We investigate the extent to which the investment slowdown in many Asian countries since the Asian Financial Crisis is attributable to changes in governance institutions. In the process we test the more general hypothesis that different aspects of governance will become relevant constraints to...

We show that the most important barriers to investment and growth in the Philippines are structural and institutional problems that are characteristic of limited access societies, which can be more effectively and efficiently overcome by prioritizing 'first-order' market reforms that increase...

Over the past decade, several Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have developed or expanded export-oriented apparel industries in the context of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quotas and preferential market access, most importantly under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)....

The global financial crisis and the recent growth slowdown in the People's Republic of China (PRC) have led to questions about the sustainability of the PRC's growth. The commonly used argument is that the PRC is too dependent on external demand and that it needs to rebalance its economy toward...

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...

The experience of the Philippines shows that FDI spillover effects are not automatically generated. Opening up the economy to FDI has contributed to the country's exports of high-technology products and overall economic growth. However, the spillover effects of FDI to domestic firms have...

We explore the effect of foreign direct investment on economic growth in developing countries, distinguishing between mergers and acquisitions ("M&As") and "greenfield" investment. A simple model captures the key difference between the two types of FDI: unlike greenfield investment, M&As partly...

This paper tests the endogenous relationship between FDI growth and economic growth using a panel dataset for 23 OECD countries for the period 1975-2004. In particular we estimate a two-equation simultaneous equation system with the generalized methods of moments (GMM) that treats economic...

The comparison of the key features of trade integration processes and the economic outcomes in China and India reveals that while much has already been achieved in both these economies, the Chinese reforms, especially with respect to manufacturing trade, have gone further and that this is likely...