Well-functioning markets, adequate infrastructure and simple and clearly defined regulations are some of the characteristics of a growth-enhancing business climate. In Indonesia, some of these elements are missing, which challenges firms' operations. This note discusses the main constraints that...

Is Indonesia's manufacturing sector still relevant for growth and development? As a result of the last boom in global commodity prices between 2003 and 2008, resources in Indonesia shifted towards commodities and resource-based manufacturing as these sectors seemed to promise higher returns on...

The findings show that the incidence of non tariff measures (NTMs) in ASEAN is moderate in comparison with other regions of the world. The econometrically-estimated ad valorem equivalents also seem comparable with other countries. The challenge is to design NTMs so as to maximize their...

<heading id="h1" level="1" implicit="yes" format="display">ABSTRACT</heading> Even though there are gains from international trade, there is still a case that trade opportunities have significant distributional consequences. This study considers the arguments that trade liberalisation and technological catch-up could raise the skill premium. The first argument...

Reforming business licensing is a key starting point for improving the investment climate. Complex licensing procedures may encourage firms to remain unregistered, giving rise to difficulties later in accessing finance from formal financial institutions and constraining productivity and...

This paper uses a disaggregated (product-level) gravity approach to estimate the effect of ASEAN’s product-specific rules of origin (RoO) on regional trade, using original data on rules applicable at the six-digit level of the harmonized system. Overall, we find that the average ad-valorem...

Findings show that the incidence of non-tariff measures (NTMs) in ASEAN is moderate in comparison with other regions of the world. The econometrically estimated ad valorem equivalents also seem comparable with other countries. The challenge is to design NTMs so as to maximize their effectiveness...