmission mechanism in the Philippines. Using the dynamic panel generalized method of moments (GMM) model on quarterly individual bank data from Q1:2006 to Q4:2017, the study finds that the bank lending channel of monetary policy in the Philippines is rather weak as highly liquid banks tend to react more to monetary tightening than less liquid banks. More liquid banks would rather hold their stock of liquid assets as buffers against crises than sustain or expand their lending activity amid monetary tightening. Banks are also risk-sensitive in their lending behavior as the increase in the cost of borrowing following tighter monetary policy could increase the likelihood of loan default. The banks' cautious lending behavior supports the policy stance of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in terms of prudent regulatory standards to maintain the resilience of the Philippine financial system.

This paper investigates the effects of political instability resulting from successive regime changes and the 30-year civil war on the cost efficiency of local banks in Sri Lanka. A translog cost function was used to estimate bank cost efficiency, and a multivariate regression model was used to investigate the determinants of bank cost inefficiency. On average, the cost efficiency of banks in Sri Lanka during the study period was relatively high. Sri Lankan banks performed more efficiently during the second political regime (2001–2004), which had more liberal political and economic policies to promote the private sector compared with other regimes. During this period, the government was involved in peace talks, leading to a ceasefire agreement that temporarily stopped the violence. Furthermore, the positive coefficients for the dummy variables representing the third and fourth political regimes showed that more restrictive economic policies can increase bank cost inefficiencies. The results also indicate that immediately following the civil war, Sri Lankan banks recorded a decline in cost efficiency. Cost inefficiency was positively associated with banks' risk aversion, credit risk, market share, interest rate risk and increase in GDP and negatively associated with non-earning assets, liquidity, bank size and concentration.

This study examines the pricing behavior of banks in the mortgage loan market. Firstly, the paper compares the loan pricing behavior of banks between two periods, one of which is marked as a more competitive state due to regulatory intervention. Secondly, the paper also test for the stock market reaction to model-implied collusive profits. Using data from banks in Korea, the paper find that mortgage loan rates are more consistent with cooperative pricing behavior than independent pricing behavior in the period from 2006 to 2012.

We examine whether a mother's early return to work after her first birth improves her employment status in the short term and the long term (3 and 10/12 years after the child's birth). Specifically, this research investigates whether a mother is more likely to be in full-time employment if she returns to work within 1 year of childbirth (i.e. without using her allowable parental leave to the full). We estimate recursive bivariate probit models for a mother's early return to work and her subsequent employment status using July births as an instrument. Our approach is unique in that we shed light on the relationship between the timing of a birth (birth month) and the timing of a mother's return to work after childbirth. The birth month affects the cut-off dates for admission into a licensed childcare facility in Japan, which, in turn, affects the timing of a mother's return to work. Our empirical evidence reveals that a mother's early return to work after her first birth has a positive causal effect on the likelihood of her being in full-time employment in the long term (10 and 12 years after childbirth). We do not find any causal effect of an early return to work on working full time in the short term (3 years after childbirth).

The formation of new firms is an important determinant of regional economic development and agglomeration is a key factor affecting the formation and scale of operations of new firms. The present paper is among the first to explore the relationship between agglomeration economies (using localization and urbanization economies) and new firms' formation and scale of operations in a developing country. We make use of rich firm-level data and find that agglomeration has a significant impact on the formation of new firms and their scale of operation in Punjab, Pakistan. Our findings also reveal that localization at all scales (small, medium and large) has a positive correlation with the arrival of new firms, while medium-scale and large-scale localization is positively correlated with the scale of operation of new firms.

The present paper analyzes determinants of earnings and the gender earnings gap among highly educated younger workers from nine major cities in Asian countries. We identify skill premiums for both men and women in each city, such as holding a postgraduate degree or degrees in specific fields and experience working or studying abroad. These results show that competition for earnings among highly educated younger workers has been increasing in these cities. Furthermore, the results reveal that, despite being quite narrow, significant gender gaps do exist; the means of log female earnings in each city range between 95.6 and 97.9 percent of those of men. Individuals having natural science degrees or managerial positions possibly affects these small gender gaps in some cities.

The paper examines the impact of the quality of regional trade agreements (RTA) on the quality of China's exports to the ‘Belt and Road' countries. We use enterprise and product data from China and from 11 Belt and Road countries that have signed RTA with China. The quality of the RTA, as measured by clause coverage and law commitment indexes, significant impact in the quality of export products. In RTAs, the commitment rate plays an overall important role; however, the clause coverage rate of the new generation of WTO-X agreements has a greater effect than for WTO+ agreements, especially for medium and high-technology products, which must meet the high standards. The effect of high-quality RTA is greater in improving the quality of Chinese state-owned enterprises' products exported to Belt and Road countries when compared with those of private and foreign-holding companies.