Jayant Menon - Böcker

Analysis of infrastructure's role in facilitating international trade and consequently regional economic integration is still rudimentary. This original book fills that knowledge gap by exploring relevant concepts, measurement issues, aspects of the implementation of trade-related infrastructure facilities and their impacts on poverty, trade, investment and macroeconomic balances.Continuing the series of books produced in association with the Asian Development Bank Institute, this study explores the virtuous cycle of infrastructure investment, trade expansion and economic growth in developing Asia. Issues relating infrastructure, both hard and soft, to trade facilitation and trade costs are defined and examined, and the role of infrastructure in regional cooperation to enhance intraregional trade is analysed. Empirical estimates of trade costs in Asia suggest there is significant room for infrastructure to lower those costs further. By approaching the infrastructure-trade nexus at the regional level through cooperative activities, this study shows it is possible to increase the range of policy options and risk management opportunities.Infrastructure and Trade in Asia will be of interest to trade and infrastructure policymakers, academics at graduate and above levels involved in economic development and Asian studies as well as those in the development community interested in regional cooperation and integration.

This text provides an in-depth analysis of the relationship between exchange rates and the prices of internationally traded goods, using Australian imports of manufactures as a case study. The study is conducted in two stages: exchange rate pass-through elasticites are estimated by applying an econometric procedure which avoids the pitfalls in previous studies to a unique data set comprising 50 product categories; and the determinants of pass-through are investigated within a model which accounts for market structure, product differentiation, non-tariff barriers and the pricing practices of multinational corporations. Separate chapters provide reviews of the theory and evidence on pass-through and developments in time-series econometrics.

This is an important and timely volume: important because ASEAN is an increasingly significant and influential regional and global actor; and timely because, as the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community target approaches, what is needed is a sympathetic yet arms-length survey of the issues and challenges. ASEAN will miss some of the targets laid out in its AEC Blueprint, but the reader is left in no doubt that the ASEAN spirit is alive and well. The editors include a distinguished former Secretary General of ASEAN and the leading academic analyst of ASEAN economic cooperation. They and their co-editors are to be congratulated for soliciting contributions from an outstanding and diverse group of authors, and then adding their highly authoritative commentary and analysis. A must read for anybody seriously interested in ASEAN.

The global centre of gravity continues to shift to the Asia-Pacific, the most dynamic region in the world. These economies have generally grown faster for longer periods of time than any other major region in world history. Their embrace of globalization has been a central feature, and driver, of their dynamism. The management of Asia-Pacific economic integration and globalization is crucial not only for the countries themselves but also for the state of the global economy, including importantly latecomer developing economies who look to the region for analytical and development policy lessons. Twenty-seven leading international authorities in the field, drawn from nine countries, provide a comprehensive examination of the causes, consequences and challenges of globalization, in a volume that celebrates the distinguished career of Professor Prema-Chandra Athukorala.Among the major issues examined are the region's distinctive approach to trade liberalization, the effects of economic growth on poverty reduction and the labour market, the special challenges of by-passed regions, the role of ideas in influencing policy making, the modalities of connecting to global production networks, and the importance of remittances in economic development. Several country case studies provide in-depth analyses of development processes and outcomes. These include episodes in economic development, the challenges faced by transition economies, the macroeconomics of adjusting to slower growth and rising debt in advanced economies, and the so-called middle-income trap phenomenon.