In the early 1990s, the People’s Republic of China opened its urban water sector to nonstate capital to help meet increasing urban water demand under severe water resource constraints. By 2007, more than 30% of urban water utilities had attracted private sector participation (PSP). To...

Lax monetary policy in the United States has been pointed out as one of the responsible factors behind the recent global crisis. Similar loose monetary conditions also prevailed in many European countries before the crisis and were argued to be among the accommodating factors behind the run-up...

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...

Income growth in rural areas may be one of the greatest challenges to further poverty reduction and economic development. Using a new survey of rural Bhutanese households we investigate the short-term economic, social, and psychosocial benefits of a vocational skills training program that was...

There are significant income and nonincome development gaps around the world. Closing these gaps will require not only increasing and sustaining economic growth in low-income regions, but also policies that close nonincome development gaps directly. Governments need to support private investment...

While developing Asia has recovered strongly from the global crisis, the region faces the medium- and long-term challenge of sustaining growth beyond the crisis. The central objective of this paper is to empirically investigate the sources of economic growth in 12 developing Asian economies...

This paper examines the nexus between capital flows and real exchange rate (RER) in emerging Asian countries using a dynamic panel-data model for 2000–2009. In contrast to previous studies, capital flows here are separated into foreign direct investment (FDI), portfolio investment, and other...

This study examines the effects of capital account restrictions on capital flows in nine Asian economies over the period 1995–2005 using panel regressions with fixed effects. The results show that capital controls significantly affect capital flows when such flows are disaggregated by asset...

The paper examines the relationship between cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and financial development in emerging Asian economies. Bilateral data of cross-border M&A for nine emerging Asian economies during 2000–2009 are analyzed with a sample selection model and panel data model....

This paper derives a Frankel-Romer instrument from a global trade matrix of 157 countries over the period 1990–2007, and deploys it to assess the relationship between international trade, domestic market potential, and income for the case of developing Asia, compared to the world average. The...