The middle-income trap (MIT) is a scenario of rapidly growing economies that experience sudden stops and ultimately lead to stagnation at the middle-income level. Economic growth depends on changes in the demographics of a country. Conversely, the demographic change in economic growth has both...

During decades of market development, the individual financial markets of the member economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have been progressively incorporated into regional and international markets. The aim of this study is to explore and measure the strength and...

This paper assesses the case for promoting financial education in Asia. It argues that the benefits of investing in financial education can be substantial. Data are limited, but indicate low financial literacy scores for selected Asian countries. As economies develop, access to financial...

Many reforms have taken place in Indonesia following the Asian financial crisis of 1997 - 1998. The government has embarked upon institutional transformation, making the country one of the region's most vibrant democracies. In social, economic, and political areas, Indonesia has seen much...

This paper develops a three-period overlapping-generations model where middle-aged agents care about not only their own lifetime utility but also their old parents’ and children’s well-being. The double altruistic agents choose amounts of intergenerational transfers to their old parents and...

A skilled and educated workforce can support the competitiveness of enterprises of all sizes. However, smaller firms may face greater challenges in developing human capital. We explore differences between smaller and larger firms in offering skills training and in hiring workers with more formal...

Drawing on a random-sampling of matched employer−employee data that was collected in 2016 by the People's Republic of China Employer−Employee Survey, we first estimate returns of education for Chinese manufacturing workers. Using hourly wages as the dependent variable, we find that the...

This paper explores the impact of international migration on school enrollment of children staying behind in Tajikistan, by using data from a large nationally representative household survey. The methodology employed is a switching probit model that accounts for the endogeneity and...

We estimate natural-disaster impacts on children's school enrollments and math skills and test for impact heterogeneities with respect to age and gender in seven countries in Asia and the Pacific, which is the world's most disaster-prone region. We link survey data on children aged 5 to 17 to...

We study the relationship between maternal education and children's well-being in four Pacific countries. We exploit the richness of the Multiple Indicator Clustering Survey (MICS) dataset to investigate this relationship and its underlying mechanisms. We find that the number of years of...