How US interest rates affect emerging economies

It has been long suspected, studied, and proven that a country’s domestic monetary condition is influenced by global financial cycles. The US Federal Reserve raised its policy rate ten consecutive times between March 2022 and May 2023, bringing the US interest rate to the highest level in over a decade. Higher US interest rate typically […]

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Taking stock of the Sri Lankan economy and its intra-provincial development

For any economy, balanced regional development is as essential as overall national growth. This makes regular assessment of regional disparities, an important exercise for an evolving policy framework. The island nation of Sri Lanka is divided into nine provinces and 25 districts. While much attention has been given to study and address inter-provincial disparities, intra-provincial […]

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Cross-Border Data Flows: Navigating the Evolving Policy Landscape and Challenges in Compliance

There is no doubt that data has become a critical production factor, alongside the other usual factors such as labor, capital, and land. However, data has several unique characteristics. For instance, it’s non-rivalrous, meaning it can be used by multiple entities simultaneously without diminishing its value. Also, data is non-excludable, meaning it is difficult to […]

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Are neighborhood visits skewed? The case of Singapore

Physical mobility patterns have the potential to offer insights into asymmetries of movement. And this matters for our understanding of segregation. Using GPS records for Singapore, research by ACI studies how mismatches in wealth and ethnic mix relate to daily neighborhood visits. In other words, authors quantify how neighborhood visits are affected by mismatches in […]

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India’s 2020 FDI restrictions: What it meant for China’s outward greenfield FDI

In times of uncertainty, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, policymakers are compelled to make high-risk and quick decisions that may go against their broader policy mandates. At the onset of the pandemic, the Indian government mandated a clearance requirement for new FDI projects from land-border sharing economies. It was widely understood that these new FDI […]

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Nepal’s Digitalisation Journey: Experiences and Challenges in Digital Transformation and the Future Ahead

ACI collaborated with NIPoRe to host a webinar titled Nepal’s Digitalisation Journey: Experiences and Challenges in Digital Transformation and the Future Ahead on February 23th, 2023. Prof Paul Cheung, Director of Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) delivered his welcome remarks and highlighted the importance of digitalisation and the speed of Nepal’s digitalisation. He also shared how […]

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A tiered approach to measuring digital competitiveness of Asian Economies

As digital transformations continue to happen at breakneck speeds around the world, the rise of the digital economy has become impossible to ignore. How long can you survive at work, school, or even otherwise without access to the internet? The value of the digital economy in our lives rests in answer to the question. As […]

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What can online job postings say about the labor market dynamics in Singapore?

Online job postings complement official labor market data well and, therefore, reflect the skills and qualifications in demand in a timelier manner. A study by ACI uses job posting data from JobTech, Singapore’s leading AI talent intelligence startup, to monitor and understand local labor market dynamics. The data constitute nearly the entire universe of job […]

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The Debate on International Trade and Wage Inequality Continues: The Case of Mexican Firms and Competition from China

International trade has been rightfully touted as an engine of economic growth, but its impact on the labor market might differ among different economies. Over the last few decades, China’s unsurpassable growth numbers have caught the world’s attention. The labor-intensive economy of China has been the focus of numerous international trade studies, with the impact […]

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How difficult is it to balance purpose with profit? Know it from Singapore’s B Corps

Paradoxically, in today’s times of increased sensitivity to environmental issues, businesses with clear loyalty to sustainability are subject to more scepticism than ordinary corporations. A study by ACI surveyed 12 (out of 19) B corporations in Singapore to understand the challenges faced by these companies, and strategies employed to cope with them. The Certified B […]

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