Rapid ageing of the population globally represents an unprecedented historical trend. As pension and healthcare costs are positively correlated with rising incomes, ageing, urbanization, and a shift from communicable to life-style diseases, managing these costs is a major challenge. There are...

Singapore is the only high-income, rapidly ageing country to rely almost exclusively on a mandatory savings second tier central provident fund to finance old age pensions. This fund’s broad and significant investment activities has enabled it to become a substitute for the mortgage market. Yet...

The current global economic crisis has led to greater prominence for the issue of strengthening social protection systems in Asia. This paper analyzes the key factors determining and the possible avenues for strengthening social protection systems in Asia. The choice of an appropriate...

This paper provides a quantitative analysis of the new EU-Japan free trade agreement (FTA), the biggest bilateral deal that both the EU and Japan have concluded so far. It employs a generalized variant of the Eaton-Kortum (2002) model, featuring multiple sectors, input-output linkages, services...

Japan was the first non-western country to accomplish successful industrialization, and the dominant perception of its industrial policy had over-emphasized specific characteristics of Japan. However, from the perspective of today's development thinking, Japan's economic history shared a wide...

This study investigates the impacts of energy insecurity on household welfare in Cambodia. The notion of energy insecurity is not well understood in the literature or in local contexts. This study defines household energy insecurity as the status quo derived from the interplay of inadequate and...

The negotiations between Japan and the EU over a free trade agreement are taking place during times in which global economic integration is increasingly questioned. With TTIP on hold and TTP no longer pursued by the US, a successful trade deal between two leading economic powers such as Japan...

Production networks in East Asia, particularly in the manufacturing and machinery industries, are well recognized as the most advanced in the world, in terms of their magnitude, extensiveness, and sophistication. This paper tries to link various economic studies on related topics, to see how...

Production networks and the regional division of labor have been established in East Asia resulting in massive vertical intra-industry trade in parts and components within the region. This phenomenon is known as cross-border production sharing or the fragmentation of production processes into...