Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies最新文献

Maternity leave for women has been substantially extended in China since the 2016 maternity leave reform, but maternity leave length varies greatly across regions. On the one hand, women are more likely to engage in employment due to extended maternity leave. On the other hand, extended maternity leave can increase the discrimination against women in the labour market and force them to enter into entrepreneurship. Exploiting the 2016 maternity leave reform as an exogenous change in maternity leave for women and employing a difference-in-differences framework, this study examines the effect of extended maternity leave on female labour force participation. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we find that the maternity leave reform leads to an increase in entrepreneurship rate (employment rate) by 4.74 (1.76) percentage points for women without children, whereas this effect is insignificant for women with children and old women.

Despite growing appreciation for the complexity of development and the need for adaptability, there remains a limited evidence base of how, where and why adaptive approaches to development improve development outcomes. This paper examines the organisational and political attributes of support provided to locally led development initiatives in the Pacific region supported by an Australian government development programme, as well as the extent to which these attributes were present in initiatives deemed by programme staff to be more or less successful. Findings include that positive outcomes are more likely to emerge from partners led by women working in politically stable environments. Rather than endorsing donors to support only such projects, we share a combination of findings to offer insights into how the impacts of development initiatives working in politically tricky settings may be understood holistically and with nuance and flexibility, leading to better project design and evaluation.

This paper examines the impact of human capital, gender inequality, and GDP on income inequality across seven regions with different income levels. Utilising panel data from 125 countries from 2000 to 2018, the study employs methods such as Panel Spatial Correlation Consistent dummy variables (PSCC) and panel quantile regression. The findings reveal that income level significantly influences the relationship between human capital and income inequality on GDP. Political stability and total population positively affect GDP in all income groups, whereas gender inequality negatively impacts GDP in high-income countries but positively in low-income countries. The study also investigates the correlation between the Gini coefficient and the Gender Inequality Index (GII). Results indicate a positive correlation between the lagged Gini coefficient and its current values, demonstrating the persistence of income inequality. The findings suggest that policymakers can reduce income inequality and promote economic growth through progressive taxation, social welfare programs, and labour market regulations. Policies targeting gender inequality can also influence income inequality and GDP. This research provides insights into the complex interplay between income inequality, gender inequality, and GDP, offering guidance for policymakers to design effective strategies for sustainable economic growth and inequality reduction.

Renewable energy is one of the key factors in mitigating climate change and achieving sustainable development. With digital technology at its core, the digital economy has gradually become a new driving force for renewable energy development. However, few studies have examined the impact of the digital economy on renewable energy from a global perspective and explored the transmission mechanisms. Based on the cross-country data of 68 countries (regions) from 2013 to 2021, this paper adopts a panel model to study the impacts of the digital economy on renewable energy. The results show that (1) digital economy has a positive impact on renewable energy; (2) the impact of digital economy on renewable energy is asymmetric and heterogeneous; (3) the impact of digital economy on renewable energy development has obvious threshold characteristics; (4) digital economy indirectly affects renewable energy through technological innovation and financial development. The research in this paper provides a theoretical basis for promoting renewable energy development and a reference and guidance for countries to realize sustainable development in the context of the digital economy.

There is a growing recognition that corruption not only exacerbates gender inequality, but that gender inequality undermines anticorruption efforts. As such, anticorruption policy actors are increasingly asked to ‘mainstream gender’ into their work. Doing so effectively requires an understanding of how and why experiences of corruption are gendered in specific contexts. Drawing on findings from a series of 10 focus group discussions (FGDs) held in Cambodia Fiji, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, which gathered the views of 139 participants, this research offers the first examination how and why experiences with corruption are gendered in Asian and Pacific contexts. A focus on gender norms in the FGDs helps to get at why it is that women experience grass-roots corruption differently. The findings make clear that corruption cannot be effectively controlled without challenging gender norms that make women uniquely vulnerable to corruption and prevent many from resisting and reporting corruption.

Dual carbon goals ushered in a new era of Chinaʼs climate policies. Provinces play a crucial role in translating climate goals into specific, detailed, and implementable policies, and they are key to Chinese commitments to carbon neutrality. We examine dual carbon policies at the provincial level to better understand the new landscape of local mitigation efforts in China. This research develops a Provincial Climate Action Index based on five policy categories: communication and knowledge sharing, planning guidance, mandatory regulations, funding, and governmental resources. We calculate the index scores of 31 Chinese provinces and identify 3 clusters: leaders, followers, and laggards in dual carbon policy, demonstrating both differences and similarities in provincial-level actions to achieve climate goals. Provinces such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Anhui are pioneering, nearly half of provinces including Shandong and Shanxi, exhibit medium commitments to the goals, while 10 underperforming provinces such as Qinghai and Xizang lag behind.

ASEAN centrality is a term that has emerged in the recent literature on international relations and institutions focussing on the region surrounding ASEAN. It refers to the idea that ASEAN has or should have a central role in forming the political and economic institutional architecture of a wider region. Unfortunately, however, previous studies have failed to identify whether ASEAN has centrality or not. There are two problems. First, the concept of centrality is vague. Second, a sound method to assess the centrality is absent. This study attempts to contribute to the literature mainly from theoretical (conceptual) and, to a lesser degree, empirical perspectives. From the theory front, the paper elaborates the notion of centrality, by differentiating the two concepts related to centrality: core and hub. From the empirical front, the paper claims the usefulness of comparative analysis. Even if the level of centrality cannot be measured, we can better assess whether ASEAN hold the core and/or hub status in regional institutional architecture, if it is compared with other institutions.

This article explores the underlying reasons for why the Albanese Labor Governmentʼs stated policy ambition to ‘rebuild Australiaʼs international development program’ has not yet been accomplished and is unlikely to be realised, at least in the near-to-medium term. Based on interviews conducted with 21 Australian Members of Parliament, we find that the ‘cautious consensus’—a collection of ideas guiding elite perspectives on Australian aid policy that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic—has rapidly consolidated, to the point where it can now be considered a paradigm. We identify three main factors that have led to this consolidation: the declining salience of aid; growing elite scepticism about the usefulness of aid; and a combination of political challenges that are difficult for Labor to navigate, as it seeks to become a long-term Government. Given the prospects of shifting the unambitious status quo are unlikely in the in the near-to-medium term, we examine what ‘living with the cautious consensus’ means for the Australian development sector.

The role of irrigation expansion in facilitating rural transformation has been widely documented, yet quantitative studies remain rather limited. Based on the statistical data from 27 provinces in China, this paper analyses the correlation between irrigation expansion and rural transformation over the period of 1978–2018. The econometric results indicate a positive relationship between irrigation expansion and high-value agriculture. However, from a dynamic perspective, for each percentage point increase in the share of cultivated land with irrigation, the share of high-value agriculture decreases by 0.09 percentage points in the early stage, but increases by 0.07 and 0.12 percentage points in the subsequent middle and later stages, respectively. Likewise, the relationship between irrigation expansion and non-farm employment of rural labourers is not always negative. Specifically, an additional one percentage point increase in the share of cultivated land with irrigation is associated with a 0.09 percentage points decline in the share of rural labour non-farm employment in the early stage. This reduction moderates to a 0.05 percentage points in the middle stage, but there is a 0.08 percentage points increase in the later stage. This paper further concludes with several implications for policymakers and academic research.

Investing in agricultural infrastructure, particularly irrigation systems, is crucial for enhancing agricultural productivity and fostering rural development in developing countries. This study evaluates the impact of irrigation infrastructure investments on total factor productivity (TFP) in Chinaʼs crop industry from 1980 to 2018, and also estimates their economic returns across different sub-periods. We employ a fixed-effects instrumental variables (FE-IV) regression model combined with a structural break analysis on provincial-level data to establish the causal relationship between irrigation investments and TFP growth. The findings reveal that irrigation infrastructure investments have significantly improved TFP in Chinaʼs crop industry over the period, though the marginal returns declined in the last decade. The average internal rate of return for irrigation investments during 2002–2018 is estimated at 11.5%, which is below the long-term trend of 19.3%. This suggests potential over-investment or inefficient allocation of resources in recent years, highlighting the need for better optimisation of public investment to sustain productivity gains in agriculture.