The World Trade Organization (WTO) will stage its ninth Ministerial Conference (MC9) in Bali, Indonesia, on 3-6 December 2013. The meeting comes at a critical juncture for the multilateral trade body, long mired in the Doha Round stalemate. Beyond offering a critical first test at...

The most immediate effects of energy price increase ripples in many production systems is traceable from the intermediate demand sector of an economy. In particular, the production of agriculture, manufacturing, services and several other sectors portray significant energy utilization in their...

The structure of this report is still similar to the previous versions in view of the application of similar methodology but it should be noted that one of the important accomplishments of this research study is the development of energy efficiency targets for the countries that did not have...

This paper uses the economic convergence analysis (including both the s-convergence and ß- convergence approaches) to examine the impact of EMI — measured by two newly constructed indexes (namely, the energy trade index and the energy market competition index) — at the country level, on...

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of one-sided tariff cuts on firms’ export product scope. The theoretical model explicitly incorporates cost of management in addition to the commonly used production cost. The analysis predicts that the home country’s...

The ASEAN Single Aviation Market or Open Skies project aims to liberalize the air transport industry in ASEAN by 2015. However, the project faces significant obstacles, including non-acceptance by key member states and an incomplete agenda that excludes more ambitious relaxations to market...

The East Asian countries are seriously discussing the consolidation of ASEAN+1 FTAs to develop so-called ASEAN++ FTA or RCEP. The detailed analysis of services chapters in the existing ASEAN+1 FTAs gives insights to services trade liberalization in this new trade agreement. In order for ASEAN...

This paper studies the impact of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 on Japanese exports, focusing on international production networks in machinery sectors. For our survival analysis, we estimate a Cox proportional hazards model. Consequently, we find that Japanese exports to Asian countries,...

This paper analyses the effect of the West Sumatra public asset insurance program on short-term economic recovery after the September 2009 West Sumatra Earthquake. We use satellite data on yearly differences in nighttimelight intensity as a proxy for economic activity, to investigate the effect...

Structural change has a far-reaching impact on inequality. It exposes the population to challenges and opportunities. Foreign trade and technological progress have been widely put forth as a structural driver of inequality. Broader structural change, such as demographic transition, can also...