This paper examines the extent to which Pakistan's growth has been, or is likely to be, constrained by its balance of payments. Evidence presented suggests that Pakistan's maximum growth rate consistent with equilibrium on the basic balance is approximately 5% per annum. This is below the long-term target GDP growth rate of 7–8% per annum. This balance-of-payments constrained growth approach provides ...

Regionalism in East Asia by Richard Pomfret is a relatively short and readable book, but it provides readers with useful insights on the past, current and future of East Asian regionalism to outline the prospects of future regionalism. While this is not a book on contemporary economic history of Asia, as he notes, the historical perspective is critical to analysing relatively 'recent' phenomena of ...

This article focuses on directions in reshaping accountability mechanisms in multilateral development banks and other organizations. The term ‘accountability mechanisms’ refers to avenues for private individuals and groups to file claims against the institution for redress of their grievance on poorly designed and/or implemented projects. Since 1993, accountability mechanisms have, over the years, ...

In the wake of recent food price spikes, plus growing demands for food in emerging Asia and for biofuels in Europe and the United States, governments are re-examining their strategies for dealing with both short-term and long-term food security concerns. This paper argues that long-run trends in real agricultural prices have policy implications for food security that are at least as important as ...

Invasive animal pests reduce crop and livestock output, require management and control measures, and threaten native plants, animals and their habitat. The agricultural and management costs are often directly measurable. But the costs to protect threatened native plants and animals are harder to assess. The Rural Lands Protection Boards were the government agency in New South Wales that managed ...

The paper considers the optimal transition path for China's exchange rate regime. How can China successfully make the shift from the current dollar peg regime to a more desirable regime, whether a basket peg or a floating regime? To answer this question, we develop a dynamic small open economy general equilibrium model. We construct four transition policies based on a basket peg or a floating regime ...

Over the past three decades, there has been a rapid expansion of processed food exports, replacing traditional agriculture exports such as coffee and tea. However, this development and its policy implications have received little attention in the literature. This paper provides an overview of key characteristics and growth patterns of processed food exports in developing countries. The determinants ...

The global energy requirement has grown at a phenomenonal rate and the consumption of primary energy sources has had a very high positive growth. This article focuses on the consumption of different primary energy sources and identifies that coal will continue to remain as the primary energy in the foreseeable future. It examines the energy requirement perspective for India and demand of coal as the ...

This paper examines the relationship between cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and financial development in emerging Asian economies. Bilateral cross-border M&A data for nine emerging Asian economies covering 2000–2009 are analyzed with a sample selection model and a panel data model. The estimation results show that although the banking sector still plays a crucial role in facilitating ...

In this article, we examine the effects of undesirable outputs on Malmquist Total Factor Productivity (TFP) indices. Our empirical work uses an unbalanced panel of 1626 real observations on coal-fired power plants in China during 1996–2002. In order to meet the requirement of a balanced panel for calculating the Malmquist indices, an innovative fake unit approach has been introduced. To the authors' ...