This study evaluates infrastructure investment and finance in Asia from a global perspective. It provides an overview on infrastructure needs and the various sources of private finance, globally and within Asia, and creates a "bigger picture" for the demand and supply of capital for...

This paper discusses the business correspondent (BC)-agent banking model in India against the backdrop of community-based rural livelihood programs, its relevance in facilitating financial inclusion in underserved rural geographies, and its potential to address the gender gap in financial...

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...

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current state of financial inclusion and financial literacy in Georgia based on the latest literature, statistical evidence, and recent surveys. The paper reviews current government policy initiatives and strategy documents aimed at...

This paper analyzes the approaches adopted by institutional investors to manage climate risk in their portfolios and proposes policies to increase climate awareness in this large segment of the capital markets. Because of their size and their role as conduit of savers' climate concerns to the...

Using variance risk premiums (VRPs) nonparametrically calculated from equity markets in selected major developed economies and emerging market economies (EMEs) over 2007 - 2015, we document the correlation of VRPs across the markets and examine whether equity fund flows work as a path through...

Investment in infrastructure for increasing trade and connectivity in South Asia and Southeast Asia has been impacted by a reduction in commercial bank participation in project financing, which has significantly increased the role of multilateral financial institutions and export credit...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most Asian economies. The main obstacle to the development of the SME sector is the lack of stable finance. Considering the bank-dominated characteristic of economies in Asia, banks are the main source of financing, and the lack of a...

Private green finance is imperative for climate change mitigation and adaptation, but the share of private green finance remains small, and the studies that have tackled the efficacy of policy instruments in promoting green finance are limited. Many economies, especially in Asia, have...

Digital technology has rapidly transformed the PRC's economy over the past decade, especially in areas of e-commerce and digital finance. In many ways, digital technology changes the pattern of economic operation, as it enlarges business scale, increases economic efficiency, improves user...