The growth diagnostics methodology pioneered by Hausmann et al. (2005) is becoming a key piece of the toolkit for donor agencies in formulate their operational strategies. This paper aims at clarifying the primary objectives of the approach, highlighting some limitations for operational use. The...

During the latter part of 2007 and early 2008, it became obvious that Pakistan's macroeconomic situation was deteriorating rapidly, and that unless immediate measures were taken, the country may slip into a balance of payments crisis. This paper analyzes Pakistan's current macroeconomic economic...

The literature on the finance-growth nexus highlights the importance of the financial cycle for the estimation of potential output of an economy. We estimate potential output growth for the G-5 countries, as well as for 10 high- and middle-income Asian economies, using a multivariate model that...

We estimate the People's Republic of China's (PRC's potential growth rate in 2012 at 8.7% and at 9.2% for the average of 2008–2012, about the same as the average actual growth rate for this period. This rate is the natural growth rate, that is, the rate consistent with a constant unemployment...

Relative to other developing regions, developing Asia has experienced a slower decline in employment share in agriculture, compared to its output share; a rapid growth in labor and land productivity; and a shift from agricultural output from traditional to high-value products. The most successful...

This paper examines the extent to which Pakistan's growth has been, or is likely to be, limited or constrained by its balance-of-payments (BOP). The paper begins by briefly considering the BOP-constrained growth model in the context of demand and supply-oriented approaches to economic growth....

This paper reviews what the profession has learned during the last 25 years about East Asia's growth using growth accounting exercises and estimations of production functions. The publication of Alwyn Young's (1992, 1994, 1995) and Jong-Il Kim and Lawrence Lau's (1994) studies, and Paul...

This paper analyzes why the Philippines' growth performance has improved significantly in recent years. As in the medium to long term actual growth adjusts to potential, we posit that the reason behind this improvement is that the country’s potential growth is increasing. We derive an estimate...

This paper argues that the single most important factor that explains East Asia's development success was its fast structural transformation toward industrialization, manufacturing in particular. Workers moved out of agriculture into manufacturing, and the sector diversified and upgraded its...

The People's Republic of China's (PRC) remarkable growth performance over the last 3 decades has been associated to very robust export growth, so much so that many refer to it as a clear example of export-led growth (ELG). Using the concept of the balance-of-payments equilibrium (BOPE) growth...