• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.145-154
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• 2020

The paper aims to investigate the interactions between rule of law, economic growth and the shadow economy in 18 selected transition economies. This study uses annual data over the period 2002-2015 for 18 transition countries to estimate the effects of rule of law and other factors on the size of shadow economy. The transition country group is classified based on International Monetary Fund resources and is selected on the basis of the availability of data. The data examined in this research are derived from the World Bank, Worldwide Governance Indicators project and Working Paper from International Monetary Fund. This study employs GMM method. The results show that the economic growth indicators have negative and statistically significant impact on the shadow economy. Additionally, these results also reveal that in transition countries the size of shadow economy is negatively related to the quality of rule of law. However, the findings of this research also point out that there are positive relationships between inflation, public expenditure and the size of shadow economy. Hence the results from this study suggest that the size of shadow economy could be controlled by improving the effectiveness of rule of law and the growth of economy particularly in transition countries.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.147-182
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the population changes in the nine Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Philippine, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, and Thailand. According to the demographic transition theory which described the transition from high birth and death rates to low birth and death rates, the demographic changes in less developed countries, including the Southeast Asian countries, follow the general pattern of the population changes that the Western countries had experienced. However, this theory does not consider the fact that the demographic behaviors such as fertility and mortality tend to be ethnocentric (or particular). Therefore, I examine in this paper both the generality and particularity of the population changes in the Southeast Asia . The analytic results are consistent with my assumptions. Every country in the Southeast Asia will soon reach the third phrase of the demographic transition and meet population ageing process. However, the timings arriving at the third phrase can differ. Singapore which is the most developed country had firstly passed through the demographic transition and the highest level of population ageing. Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic, the least developed countries, will lastly arrive at the third phrase and the ageing society. In addition, among the three countries which had experienced war or civil war, only Cambodia had experienced babyboom.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.385-432
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• 2017

This paper investigates how firm age, size and ownership are related with job creation and destruction, and how these patterns differ across transition and non-transition economies. The analysis finds that age is inversely related with gross job creation and net job creation in the two samples. This finding is consistent with the theory of the learning effect. The relationship between age and job destruction is indifferent in non-transition economies. On the contrary, old firms in transition economies destroy more jobs than young ones. The paper further establishes an inverse relationship between size and gross job creation in the two groups. However, there is divergence between the two samples; small firms in non-transition economies also exhibit a higher gross job destruction rate. Consequently large firms have a higher net job creation rate. In transition economies, small and large firms exhibit similar rates of job destruction. But small firms retain a higher net job creation rate. A more intriguing finding is that state owned firms do not underperform domestic private ones. This means these countries may be using soft budget constraint which allows state owned firms to overstaff. Finally, crowding out of SMEs by foreign owned firms is not evident in transition economies.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.89-113
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• 2006

Over the past four decades reproductive behavior has changed rapidly in much of the developing countries. The average total fertility rate has fallen by half from six or more to near three today. Between 1960 and 2000 the largest fertility decline occurred in Asia and Latin America. The mortality rate has also decreased in most developing countries. The purpose of this study is to review the pattern and characteristic of demographic transition in developing countries. At first, this study focuses on the regional fertility and mortality transition. Africa, the total fertility rate is still high, can be match to the second stage of demographic transition. Similar case is found in Southern West Asia areas. However, the fertility rate has therd stage of demographic transition. The same pattern is found in Latin America. The mortality rate has also decreased in most of developing countries. It is interesting to find that there is a clear difference among developing countries. In terms of crude death rate, Latin American countries show the lowest rate. while African countries remain still high rate. About mortality, African countries show a high level in terms of both crude death rate and infant mortality rate. African countries also show the lowest level of life expectancy in the world. One of the reasons for low level of life expectancy in Africa is the widespread of AIDS in this areas. This study suggests that we should include 'AIDS' in the study of mortality in African countries.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.3-23
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• 2008

We investigated the effects of policy reform, industrial transformation, and initial conditions on the agricultural productivity changes in 28 transition countries. Our findings are: (i) Asian and CEE transition countries performed better than CIS countries, while the performance improvement of CEE countries seems to be more prominent compared to that of Asian and CIS countries; (ii) The technical progress proved to be the main source of productivity growth, particularly in CEE countries; (iii) Reform policy and industrial transformation seems to have positive effects on the performance of agricultural sector and its changes; (iv) The initial conditions also matter.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.35-77
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• 2023

This study aims to solve the entangled loop between demographic transition (DT) and economic growth by analyzing cross-country data. We undertake a national-level group analysis to verify the compressed transition of demographic variables over time. Assuming that the LA (latecomer advantage) on DT over time exists, we verify that the DT of the latecomer is compressed by providing a formal proof of LA on DT over income. As a DT has the double-kinked functions of income, we check them in multiple aspects: early maturation, leftward threshold, and steeper descent under a contour map and econometric methods. We find that the developing countries (the latecomer) have speedy DT (CDT, compressed DT) as well as speedy income such that DT of the latecomers starts at lower levels of income, lasts for a shorter period, and finishes at the earlier stage of economic development compared to that of developed countries (the early mover). To check the balance of DT, we classify countries into four groups of DT---balanced, slow, unilateral, and rapid transition countries. We identify that the main causes of rapid transition are due to the strong family planning programs of the government. Finally, we check the effect of latecomer's CDT on economic growth inversely: we undertake the simulation of the CDT effect on economic growth and the aging process for the latecomer. A worrying result is that the CDT of the latecomer shows a sharp upturn of the working-age population, followed by a sharp downturn in a short period. Compared to early-mover countries, the latecomer countries cannot buy more time to accommodate the workable population for the period of demographic bonus and prepare their aging societies for demographic onus. Thus, we conclude that CDT is not necessarily advantageous to developing countries. These outcomes of the latecomer's CDT can be re-interpreted as follows. Developing countries need power sources to pump up economic development, such as the following production factors: labor, physical and financial capital, and economic systems. As for labor, the properties of early maturation and leftward thresholds on DTs of the latecomer mean that demographic movement occurs at an unusually early stage of economic development; this is similar to a plane that leaks fuel before or just before take-off, with the result that it no longer flies higher or farther. What is worse, the property of steeper descent represents the falling speed of a plane so that it cannot be sustained at higher levels, and then plummets to all-time lows.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.389-418
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• 2020

Some OECD countries are showing signs of decoupling in the transportation sector. In terms of sustainable development, the decoupling of economic activities and greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector is very important. This study calculated a decoupling index of greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector for 25 OECD countries. Also this study analyzed the impact of energy transition on decoupling regimes. According to the analysis, a considerable number of countries have reached the decoupling phase, and some countries have shown strong decoupling regime in which greenhouse gas emissions are reduced despite economic growth. From ordered panel logit analysis, energy transition had significant impact on achieving decoupling phase. Electrification of transport had a positive effect on the decoupling, while the gasification was not significant. In addition, small traffic, high urbanization rates, strong environmental policies, and high trade opening have had significant effects on achieving decoupling.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.183-203
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• 2005

Over the past four decades reproductive behavior has changed rapidly in much of the developing countries. The average total fertility rate has fallen by half from six or more to near three today. Between 1960 and 2000 the largest fertility decline occurred in Asia and Latin America. The mortality rate has decreased in most developing countries. The purpose of this study is to review the pattern of demographic transition in developing countries. At first, this study focuses on the regional fertility transition. In Africa, the total fertility rate has decreased from 6.59 to 4.85 between 1960 and 2000. However, the rate has rapidly fallen from 5.76 to 2.34 in East Asia. The same pattern is found in Latin America. The mortality rate has also decreased in most of developing countries. It is also interesting to find that there is a clear difference among developing countries. In terms of crude death rate, Latin American countries show the lowest rate, while African countries remain still high rate. The study also shows the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and fertility/mortality in developing countries. The result supports the hypothesized relationship between education and fertility. However, the effects of urbanization and income on fertility do not show consistent result. About mortality rate, however, the study shows the significant relationship between urbanization and infant mortality rate, between income and mortality. The study finally emphasizes that we should include 'AIDS' in the study of mortality in African countries.

• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.61-81
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• 2007

A typical small firm in consumer goods sectors of developing countries is an OEM supplier to big MNCs. Lacking design and marketing capability, a small firm relies on the MNCs for survival but their long term growth is not guaranteed as the MNCs are always looking for, and ready to relocate to, cheaper production sites. In this light, we can say that there is something like "OEM trap" from which most firms from LDCs find difficult to move out (Lee 2005). In this situation, one way for long term growth and catch-up is to make a transition to the OBM (own brand manufacturer). But, the transition is not easy or even risky. This paper analyzes the cases of three companies in Korea to find out common features in their successful transition to OBM. They are Aurora World (a flush toy maker), Hankook Chinaware (a chinaware maker), and Hanacobi (a plastic-made food container maker with the Lock-and-Lock brand). These firms can be commonly characterized by 1) arranging access to external knowledge base and steady increase of in-house R&D efforts and capabilities leading to acquisition of formal IPRs and their management, and 2) establishment of global production networks with factories in lower-income countries as well as their own independent global marketing network.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.139-164
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• 2009

The first demographic transition refers to the historical decline in mortality and fertility, as shown from the 18th Century in several European populations, and continuing present in most developing countries. The end point of the first demographic transition(FDT) was supposed to be a stationary and stable population corresponding with replacement fertility and zero population growth. In addition, households in all parts of the world would converge toward the nuclear and conjugal types, composed of married couples and their offspring. The second demographic transition(SDT), on the other hand, sees no such equilibrium as the end-point. Rather, new developments bring sub-replacement fertility, a multitude of living arrangements other than marriage, and the disconnection between marriage and procreation. Populations would face declining sizes if not complemented by new migrants. Over the last decades birth rates have been on the decline in all countries of the world, and it is estimated that already more than half of he world's population has below replacement level fertility. Measured in terms of the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), currently 34 countries have fertility levels of 1.5 or less. Similarly, Korea has been below lowest-low fertility for eight consecutive years since 2001 and below the replacement level for more than twenty years. In explaining the low fertility in Korea, some researchers explain the low fertility as revenge against a male-dominated society and institution, while others focus the impact of the employment instability. These studies share the basic ideas (spread of individualism, delayed marriage and childbearing, high divorce rate etc.) of a second demographic transition in order to explain the low fertility in Korea.