Journal of Asian Economic Integration

Cross-border integration is a complex process, but it could bring benefits to the nations involved in motivating trade and tourism. Air transport has been playing an important role in accelerating the integration of the economies of countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The introduction of a visa-free exemption agreement in 2006 and the ratification of the semi-ASEAN open skies agreement in 2016 have stimulated intra-ASEAN travel and trade. However, since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has demolished most of the efforts when tight border controls returned and flights were suspended. The ASEAN countries were criticised for a lack of coordination over the pandemic. This article examines the ASEAN air transport policies in response to the global pandemic. The data were collected from official government documents, international databases and local media reports to identify the pattern of the air transport policy implemented by each ASEAN member. This article provides insights into the impact of intra-regional travel on the recovery and resilience of the air transport industry in the ASEAN region.

JEL Classification: L91, L93, L98

This article provides an empirical analysis on the relationship between trade policy and global value chain (GVC) participation of the South Asian countries using Asian Development Bank’s country-sector Wang, Wei and Zhu decomposed exports data. We employ theoretically grounded three-way fixed effects gravity model with bias correction for incidental parameter problem to get unbiased and consistent coefficients for trade policy variables. This study finds strong evidence for the depressing effect of border tariffs on bilateral exports and forward and backward GVC participation. The negative effects are most prominent in the agriculture and food sectors. Moreover, we find that the regional trade agreements (RTAs) of South Asian countries have a negligible impact on trade and GVC participation in most sectors. However, we find evidence for the phasing-in effect of RTAs and a strong negative effect on bilateral food trade and GVC participation. Reformulating trade policy priorities and restructuring the RTAs to remove strict general regulatory measures like sensitive lists and rules of origin (ROO) should be South Asian policymakers’ priorities for robust trade lead growth.

JEL Classification: F14, L23, O11, O55, Q17

The article investigates the fast and sustainable development, then, discusses some policy implications to enhance the development process. The fast development is accessed by the economic growth rate combined with income distribution, while the sustainable development is accessed by the genuine savings per gross domestic product (GDP) and the biocapacity reserve. The research method employs a quantitative analysis on a data sample of 172 economies over the period 1990–2019. The results in this article suggest that an economy can first attain the objective of fast and weak sustainable development, then, the fast and strong sustainable development. The transmission from fast and weak sustainable development to the fast and strong sustainable development is difficult, thus needs the appropriated public policy architecture.

JEL Classification: Q01, C31, H31