Wage inequality in Indonesia has decreased over the last two decades. This is in contrast to many developed and developing countries, which have largely seen an increase in wage inequality over this time period. This paper investigates the extent to which minimum wage laws may have contributed...

This paper describes the size of the middle class in developing Asia across countries and over time. Based on an absolute measure of the middle class of $2–$20 (2005 purchasing power parity United States dollars), it finds that between 1990 and 2008, the size of the middle class in developing...

The design of alternative tariff structures can serve as a low-cost and effective tool in achieving higher take-up of basic services among poor households while allowing the provider to recover costs. A contingent valuation survey from the Water Supply and Sanitation Project of the Asian...

Though much has been written about annual income inequality in China, little research has been conducted on longer run measures of income inequality and on income mobility. This paper compares income mobility of urban individuals in China and the United States in the 1990s. The following...

We examine the effects of a mandated credit program to small and medium enterprises in the Philippines (Magna Carta Law) using a panel dataset compiled from official data published by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. The final sample of 109 financial institutions represented over 90% of total...

This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the role of financial sector development, with a view to deepening understanding of the rationale of development assistance to the financial sector of developing countries. The review leads to the following broad conclusions: (i)...

This paper describes the severity of the declines of Asian exports during the recent global crisis and provides more detailed information on the hardest hit manufacturing and exporting industries. To do this, we use various sources of data, including Industrial Statistics of the United Nations...

Using {dollar}2–{dollar}20 purchasing power parity per capita daily income as the definition of middle class, Zhang Yuan, Guanghua Wan, and Niny Khor find that majority of households in the People's Republic of China have become middle class by 2007. This is especially impressive given that...