ABSTRACT Using an unbalanced panel of 198 country‐year observations for 12 Asia‐Pacific economies during 2004–2023, this article examines whether financial inclusion and higher education are linked to per capita CO 2 emissions in the same way across development stages. The Financial Inclusion Index is built through principal component analysis from ATM density and commercial bank branch density. The empirical analysis reports pooled OLS, fixed‐effects, random‐effects, panel‐corrected standard errors and feasible generalised least squares estimates, with separate results for high‐income and developing economies. The evidence is not uniform across the region. In the developing‐economy subsample, financial inclusion is negatively associated with emissions, a pattern consistent with technique and composition channels. In the high‐income subsample, the coefficient is positive, suggesting that additional access to finance may accompany scale‐related consumption and energy use. Tertiary enrolment is positively associated with emissions in developing economies but not statistically significant in high‐income economies. GDP per capita remains a positive correlate across specifications, and trade openness is positive in the full and developing‐economy panels; urbanisation is not robustly significant. These results support a differentiated policy approach: financial deepening and higher education can contribute to lower‐carbon development only when they are steered towards cleaner investment, skills and production structures.
ABSTRACT High‐quality green economic development is pivotal to Chinese modernisation. Employing city‐level panel data from 2006 to 2023, this study utilises the SBM‐GML index, the difference‐in‐differences (DID) model, and its spatial counterpart to investigate how the synergy between command‐and‐control and market‐based regulatory policies affects green growth. Key findings reveal that: (1) the regulatory mix significantly boosts high‐quality green economic development; (2) while this mix dampens efficiency change, it substantially accelerates technological progress, suggesting that gains in green total factor productivity (GTFP) are technology‐driven; (3) spatial spillover effects are heterogeneous, being overall positive among treated regions but negative among untreated regions; and (4) these spillovers exhibit clear distance‐based heterogeneity without following a distance‐decay pattern. Our findings offer actionable insights for refining urban environmental governance and fostering sustainable growth.
ABSTRACT This paper examines the impact of the staggered rollout of deregulation policies on foreign banksʼ access to domestic firms following Chinaʼs entry into the WTO in 2001. We find that the policy raises the probability of export entry among non‐exporting firms by approximately 50 percentage points, and the probability of upgrading from processing to ordinary trade among processing‐only firms by approximately 15–17 percentage points. We evaluate two mechanisms: improved credit access and reduced information frictions. The balance‐sheet evidence indicates meaningful increases in borrowing, leverage, production, and sales after deregulation, with modest and suggestive evidence on heterogeneity patterns related to ex ante financial constraints. By contrast, the evidence for an information channel is sharper: firms become more likely to export to the home countries of locally present foreign banks, especially when informational frictions with those destinations are larger. These findings suggest that foreign banking liberalisation can promote export upgrading not only by easing financing margins, but also by helping firms enter more information‐intensive trade relationships.
This article focuses on communication satellite access in the Pacific Island countries. While satellites can provide telecommunication and internet access, very little academic literature is available about access to satellite communication technology in the Pacific region or policy responses to it. The article addresses this gap by outlining the satellite options available in the Pacific. This contribution to knowledge about the Pacific is timely, given that Starlink and OneWeb recently entered the Pacific. The article includes all satellite communication options utilised in the Pacific. The article also provides policy recommendations and presents suggestions for future research. The article presents information about satellite communications in tables and figures. It is therefore useful for both policymakers and scholars alike.
The risks of high trade dependence on China have been highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and rising tensions between the US and China, prompting calls to restructure the supply chain of some industries. These concerns are particularly prevalent in the clean energy sector, where China dominates by manufacturing low-cost products. In response, the US and the EU have begun to implement protectionist measures, while Japan has adopted a more cautious approach. In the clean energy sector, developed countries are pursuing "decarbonisation," "de-risking from China," and "economic stabilisation" simultaneously for the supply chain restructuring. Rapid de-risking from China combined with decarbonisation could lead to higher inflation and put a strain on public finances, ultimately causing economic instability. Given the current global reliance on China for resources related to the clean energy transition, achieving the three objectives simultaneously is practically impossible, so developed countries face a "trilemma.". This paper argues that a more strategic approach is needed to balance the three objectives by accepting the risks of fiscal balance, China, and delayed decarbonisation, and mitigate the problem. This is important for supply chain restructuring in the clean energy field, and Japan too should implement strategic policies to strike this balance.
The entrepreneurial consequences of the U.S.-China trade war remain difficult to identify because the escalation of tariffs closely overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic, another major shock that simultaneously affected firm entry and economic activity. Distinguishing the independent effect of the trade war is therefore essential for understanding how geopolitical conflicts influence entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Using panel data for 283 Chinese cities from 2014 to 2022, this paper examines whether the trade war reduced new firm entry in China. To address contamination bias arising from overlapping shocks, the study applies the multi-period, multi-treatment DID estimator proposed by De Chaisemartin and D'Haultf oe uille (2023). The results show that, after separating the COVID-19 effect, the trade war does not significantly reduce entrepreneurship in tariff-exposed industries, whereas COVID-19 lowers new firm entry by approximately 20.27%.
Pacific Island countries (PICs) are among the world's most aid-dependent nations. This study examines relations between Japan's aid and the economic growth of 13 PICs during 2000-2023. After evaluating overall effects of Japan's aid, specific types are analysed: economic, social, production, and multi-sector aid. Findings reveal that effects of Japan's total aid and social aid on growth are nonlinear, indicating increasing returns. This nonlinearity primarily reflects Japan's counter-cyclical granting of aid to the PICs. Further results confirm that Japanese total aid, including aid of all types, is more effective at mitigating adverse effects of natural disasters on the economic growth of PICs. This effectiveness suggests that Japanese aid is growth-enhancing when responding to recipient needs. No evidence indicates that Japanese aid influences growth under strong institutional quality. Therefore, the PICs must continue to implement appropriate institutional reforms to ensure the wise use of nations' resources, including donor funding.
Addressing climate change has become the high-profile international issue. This paper focuses on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2023, adopts computerised textual analysis to construct corporate climate disclosure intensity index, and verifies their validity in various aspects. It is found that, first, corporate climate disclosure intensity index can significantly increase companies' total factor productivity (TFP); this conclusion has been validated through numerous robustness tests. Second, corporate climate disclosure intensity index promotes green innovation and improves investment efficiency, thereby increasing TFP. Through further analysis of heterogeneity at the market-, industry-, and firm-levels it is found that corporate climate disclosure intensity index has negative spillovers on the productivity of other firms. This study offers empirical evidence to support the refined design of sustainable development disclosure policies.
This study assesses the impact of intensifying U.S.-China geopolitical tensions on the global semiconductor supply chain. To this end, the study employs the Trade Specialization Index (TSI) and the Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) index to evaluate trade-based competitiveness and market positioning across major semiconductor segments, including memory chips, system semiconductors, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The findings suggest that U.S. sanctions have fragmented the supply chain by restricting China's access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing technologies. While China has increased its presence in lower-end production, it remains heavily dependent on imports for high-end technologies, hindering its self-reliance in advanced manufacturing. The study also highlights the shift of semiconductor production to Southeast Asia, reshaping the global landscape. The paper concludes with policy recommendations aimed at strengthening supply chain resilience, fostering diversification, and enhancing multilateral cooperation to mitigate the risks posed by geopolitical fragmentation.
India's potential in global exports remains largely untapped, particularly in backward-linked global value chains (GVCs). Deeper integration-especially through regional blocs like ASEAN and RCEP-is crucial. India can leverage these regions' strength in parts and components while using its assembly capabilities as an entry point. This approach can drive value chain upgrading through scale and ecosystem development. Realising this potential requires reducing tariffs on key inputs, strengthening trade and FDI ties with regional partners, and attracting MNEs that facilitate GVC integration. Regional trade agreements should act as stepping stones towards broader multilateral liberalisation. Equally important are domestic reforms: easing non-tariff barriers, simplifying rules of origin, improving infrastructure, and enhancing inter-agency coordination. Without such complementary efforts, India risks remaining at the periphery of GVCs despite signing more trade deals. A coordinated strategy-combining external engagement with internal reform-is essential to unlock sustained, export-led growth and enhance India's global competitiveness.
The high industrial inputs reliance on China while having the US as its indispensable export market and key investor as well as source of technology transfers puts Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in an increasingly precarious situation as the US-China trade war intensifies. This paper studies the extent to which various US tariff hikes on Chinese goods imposed under Section 301 of the US Trade Acts of 1974 introduced in 2018, ranging from semiconductor to green technology, have impacted good exports from Southeast Asia to the US. Using an event-study method, we show that the enactment of the Section 301 tariffs has increased exports of tariff-related products relative to exports of non-tariff-related products from ASEAN-7 countries (ASEAN minus Lao PDR, Myanmar and Brunei Darussalam) to the US. Country level analyses show that this increase is significant for Cambodia and Thailand but not for other ASEAN-7 countries analysed.
To investigate whether digital economy shape the spatial dynamics of regional green innovation, this paper utilises data from Chinese prefecture-level cities and constructs multidimensional spatial weight matrices. The results show that the development of the digital economy significantly generates strong spatial spillover effects on green innovation. These findings remain robust to policy shocks in a quasi-natural experiment, supporting their causal reliability. Mechanism analyses reveal that the digital economy primarily exerts a positive impact on green innovation by advancing industrial structure upgrading and facilitating interregional collaborative innovation among firms. Furthermore, heterogeneity analyses show a clear gradient pattern, characterised by stronger effects in the eastern region and progressively weaker effects in the other regions. Overall, this study systematically uncovers the structural pathways and spatially uneven characteristics through which the digital economy enhance green innovation and provides a scientific basis for formulating differentiated regional policies.
This paper examines the evolution of supply chains and trade policy in Indonesia, focusing on the country's participation in global value chains (GVCs) and its positioning within the framework of economic unbundling. Drawing on recent empirical studies and trade data, it analyses Indonesia's progress through the First and Second Unbundling stages, while exploring prospects in the emerging Third Unbundling. The analysis reveals geographical imbalances in FDI distribution and challenges in strengthening backward linkages, despite growth in medium-technology exports. Research findings emphasise three key determinants of successful GVC participation: agglomeration economies, export orientation, and infrastructure quality. The paper highlights the critical role of urban amenities in attracting skilled workers and fostering innovation. This paper provides policy recommendations focused on regional development, investment climate reform, and digital infrastructure enhancement to strengthen Indonesia's competitiveness in global production networks.
After 40 years of Doi Moi reforms, Vietnam has emerged as a leading exporter in labour-intensive industries, including manufacturing. However, a crucial question remains whether these reforms, through improvements in infrastructure and institutions, have made Vietnam's exports more efficient in realising its potential with its trading partners. This paper conducts an empirical analysis using the stochastic frontier gravity model to examine Vietnam's export efficiency from 2000 to 2023 with respect to its top 45 export partners. The analysis shows that Vietnam's average efficiency over the years has been 83%, indicating that Vietnam could increase it by 17% without additional infrastructure or institutions. The paper further includes a policy synthesis identifying Vietnam's domestic determinants of infrastructure, ports, logistics, and institutional factors, such as ease of tracking and timeliness, that affect Vietnam's export efficiency. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for further reforms to improve Vietnam's export efficiency.
ABSTRACT Mission‐oriented innovation has emerged as a novel paradigm for tackling pressing societal and environmental challenges. Grounded in the theory of the entrepreneurial state, this study contends that governments fulfil various ‘entrepreneurial functions’—acting as directional leader, market shaper, standard setter, fund provider, risk‐taker, and model leader. This study is based on 36,052 policy application instruments implemented by provincial governments from 2014 to 2022. Results indicate that technological support and export orientation are core drivers of new energy vehicle production growth, whereas sales growth depends on a synergistic combination of subsidy‐ and non‐subsidy policy instruments, charging infrastructure construction, local production levels, and per capita disposable income. The proposed ‘supply–demand feedback loop’ and ‘policy–output’ models empirically elucidate the mechanisms by which the Chinese government guides supply‐side direction and shapes demand‐side markets. These findings offer transferable insights for policy instrument implementation in other strategic emerging industries and national contexts.
ABSTRACT In the context of mounting global climate challenges and Chinaʼs pursuit of its “dual carbon” goals, it is of great practical and theoretical importance to understand how policy instruments and technological drivers can improve carbon productivity together. This paper examines the relationship between green finance policy, green innovation, and carbon productivity using Chinese provincial data. Using the Westerlund cointegration test and the PMG estimation method, the paper aims to determine the equilibrium interaction among the variables. The results show that green finance policy and green innovation both contribute to enhanced carbon productivity. However, both factors have a restraining effect on carbon productivity in the short term. In the subsample analysis, both factors significantly promote long‐term growth in carbon productivity in all regions. However, the short‐term effect of green finance policy is insignificant in the central region. Our findings imply that green finance policies are crucial to enhancing carbon productivity and highlight the need for regionally differentiated and temporally aware policy design.
ABSTRACT Climate change increasingly threatens mental health, yet Australian policy responses have largely neglected this connection. This scoping review analysed 25 national and state‐level policies across climate change, mental health and wellbeing, and climate‐health domains using a structured thematic framework. Findings reveal that climate policies broadly reference health but rarely address mental health specifically. Mental health policies seldom mention climate change, despite mounting evidence of its psychological impacts. Climate‐health policies offered the most integrated approach but remain limited in number. Only seven policies included concrete, actionable strategies. Nine key themes emerged, including systems and services, priority populations, resilience, workforce, research, and policy. Most policies emphasised awareness over implementation. Jurisdictions with dedicated climate‐health policies—such as the Federal Government, Queensland, and Victoria—demonstrated stronger engagement. Barriers include service gaps in regional areas, poor emergency integration, and insufficient data. Strengthening policy requires embedding mental health in climate adaptation, leveraging co‐benefits, and fostering cross‐sector collaboration to build climate resilience.
Mission-oriented innovation has emerged as a novel paradigm for tackling pressing societal and environmental challenges. Grounded in the theory of the entrepreneurial state, this study contends that governments fulfil various 'entrepreneurial functions'-acting as directional leader, market shaper, standard setter, fund provider, risk-taker, and model leader. This study is based on 36,052 policy application instruments implemented by provincial governments from 2014 to 2022. Results indicate that technological support and export orientation are core drivers of new energy vehicle production growth, whereas sales growth depends on a synergistic combination of subsidy- and non-subsidy policy instruments, charging infrastructure construction, local production levels, and per capita disposable income. The proposed 'supply-demand feedback loop' and 'policy-output' models empirically elucidate the mechanisms by which the Chinese government guides supply-side direction and shapes demand-side markets. These findings offer transferable insights for policy instrument implementation in other strategic emerging industries and national contexts.
India withdrew from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations in 2019, and significant hurdles remain to it joining the Agreement. This paper explores one potential benefit to India of RCEP membership - enhancing India's supply chain resilience. RCEP's market access commitments, trade facilitation provisions, and dispute settlement mechanisms can help India better integrate into regional value chains, diversify its import sources and export markets, and contest disruptions caused by other RCEP Parties. RCEP's institutional bodies also present opportunities for India to address trade irritants with partners and influence regional rulemaking on trade and supply chains. While India's near-term re-engagement with RCEP is politically challenging, RCEP's potential contribution to India's supply chain ambitions could inform the complex risk-benefit analysis needed when considering RCEP membership.
This paper compares the seasonal worker programs of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. All four programs have experienced rapid growth over the last decade, and they have all become significant parts of their countries' agricultural labour forces. But they have also all become more controversial over time, with accusations growing that these programs are both intrinsically and in practice exploitative. Since the programs have become both bigger and more controversial, not surprisingly they have all become more tightly regulated to better protect workers. What impact this greater level of regulation will have on scheme growth remains to be seen, but there is a risk that greater regulation will lead to lower or even negative growth. The article concludes with several recommendations drawn from the authors of the country studies in this special collection for ways to protect workers while containing costs to employers.
