Motivated by the proliferation of free trade agreements (FTAs) in Asia over the last decade, this paper studies the challenges faced by the Asian “noodle bowl” — overlapping, multiple trade rules, regulations, and standards in Asia — in the process of regional and global trade...

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)...

To make Asia more economically sustainable and resilient against external shocks, regional economies need to be rebalanced toward regional demand- and trade-driven growth through increased regional connectivity. The effectiveness of connectivity depends on the quality of hard and soft...

The Asia and Pacific region and Latin American and Caribbean region are two regions divided not only by vast geographic distance, but also by disparities in economics, politics, culture, and history. Most recently, a number of forums explored the possibility of closing such gaps and linking the...

This paper investigates sources and determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing Asia using bilateral FDI flows for the period 1990-2005. The Triad (composed of Japan, EU, and the US) has accounted for about 35-40% of FDI inflows to developing Asia in recent years, with...

This paper focuses on the relevance to emerging economies of three major financial reforms following the global financial crisis of 2007 - 2009: (1) the improved capital requirements intended to reduce the risk of bank failure ("Basel III"), (2) the improved recovery and resolution regimes for...

This paper discusses how financial crises in emerging Asia and Japan worked as catalysts for legal reforms. The responses of six Asian countries with different legal histories to financial crises that posed similar challenges are of both legal and economic interest. We first provide a...

Rapid population ageing and economic transformation in Asia raise the policy challenge of ensuring income security in old age. There is growing interest among policymakers in the potential role of noncontributory transfers as an instrument to address a variety of policy challenges, including old...

Driven by waves of foreign capital inflows and outflows, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand - among several other emerging markets - have resorted to capital control policy since 2006. Are capital controls effective? Controls on capital inflows have been experiencing a renaissance...

Pension assets have seen rapid growth world-wide over the past decades, although they suffered large losses during the global financial crisis of 2007 - 2008. Such growth is notably due to both structural and parametric pension reforms since the 1980s. In the Asian region too, the pension market...