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 paper reviews economic development and the regulatory environment of audiovisual services in the Republic of Korea (hereafter, Korea). The paper specifically examines motion pictures and broadcasting, and discusses what drives or hinders the sector's trade potential. Korean motion pictures...

This paper examines the gains for South Asian economies from integrating with East Asia and India's role in this process. Evidence of increased pan-Asian integration exists but the process is uneven. Bilateral trade has grown. Bilateral foreign direct investment flows and free trade agreements...

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 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,...

Trade and investment liberalization has been one of the key features of economic policy in many developing countries since the 1990s. Research on this subject has consistently produced more evidence on the benefits of globalization; theoretical studies give more attention to what happens within...

This paper examines how the services sector could provide decent and gainful employment in developing Asia. Using living wages as a reference point, this paper reports that a significant portion of the workforce in developing Asian economies, the majority of which are employed in the...

This study empirically investigated the factors affecting firms' ability to adjust production in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. This study used firm-level survey data from the Enterprise Survey implemented by the World Bank Group, including a standard Enterprise Survey (Baseline) and two...

Since the first quarter of 2020, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries have faced significant hardship due to the economic shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions arise, however, regarding the extent to which MSMEs' hardship has varied between...

Soon after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments began extending financial and other forms of support to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and their workers because smaller firms are more vulnerable to negative shocks to their supply chain, labor supply, and final...