There is surprisingly little macroeconomic empirical research which would support a presumed link between education and development. I identify three major reasons why it remains difficult to estimate the economic relevance of education as a determinant of growth and development. First, most...

In this paper we propose the use of an alternative methodology to track low incomes based on Atkinson`s (1970) family of equally distributed equivalent income functions, which are called general means here. We provide a new characterization of general means that justifies their use in this...

In recent decades, absolute poverty incidence declined in most countries of Southeast Asia, even though in some of these countries inequality increased at the same time. This paper examines the relationship between these outcomes and the rate of economic growth in the agricultural, industrial...

Up until the recent crisis, the Southeast Asian region had been regarded as one of the most dynamic regions in the global economy. Their industrial structures have undergone a process of adjustment into more capital-intensive and technologically sophisticated manufacturing sectors. These...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze strategic policy implications arising from possible threats and opportunities in the face of the emergence of China as an economic powerhouse. The focus of the paper is not on the regional approach through mainly regional co-operations but more on policy...

The sizable hoarding of international reserves by several East Asian countries has been frequently attributed to a modern version of monetary mercantilism - hoarding international reserves in order to improve competitiveness. From a long-run perspective, manufacturing exporters in East Asia...

The paper investigates the impact of exchange rate volatility on growth in Emerging Europe and East Asia. Exchange stability has been argued to affect growth negatively as it deprives countries from the ability to react in a flexible way to asymmetric real shocks and may enhance the probability...

Motivated by the observed international reserve hoarding behavior in the post-1997 crisis period, we explore the Mrs Machlup's wardrobe hypothesis and the related keeping up with the Joneses argument. It is conceived that, in addition to psychological reasons, holding a relatively high level of...