Is GDP in ASEAN countries stationary? New evidence from panel unit root tests

This study investigated stationary process in real per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in nine ASEAN countries, namely, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It employed both the ‘first generation' and the ‘second generation' of panel unit root tests for this purpose. Despite some differences in the findings, the empirical results suggested that per capita GDP had been characterized by a nonstationary process, as the results from the second generation of panel unit root tests indicated. This implies the presence of some common factors in these countries' GDP time series which would persist over time.