This article examines discernable patterns of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth co-movements across 29 countries, using consistent time series data (1912--2008). Of these countries, only 12 are found to form three statistically significant groupings (i.e. G6-six Organization for Economic...

This study examines the technical efficiency of Thai manufacturing SMEs and their firm-specific determinants utilising firm-level industrial census data for 1997 and 2007. Results from a stochastic frontier production function and technical inefficiency effects model reveal that Thai SMEs are...

This paper sheds light on the issue of SME financing in selected Asian economies using a unique sample survey. It elaborates on (i) the key sources of external finance for SMEs (ii) the extent to which, if at all, the SME sector as identified by firm size, country and in aggregate for a sample...

East Asian countries – currently the most dynamic region of the global economy – have recently pursued trade liberalization through the adoption of various forms of bilateral and plurilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The book explores the key issues and possible outcomes arising from...

Tran Van Hoa and Charles Harvie present this original study of the likely effects of new regional development. The first East Asia Summit in 2005 prompted discussions of enlargement of ASEAN free trade agreements to include all major trading blocs and their likely regional and global...

This study employs various bootstrapped Malmquist indices and efficiency scores to investigate the effects of government regulation on the performance of the Iranian banking industry over the period 2003-2008. An alternative decomposition of the Malmquist index, introduced by Simar and Wilson...

Since the onset of the Civil War in 1975 Lebanon has experienced burgeoning fiscal deficits and an unsustainable public debt overhang. Much of this arose from the loss of revenues during the period of the Civil War 1975-1990 and attempts to maintain basic public expenditure, while from 1990 to...