Although a latecomer, economically important Asia has emerged at the forefront of global free trade agreement (FTA) activity. This has sparked concerns about the negative effects of Asian FTAs, including the “noodle bowl” problem. Amid slow progress in the World Trade Organization's (WTO)...

The International Comparison Program (ICP) compares levels of economic activity and relative price levels among countries of the world. The main feature of the ICP is that it produces spatial indexes or purchasing power parities (PPPs) that allow cross-country comparison of gross domestic...