Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies最新文献

Australiaʼs structured migration pathway for seasonal workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste has evolved in many ways since starting as a pilot in mid 2008. These programme changes have not only included different names and managing agencies but also a stricter governance regime for managing risk. The paper explains how the operating context for the programme has shaped the governance changes. This environment has included media and union pressures to address incidents of alleged worker mistreatment. Also important was the rapid growth in worker numbers from Pacific countries during Covid. However, since then the number of seasonal workers working in agriculture has shrunk considerably. This has been due in part to the return of working holiday makers in large numbers. Also important is the decreased employer demand for seasonal workers engaged under stricter risk management requirements set recently by governments.

As countries around the world move towards carbon neutrality, firms are facing new challenges of policy uncertainty. China is an interesting place to explore this, as it is the largest carbon emitter and is taking strong steps towards carbon neutrality after the Paris Agreement. We investigate the impact of 28 Chinese carbon neutral policies on the stock return and systematic risk during 2014–2022. Event study methodology and modified CAPM (capital asset pricing model) with dummy variable for announcement date are employed. The results show that the electricity & heating, finance, and health sector experiences negative effects, while the mining industry has positive returns. Industries with mixed impacts initially experience negative impacts in the early stages, but turn positive later. Moreover, there is a noticeable trend of decreasing systematic risk in high-energy-consuming industries. This suggests that consistent policy enforcement can reduce the risks stemming from policy uncertainty, which in turn can benefit both firms and investors.

This paper supports policymakers to consider how well their water-related policies respond to gender roles, norms and relations. By braiding the latest philosophies on gender mainstreaming with Integrated Water Resources Management and Feminist Policy Analysis principles, we describe a Multi-Dimensional Index of Gender in Water Policy (MDI-GWP) to measure how gender is captured in water-related policy. The index enables the motivated policy actor to produce well-crafted and feasible recommendations to reform policies. When we trialled MDI-GWP on 16 of Nepalʼs federal water-related policies and acts, the multi-dimensional index tracked gender policy developments over the past 30 years, identified areas where policymakers could further consider gender, and revealed differences in gender application between sectors. We included water resources management (WRM), agriculture, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sectors. In Nepalʼs case, agriculture and WASH policies are on an improving trajectory for gender equity, while WRM policy has rebounded to the gender blind. We expect that MDI-GWP is simple enough to apply in other countries, yet meaningful enough to identify opportunities to improve gender in policies and achieve better outcomes.

Managed temporary labour migration from the Pacific has grown in importance in recent years as New Zealand and Australia seek to fill seasonal labour shortages and strengthen regional relationships by providing cash-earning opportunities to citizens of Pacific Island countries. This paper provides an overview of New Zealandʼs Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme, a circular migration programme to support the countryʼs horticulture and viticulture industries. The scheme began in 2007 and now allows over 20,000 RSE workers a year to enter the country for seasonal work. This paper outlines how the RSE scheme operates, including trends in employersʼ recruitment from the Pacific, and features of employer and worker participation over time. The scheme has been transformative for the horticultural sector due to the certainty of labour it provides during peak seasons. It is also a significant foreign policy tool, helping to continually reaffirm New Zealandʼs long-standing partnerships with Pacific Island countries.

This paper has two primary objectives. First, it contributes to the literature on oil stabilisation funds and price controls by examining how such a fund is used to regulate market prices in the developing country of Vietnam. Second, it employs descriptive statistics and a standard GARCH methodology to investigate whether the fund, which operates as a form of price control, can effectively reduce domestic price volatility. The results show that the oil price stabilisation fund failed to achieve its intended goal. Considering the administrative costs and other negative impacts associated with the fund, a more market-oriented approach, potentially combined with a price-elastic tax system, is recommended for determining domestic oil prices.

The US was one of the first countries to develop farm guest worker programs with Bracero programs during WWI and WWII outside regular immigration laws, followed by the H-2(A) farm guest worker programme included in immigration law in the 1950s. The US tried to legalise the farm workforce in the mid-1980s, but wound up spreading unauthorized workers throughout US agriculture and the nonfarm economy. Fewer unauthorized farm workers arrived after the 2008–09 recession, which helped the H-2A programme quadrupled to 400,000 jobs over the past decade, so that guest workers fill 20 percent of average US crop employment. The farm labour market is at a crossroads, and is considering options that include labour-saving machines, aids to raise productivity and H-2A workers, and changing to non-labour-intensive crops and importing labour-more intensive commodities from lower-wage countries.

Rural Transformation Development (RTD) is about the reconstruction of the rural economies their regional patterns through rapid industrialisation, urbanisation, changing cropping patterns and employment structure transformation. However, existing literature overlooks the spatial disparities and multidimensional nature of this transformation, leaving significant gaps. This study employs a holistic approach, utilising Principal Component Analysis (PCA), to construct the Rural Transformation Development Index (RTDI) for districts in Pakistan in order to see its spatial pattern and extent over the period 2004–2019. The indicators of RTDI are share of high-valued agriculture and livestock in the total value of agriculture, share of non-farm employment in the total rural employment, urbanisation and land use intensity. The study classifies districts into five RTDI categories, highlighting the varied pace of rural transformation over time. Overall, it is evident that rural transformation is not uniform rather it represents large inter-district disparities. However, exploratory spatial data analysis implies existence of clustering in the dataset and underscoring the need for multidimensional, region-specific policies tailored to the unique characteristics of each district and its cluster, rather than a uniform approach across the country to speed up the process of rural transformation.

This paper presents the findings of the second Pacific Attitudes Survey (PAS), conducted in Vanuatu from August–October 2023. Drawing on a nationally representative sample (n = 1330) of ni-Vanuatu of voting-age (18+), the PAS gauges the views of ordinary ni-Vanuatu citizens on a range of questions related to democracy, economics, governance, tradition, climate change, labour mobility and international relations. This article focuses on how ni-Vanuatu understand and participate in democracy, levels of popular trust in institutions, attitudes towards the role of government, the performance of their political system, and womenʼs participation in politics. Findings of the PAS: Vanuatu reveal high levels of popular support for democracy and trust in democratic institutions. At the same time, popular political attitudes also highlight a distinctive and widely embraced respect for kastom values and traditional leadership, and a popular preference for participating in politics through local and traditional, rather than national pathways.

This study empirically revisits the unsolved debate of whether globalisation (GLZ) and financial development (FIND) promote the renewable energy (RE) transition in the context of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The panel-corrected-standard-error technique infers that a one-point increase in GLZ and FIND reduces the RE share in total energy consumption in the ASEAN region by 0.71% and 8.41%, respectively. It finds that the investment in energy with private participation moderates the relationship between FIND and RE, and FDI except in energy moderates the relations between GLZ and RE. The country-specific estimation suggests that Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam be concerned about GLZ, while the Philippines and Vietnam also be concerned about FIND since these might affect their RE transition process. The ASEAN policymakers should earmark funds specifically for renewables and prudently navigate the trade globalisation process to transform this region into a low-carbon region.

Capacity to weather economic shocks is often mediated by social identity, which in turn determines access to social, economic and physical capital. We study the repercussions of a large economic shock on access to agriculture inputs, agricultural extension, output markets, and the consequent effects on income and livelihoods in rural Nepal. We focus on heterogeneity by caste, gender, and household migration status, using panel survey data from 2300 maize farmers. We observe prolonged effects of the 2020 pandemic induced lockdowns on the incomes of farmers, driven in part by reduced remittances. The shock intensified inequalities in agriculture, especially for female farmers and farmers from disadvantaged caste groups. As the economic impacts of multiple crises continue, policy measures to support the agriculture sector should target disadvantaged farmers, while simultaneously implementing long term strategies to shield the agriculture sector from future shocks.