The investment in sustainable energy required to meet the climate change commitments made by 190 countries signatory to the 2015 Paris Accord is in the order of $100 trillion over the next 2 decades. Reducing carbon emissions requires a financing strategy for managing risk that is an...

The global cooling demand is expected to grow substantially during the 21st century. Apart from the increasing temperatures due to climate change, this demand will also be driven by a set of demographic characteristics, including population growth, urbanization, increasing incomes, social...

Half of the world's population - 3 billion people - lives below the poverty line, and Asia has the largest share. In pursuit of sustainable economic development and poverty alleviation, there is great potential among low-income households for green consumption, production, innovation, and...

This paper explores the impacts of more rapid growth in labor productivity in the service sector in Asia based on an empirical general equilibrium model. The model allows for input-output linkages and capital movements across industries and economies, and consumption and investment dynamics. We...

This study examines the relationship between firm characteristics and borrowing from commercial banks by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and five Southeast Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam). Analysis...

The paper investigates the situation of middle-income economies around the world. Since 1965, only 18 economies with a population of more than 3 million and not dependent on oil exports have made the transition to being high income. Many more have not been able to move beyond the middle-income...

This study investigates the economic growth and catch-up of the Republic of Korea over the past half-century. The gap of output per worker between the Republic of Korea and United States has decreased rapidly, as the Republic of Korea's lower per capita income, relative to its potential level,...

This paper revisits the role of the manufacturing sector during the middle-income stage. By exploiting a large dataset that covers internationally comparable sectoral information, we prove that the manufacturing sector is imbued with three important characteristics. First, for middle-income...

This paper presents research findings on how urbanization enhances productivity and economic growth in both urban and rural sectors. Through agglomeration effects, employment opportunities and income levels can largely increase. In addition, the mechanisms of sharing, matching, and learning are...

Urbanization usually occurs with structural transformation driven by a "push" from agricultural productivity growth and a "pull" from industrial productivity growth, and usually the former exceeds the latter. This paper presents a simple model to illustrate how the open policy in the People's...