Asian Economic Journal

Publisher:
Wiley
Publication date:
2021-02-01
ISBN:
1351-3958

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Issue Information
  • Individual tourist expenditures in Japan during the inbound tourism boom period (2015–2017): Empirical evidence from micro survey data

    This study empirically examines the characteristics of demand generated by inbound tourism (inbound demand) in Japan in the 2010s using individual data from the Consumption Trend Survey for Foreigners Visiting Japan. This is the first study to investigate the detailed characteristics of inbound consumption during Japan's inbound boom period using individual micro survey data. One of the main findings is that household income and the exchange rate significantly affect inbound demand. This is especially true for inbound demand by visitors from Asian countries, whose main purpose for visiting Japan is shopping. Another main finding is that visa relaxation effectively increases the number of tourists from China. The third finding is that the payment environment in Japan, including the use of credit cards, has a significant impact on inbound demand. These findings provide an in‐depth insight into inbound demand as a potential engine for future economic growth in Japan.

  • Does outward foreign direct investment improve the performance of domestic firms? Case of Korea

    In this article, we use firm‐level data in Korea from 2010 to 2019 to analyze whether outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) affects the productivity of domestic firms, known as reverse knowledge spillovers. Using propensity score matching and difference‐in‐difference regressions, we verify that OFDI improves the productivity of parent companies. Considering the characteristics of OFDI and the parent company, these positive effects become greater when (1) parent company's absorptive capacity (technology level) is high, (2) OFDI is in the M&A form, and (3) OFDI is toward developed countries. In addition to these direct effects, we investigate whether OFDI improves the productivity of other domestic firms within and across industries, known as horizontal and vertical spillovers. The results demonstrate strong evidence of positive vertical spillovers but not horizontal spillovers. These evidence provide important policy implications about the specifics of outward direct investment that are beneficial to capital‐exporting countries.

  • Income volatility in adolescence and university enrollment: The case of South Korea

    This study examines the relationship between parental income volatility and children's university enrollment. It measures parental income instability using the following indicators: (1) transitory income volatility, (2) standard deviation of the arc percent change, and (3) coefficient of variation. These metrics are derived from the total household income data collected from the child's first year of middle school through the third year of high school. Additionally, this study investigates the impact of income trends by analyzing the regression coefficient obtained by regressing total household income against the father's age. An investigation of individuals born between 1986 and 1998, who graduated from general high school, reveals an negative correlation between parental income instability/trends and the likelihood of children enrolling in a 4‐year university. However, this correlation is only statistically significant for low‐income households. These findings imply that despite similar average income levels, households with high income volatility in the lower‐income group are less likely to make adequate educational investments in their children.

  • Issue Information
  • Call for Papers and Preliminary Information
  • The synchronization between Korea's and Japan's business cycles

    This article analyzes the evolution of the dynamic interactions between Korea's and Japan's business cycles. The logarithmic industrial production is first decomposed into trends and cycles using bounceback models. The estimation results of the two‐state Markov switching model show that the synchronization coefficient of Korea–Japan is positive and time‐varying. However, according to the estimation results of the heteroscedasticity‐based VAR model, the Japanese business cycle shock has a positive effect on the contemporaneous Korean business cycle, but not vice versa. Based on these results, I estimate a TVP‐VAR model assuming Cholesky decomposition and find that Japanese upward shocks do not have positive impacts on the Korean business cycle in the period before the global financial crisis or the period after the global financial crisis and before the COVID‐19 outbreak. The response of Korea to the Japanese shock is smaller in the three‐variable TVP‐VAR compared to the two‐variable TVP‐VAR without the United States. The Korean business cycle upward shock also has a similar effect on the Japanese business cycle, albeit smaller, depending on the period. Overall, the size of the response seems to be closely related to global events as well as changes in trade, FDI, and political conditions between two countries.

  • Rural digital infrastructure and labor market: Evidence from universal telecommunication service

    This study estimates the effects of the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure on rural employment and income. We use a triple‐difference framework and exploit the geographic variation of the recent universal telecommunication service in China. Empirical results reveal increased broadband adoption after the implementation of the program with governmental subsidy. The universal telecommunication service led to an increase in rural residents’ income and their employment in the non‐agricultural sector, especially salaried work. The findings suggest that digital infrastructure promotes the transformation of the rural economy in emerging markets.

  • Social safety nets and productivity outcomes: Evidence and implications for Bangladeshi rice growers

    Using national representative cross‐sectional data from 8846 rice growing plots in Bangladesh, we analyze the impact of social safety net programs (SSNPs) on rice farmers' productivity and efficiency. This study applied the propensity score matching (PSM) approach to correct the possible self‐selection biases arising from observed and unobserved factors affecting a household's SSNP participation decisions. The stochastic frontier production function is estimated separately for participants and non‐participants to compare yield and technical efficiency. Our results show that the output elasticities of all inputs except land and fertilizer are significantly higher for non‐participants than participants. The SSNP participants are estimated to have 1.95% higher technical efficiency than the non‐participants, while their frontier yield is 11.75% higher. The average treatment effect on treated (ATET) also confirms the yield and efficiency‐enhancing role of SSNPs, particularly in climate‐stressed areas. The study argues for widening the SSNP coverage to increase the marginal farmers' efficiency in climate‐vulnerable areas. Other policy interventions include policies to increase farmers' access to land through the proper functioning land market, education, providing literacy training, and different production inputs.

  • Issue Information

Featured documents