Myanmar's agriculture sector offers substantial unexploited potential to underpin the country's inclusive economic development. With extensive land, water, and labor resources, as well as proximity to fast-growing markets, the country's agriculture has key competitive advantages. At the same...

Motivated by the literature on the finance – growth nexus, this paper explores the mechanisms through which finance affects corporate investments and capital accumulation. We separate the effects of financial conditions from those of financial development. Based on a sample of firms from five...

The purpose of this study is to investigate how firms responded to the deterioration of bank health during the financially turbulent periods in the 2000s in making investment decisions and in meeting demand for liquidity. A rise in uncertainty regarding the ability to obtain external funds may...

The pace of capital accumulation in East Asia has simply been stunning. In this paper, we investigate sources of this fast accumulation and make projections for the future to see if the trend is likely to continue. East Asian economies under consideration are the People's Republic of China; Hong...

An integral part of global current account imbalances is the large and persistent current account surplus developing Asia has run since the 1997–1998 Asian crisis. A country's current account surplus is, by definition, equal to its net saving. The central objective of this paper is to...

Poverty and income inequality remain a stubborn challenge in Asia and the Pacific despite the region's rapid economic expansion in previous decades, which lifted millions out of poverty. Financial inclusion is often considered as a critical element that makes growth inclusive as access to...

This paper looks at the role of governance and institutions in supporting growth and broadening inclusiveness with special reference to developing Asia. While the intrinsic value of good governance and institutions as ends of development in their own right is now universally accepted and...

This study examines the potential of remittances for promoting economic growth and reducing poverty in Asian countries using data for more than 20 countries in the region for 1988-2007. The results indicate that remittances positively affect home country real gross domestic product (GDP) per...

The paper tabulates Myanmar's merchandise trade as reported by its partner countries, thereby circumventing the data constraints stemming from Myanmar's patchy trade records. It then estimates Myanmar's export potential, based on the bilateral export patterns observed for six other countries in...

Improvement in human capital is essential for rapid, sustainable, and inclusive economic growth in Myanmar. Investments in health and education — including technical and vocational education and training — are essential to engineer a productive labor force that can contribute to and benefit...