We review the growth experience of middle-income countries. Economic factors associated with growth appear to differ between middle income and other countries. The efficiency of the financial system is importantly related to the growth rate in low- and middle-income countries, but appears to...

A potentially important side effect of quantitative easing (QE) by the United States (US) Federal Reserve System (the Fed) is the expansion of capital flows into developing countries. As a result, there is widespread concern that QE tapering may trigger financial instability in those countries....

Developing Asian countries have accumulated foreign exchange reserves on an unprecedented scale in recent years. There is a growing consensus that Asia's reserves now substantially exceed the levels required for precautionary purposes or for self-protection against currency crisis. The central...

We examine the adverse impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on the performance of more than 12,000 firms in 32 countries along several dimensions; namely, revenue, production, and labor outcomes. We find that the majority of firms experienced permanent or temporary closures, decreased sales...

The demographic dividend that contributed substantially to economic growth in developing Asia in the past is dissipating. Population aging affects growth through savings, capital accumulation, labor force participation, and total factor productivity. We examined the impact of aging on those four...

The underdeveloped service sector in Asia has the potential to become a new engine of economic growth for developing Asia, which has traditionally relied on export-oriented manufacturing to power its growth. The central objective of this paper is to empirically analyze the prospects for the...

There is a widespread perception that the Republic of Korea's service sector lags behind its dynamic world-class manufacturing sector. We empirically analyze the past performance of the Republic of Korea's service sector in order to assess its prospects as an engine of growth. Our analysis...

We apply a stochastic frontier production model to data from 53 countries during 1991-2003 to estimate total factor productivity growth, and decompose it into technical efficiency change and technical progress. Our empirical results indicate that world productivity growth was led by fast-growing...

Based on Cuesta (2000), this paper develops a stochastic frontier production model that allows for different groups of firms to have different patterns of technical efficiency over time. The authors apply the model to the Malaysian manufacturing sector to decompose total factor productivity...