Australia-Philippine Trade Relations

This article examines the pattern, composition and trends in Australia-Philippine trade from 1962-1981. Analysis points to three major results: the growth of bilateral trade despite both countries’ reduced importance in international trade, trade characterized by high levels of country bias and the plausible expectation of modest growth given the restoration of foreign exchange reserves to its normal level.trade sector, ASEAN

Australia-Philippine Trade Relations

This article examines the pattern, composition and trends in Australia-Philippine trade from 1962-1981. Analysis points to three major results: the growth of bilateral trade despite both countries’ reduced importance in international trade, trade characterized by high levels of country bias and the plausible expectation of modest growth given the restoration of foreign exchange reserves to its normal level.trade sector, ASEAN

Financial safety nets in Asia: genesis, evolution, adequacy, and way forward

This working paper discusses the need to for Australia to further strengthen its economic ties with other South East Asian nations, making particular reference to future international trade. The impetus for strengthening regional financial safety nets among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came following the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) of 1997/98. Although there was an existing insurance mechanism in the form of the ASEAN Swap Arrangement (ASA)—which had been used a couple of times in the early 1990s, although not really in a crisis context—the ASA proved miserably inadequate in the face of the huge amounts of financing required by countries affected by the AFC. Despite pledges of external support from other countries in the region, the AFC-affected countries were eventually forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the massive bailouts required. With the resentment that derived from the bitter medicine prescribed, a decision was taken to pursue a regional safety net that could provide a real alternative. The initial step was taken with the creation of the Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) in 2000, which expanded the bilateral swaps of the ASA, both in size and membership, to include three additional members: the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The CMI’s first major test came in September 2008 when, following the Lehman Brothers collapse, short-term capital quickly exited emerging economies. Members of the CMI that required liquidity support did not turn to it, but instead rushed to secure bilateral swaps with and support from the US, PRC, Japan, Australia, regional development banks, and multilaterals

The Malaysian economy: past successes, future challenges

This paper offers a broad assessment of Malaysian economic development over the past quarter century, set against the broader Southeast Asian experience. Section II examines the comparative record according to some key indicators. Section III looks at development achievements in more detail. Section IV considers some key development issues and challenges, while Section V summarizes our principal arguments

A BOOK REVIEW OF CENTRAL BANK POLICY THEORY AND PRACTICE BY PERRY WARJIYO AND SOLIKIN M. JUHRO

The volume under review is a most welcome addition to the still relatively slim collection of economics volumes written in English by Indonesian scholars. There is an established tradition of senior Indonesian policy makers writing major scholarly volumes in their fields of expertise before or after holding high office. One thinks for example of Widjojo Nitisastro’s Population Trends in Indonesia (1970),  Radius Prawiro’s Indonesia’s Struggle for Economic Development: Pragmatism in Action (1998), and Soedradjad Djiwandono’s Bank Indonesia and the Crisis: An Insider’s View (2005), among several others. (It is noteworthy that two of these authors were also Bank Indonesia governors.) In an earlier era, Professor Sumitro Djojohadikusumo was the trailblazer, combining serious scholarship along with high policy responsibilities. It is testimony to Indonesia’s political leaders and governance tradition over several decades that policy leadership and serious scholarship have been able to comfortably and productively co-exist.The volume under review is a most welcome addition to the still relatively slim collection of economics volumes written in English by Indonesian scholars. There is an established tradition of senior Indonesian policy makers writing major scholarly volumes in their fields of expertise before or after holding high office. One thinks for example of Widjojo Nitisastro’s Population Trends in Indonesia (1970),  Radius Prawiro’s Indonesia’s Struggle for Economic Development: Pragmatism in Action (1998), and Soedradjad Djiwandono’s Bank Indonesia and the Crisis: An Insider’s View (2005), among several others. (It is noteworthy that two of these authors were also Bank Indonesia governors.) In an earlier era, Professor Sumitro Djojohadikusumo was the trailblazer, combining serious scholarship along with high policy responsibilities. It is testimony to Indonesia’s political leaders and governance tradition over several decades that policy leadership and serious scholarship have been able to comfortably and productively co-exist

Indonesia’s Changing Economic Geography

Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic state, and one of the most spatially diverse nations on earth in its resource endowments, population settlements, location of economic activity, ecology and ethnicity. The regional socio-economic data base now extends over 30 years, and so it is possible to draw conclusions about the country’s regional development dynamics since the 1970s. In this paper, we examine economic growth, inequality, convergence, structural change and social indicators for a consolidated group of 26 provinces, ie, the 27 of the late Soeharto period excluding East Timor. Our major conclusions include the following: (a) There continues to be great diversity in economic and social outcomes, but growth and social progress have been remarkably even. The poorest regions, mainly located in Eastern Indonesia, have generally performed about as well as the national average. (b) The better performing regions are typically those that are the most ‘connected’ to the global economy. In this respect, Jakarta stands out as a special case, growing richer than the rest of the country over time. (c) As expected, conflict is particularly harmful to economic development, as illustrated in the case of Maluku and to a lesser extent Aceh. (d) There is no clear natural resource story, in that the performance of the resource-rich provinces has varied considerably.Economic Geography, economic growth, convergence, Indonesia

Markov chain analysis of succession in a rocky subtidal community

Author Posting. © University of Chicago Press, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of University of Chicago Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in American Naturalist 164 (2004): E46-E61.We present a Markov chain model of succession in a rocky subtidal community based on a long-term (1986–1994) study of subtidal invertebrates (14 species) at Ammen Rock Pinnacle in the Gulf of Maine. The model describes successional processes (disturbance, colonization, species persistence, and replacement), the equilibrium (stationary) community, and the rate of convergence. We described successional dynamics by species turnover rates, recurrence times, and the entropy of the transition matrix. We used perturbation analysis to quantify the response of diversity to successional rates and species removals. The equilibrium community was dominated by an encrusting sponge (Hymedesmia) and a bryozoan (Crisia eburnea). The equilibrium structure explained 98% of the variance in observed species frequencies. Dominant species have low probabilities of disturbance and high rates of colonization and persistence. On average, species turn over every 3.4 years. Recurrence times varied among species (7–268 years); rare species had the longest recurrence times. The community converged to equilibrium quickly (9.5 years), as measured by Dobrushin’s coefficient of ergodicity. The largest changes in evenness would result from removal of the dominant sponge Hymedesmia. Subdominant species appear to increase evenness by slowing the dominance of Hymedesmia. Comparison of the subtidal community with intertidal and coral reef communities revealed that disturbance rates are an order of magnitude higher in coral reef than in rocky intertidal and subtidal communities. Colonization rates and turnover times, however, are lowest and longest in coral reefs, highest and shortest in intertidal communities, and intermediate in subtidal communities.This research was supported by National Science Foundation grants DEB-9527400, OCE-981267, OCE-9302238, and OCE-0083976 and by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Undersea Research Program, University of Connecticut—Avery Point