Prema-chandra Athukorala

• Professor at Australian National University

The expansion of global manufacturing value chains (GMVCs) as a major mode of economic globalisation opens opportunities for latecomer countries to industrialise by carving out niches to specialise within the value chain, instead of producing a good from start to finish within their national boundaries. However, whether this provides a pathway for...

In recent decades, there has been a palpable shift in the commodity composition of world agri-food trade away from the traditional (unprocessed) primary products towards processed food. This structural change in trade patterns and its policy implications have so far received scant attention in policymaking in most agricultural resource-rich develop...

This paper examines trade and commercial policy in Kyrgyzstan in the context of that country's distinctive historical and geographical characteristics, drawing on the World Trade Organisation's latest Trade Policy Review . A former Soviet republic, it is a geographically isolated, effectively a ‘double‐landlocked’, transition economy. The country w...

This paper examines the national savings behaviour in the process of economic growth through a comparative analysis of countries in developing Asia from a historical perspective. Developing Asia provides an ideal laboratory for the study with considerable differences in the savings behaviour among countries and over time within individual countries...

This paper examines the intellectual contributions of Professor W. M. (‘Max’) Corden to Economics. We focus on three main fields: trade theory and practice, especially his pioneering work on the theory of effective protection; open economy macroeconomics, including exchange rate policy, the international monetary system, Dutch Disease, and economic...

This paper examines the implications of the Trump Administration's U.S. trade policy on U.S.–India relations and the Indian economy against the backdrop of strengthening political and strategic ties between the two countries, which have been strong since the beginning of this century. Trump's strategy of using tariffs as the bargaining chip in bila...

Over the past three decades, free trade agreements (FTAs) have become an integral and enduring part of the global trading system. The number of FTAs notified to the World Trade Organization increased from 19 in 1990 to 292 by January 2019. ¹ However, debate on the economic case for following the FTA path as an alternative to multilateral and unilat...

This paper examines the growth trajectory and the current state of the Indian automobile industry, paying attention to factors that underpinned its transition from import substitution to integration into global production networks. Market-conforming policies implemented by the government of India over the past 2 decades, which marked a clear depart...

This chapter examines Sri Lanka’s experience with manufacturing exports expansion, placing emphasis on opportunities and policy priorities in a rapidly changing global context in which global production sharing has become the prime mover of cross-border production and trade. There is compelling evidence that liberalization reforms initiated in 1977...

Cross‐border dispersion of different stages/slices of the production processes within vertically integrated global industries (“global production sharing”) has been a key structural change in the global economy in recent decades. This paper examines India's experience with exploiting opportunities created by this phenomenon for export expansion fro...

This paper examines prerequisites for a successful inter-state economic corridor development program in a country with a federal system of government through an in-depth study of the design, implementation and the developmental impact of the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER) in Malaysia that encompasses the states of Penang, Kedah, Perak and...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) offer targeted opportunities for the poor to generate additional income with a range of financial services including credit, insurance, savings accounts and money transfers. Aside from reducing poverty, microfinance can potentially improve health because it is the poor who are usually more constrained from health in...

Cross-border dispersion of production processes within vertically integrated global industries (“global production sharing”) has been an increasingly important structural feature of economic globalisation in the recent decades. This paper examines patterns and determinants of global production sharing with an emphasis on how Australian manufacturin...

The end of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka in 2009 generated widespread expectations of a period of sustained economic growth, building on the achievements of the liberalization reforms over the three previous decades. However, recent developments have dampened that optimism, rekindling fears that Sri Lanka's tale of missed opportunities may conti...

This paper examines causes and implications of Sri Lanka's political regime shift in February 2015, which has been widely hailed a victory for democracy, against the backdrop of the country's political and economic development in the post-independence era. The regime shift vividly demonstrates that voters, given the chance, turn against leaders the...

The implications of global production sharing for the measurement of price elasticity in international trade is examined using a unique dataset relating to manufacturing imports of the USA. There is strong evidence that parts and components, which account for a growing share of manufacturing trade, are remarkably less sensitive to changes in relati...

Has the Chinese economy approached the ‘Lewisian turning point’ that marks the ending of the initial phase of industrial transformation fueled by surplus labour? In this paper we undertake an interpretative survey of the literature on this issue, in the context of China’s labour market conditions prior to the reforms and structural change of the pa...

To determine how important governmental, social, and economic factors are in driving antibiotic resistance compared to the factors usually considered the main driving factors-antibiotic usage and levels of economic development. A retrospective multivariate analysis of the variation of antibiotic resistance in Europe in terms of human antibiotic usa...

This paper examines the growth trajectory and the current state of the Malaysian automobile industry, with emphasis on the fate of the national car (Proton) project. The cause of the tragic ending of the Malaysian dream of building an internationally competitive national automotive industry was rooted in the very conception of the project. The proj...

The end of the long civil war in Sri Lanka in 2009 generated widespread expectations of a peace dividend that would enable the country to embark on a period of sustained economic growth. Recent developments have dampened that optimism, however, rekindling fears that Sri Lanka's tale of missed opportunities may continue. After showing remarkable res...

This paper examines the role of capital controls as a macroeconomic policy tool in light of the Malaysian experience. It consists of an econometric analysis of quarterly data over the period 1990–2010 using newly constructed capital inflow and outflow policy indexes as well as analytical narratives of episodes of controls imposed on inflows (1994)...

The paper surveys recent development in Sri Lankan trade policy, with an emphasis on emerging protectionist tendencies, using Sri Lanka’s Trade Policy Review (2010) by the World Trade Organisation as a reference point. The Sri Lankan experience for over the three decades following the liberalisation reforms stated in 1977 has clearly demonstrated t...

This chapter examines the export experience of East Asian economies in the aftermath of the crisis against the backdrop of a systematic analysis of pre-crisis trade patterns. The analysis is motivated by the "decoupling" thesis, which was a popular theme in Asian policy circles in the lead-up to the onset of the recent financial crisis, and aims to...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine patterns and determinants of trade among developing countries (South‐South trade), with emphasis on the role of production sharing in global economic integration of the Southern economies. Design/methodology/approach The paper begins with an analytical narrative of the emerging trends and patterns of...

This paper is an exploratory investigation into the nature and effectiveness of international humanitarian aid effort after the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. Relief assistance poured in quickly and copiously, and helped avert 'second mortality' from exposure and starvation in the tsunami-affected countries. Foreign aid also provided a vital leeway...

This paper investigates the impact of foreign labour on domestic manufacturing wages through a case study of Malaysia, a country where foreign labour immigration has played a key role in manufacturing growth over the past two decades. The main focus of the paper is on an econometric analysis of the determinants of inter-industry variation in wage g...

Over the past four decades merchandise trade of developing Asian economies (DAEs) has grown at a much faster rate than growth in world trade, with a distinct intra-regional bias. Global production sharing has become a unique feature of the region's economic landscape, with China playing a pivotal complementary role as the premier assembly centre wi...

This article examines the impact of the Thailand–Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) on bilateral trade between the two countries, paying attention to the implications of rules of origin and the utilisation of tariff preferences. It is found that trade has expanded faster since TAFTA came into effect, but the impact has heavily concentrated in a...

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of the rationale behind the case for promoting trade among developing countries (South-South trade) by examining the emerging trends, patterns, and determinants of intra-developing country trade (South-South trade) in Asia within the wider global contest. The paper covers all developin...

The purpose of this paper is to inform the contemporary policy debate on promoting trade among developing countries (South-South trade) by analyzing trade patterns of developing Asian economies from a comparative global perspective. The paper begins with a stage-setting historical overview of the policy debate on South-South trade. It then examines...

This paper provides trade flow projections for major Asian developing economies (ADEs) up to 2030 against the backdrop of an in-depth analysis of policy shifts and trade patterns over the past 4 decades. Merchandise trade of ADEs has grown at a much faster rate in the global context, with a distinct intraregional bias. Global production sharing has...

This paper examines patterns and determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Malaysia from a comparative Southeast Asian perspective. There is clear evidence that Malaysia's relative attractiveness for FDI within the region has eroded in recent years; outflow of FDI from Malaysia has consistently surpassed inflow of FDI, a pattern not seen i...

This paper examines the impact of the Australia-Thailand free trade agreement (TAFTA) on bilateral trade between the two countries, paying attention to the implications of rules of origins (RoO) and the utilization of tariff preferences. It is found that trade has expanded faster following TAFTA came into effect, but the impact has heavily concentr...

Global production sharing—the division of production processes into geographically separated stages—is a central feature of economic globalization. This study seeks to broaden our understanding of global production sharing, and to explore policy options for developing countries to engage effectively in production networks through a case study o...

This paper examines patterns and determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Malaysia from a comparative Southeast Asian perspective. There is clear evidence that Malaysia's relative attractiveness for FDI within the region has eroded in recent years; outflow of FDI from Malaysia has consistently surpassed inflow of FDI, a pattern not seen i...

This paper examines patterns and determinants of overseas R&D investment by US-based manufacturing MNEs using a new panel dataset over the period 1990-2004. The analysis reveals that R&D intensity of operation of US MNE affiliates is determined mainly by the domestic market size, overall R&D capability and cost of hiring R&D personnel. There is no...

Fragmentation-based specialisation has become an integral part of the economic landscape of East Asia. Dependence on this new form of international specialisation is proportionately larger in East Asia, in particular in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, than in North America and Europe. In this regard, an important recent development has...

This paper examines the export experience of China and other East Asian economies in the aftermaths of the global financial crisis against the backdrop of pre-crisis trade patterns. The analysis is motivated by the ‘decoupling’ thesis, which was a popular theme in the Asian policy circles in the lead-up to the onset of the recent financial crisis,...

This paper examines the industrialisation experience in Sri Lanka following the outward-oriented policy reforms initiated in 1977. The reforms helped transform a primary product exporting economy into one in which manufactures dominate exports. The improved performance of the economy is seen in significant terms of trade gains, improvement in outpu...

The Southeast Asian economies have entered their worst post-1997 recession in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The region is now in dire need of appropriate policy tools that put in place immunity to the ripple effects and a full momentum of an economic recovery. This leading article aims to highlight the key inquiries into the impacts...

:The Southeast Asian economies have entered their worst post-1997 recession in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The region is now in dire need of appropriate policy tools that put in place immunity to the ripple effects and a full momentum of an economic recovery. This leading article aims to highlight the key inquiries into the impact...

This paper examines the extent and pattern of global production sharing, focusing on East Asia, and probes its implications for the analysis of the determinants of trade flows. Reflecting rapid global spread of production sharing, trade in parts and components has increased at a much faster rate than total manufacturing trade in recent years and Ea...

This paper examines macroeconomic experiences and policies of Malaysia with emphasis on the three major crisis episodes during the post independence era. It probes the nature and origin of the macroeconomic shocks and the institutional and ideological influences on policy formulation and the responses of economic agents, placing the three episodes...

This paper examines the implications of global production sharing for economic integration in East Asia, with emphasis on the behavior of trade flows in the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis. While trade in parts and components and final assembly within production networks (“network trade”) has generally grown faster than total world trade in...

This paper aims to contribute to the contemporary policy debate on the role of trade policy reforms in economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries through a review of Trade Liberalisation and The Poverty of Nations by A.P. Thirlwall and Penelope Pacheco-Lopez (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar). It begins with a chapter-by-chapter...

This paper examines emerging patterns and economic implications of Indian foreign direct investment from a historical perspective against the backdrop of the evolving role of developing-country firms (emerging multinational enterprises, EMES) as an important force of economic globalisation. The novelty of the analysis lies in its specific focus on...

This paper examines foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing Asia over the past three decades with emphasis on two key issues: the implications of the ongoing process of international production fragmentation and the alleged ‘crowding out’ effect of China’s rise as a major host to FDI on the other countries in the region. The evidence suggests...

This paper examines Sino-US trade relations, focusing on the ongoing process of global production sharing, involving splitting of the production process into discrete activities that are then allocated across countries, and the resulting trade complementarities between the two countries in world manufacturing trade. The results suggest that the Sin...

This paper examines Vietnam's export performance in the process of economic transition. The key theme of analysis is the complementary role of domestic policy shifts and the ongoing changes in world trade patterns in determining trends and patterns of exports. The analysis yields clear evidence that when market forces are unleashed, albeit in a con...

This paper examines how China's emergence as a major trading nation is affecting export performance of its East Asian neighbours. Following a stage-setting overview of trends and patterns of China's export performance, it probes China competition in third country markets and emerging patterns of imports. The East Asian export experience is examined...

This paper examines how China’s emergence as a major player in the global economy is affecting export performance of and FDI flows to its East Asian neighbours against the backdrop of the ongoing process of global production sharing. The findings indicate that the 'China threat’ has been vastly exaggerated in the contemporary policy debate. China’s...

This paper examines the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the process of industrial transition in Vietnam in the context of market-oriented reforms undertaken over the past two decades. The findings are consistent with the conventional wisdom that concomitant liberalization of trade and investment regimes, accompanied by creating a congeni...

This paper examines Vietnam’s export performance in the process of economic transition. The key theme of analysis is the complementary role of domestic policy shifts and the ongoing changes in world trade patterns in determining trends and patterns of exports. The analysis yields clear evidence that when market forces are unleashed, albeit in a con...

This paper examines the implications of global production sharing for regional and global trade patterns in East Asia using a new data set culled from the UN trade database. It is found that, while ‘network trade’ has generally grown faster than total world trade in manufacturing, the degree of dependence of East Asia on this new form of internatio...

This paper examines the export experience of East Asian economies in the aftermaths of the global financial crisis against the backdrop of pre-crisis trade patterns. The analysis is motivated by the ‘decoupling’ thesis, the notion that the East Asian region has become a self-contained economic entity with potential for maintaining its own growth dy...

This paper examines the structure and direction of developing Asia’s trade over the past two decades. The impacts on developing Asia of the economic slowdown in 2009–2010 in high-income countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which includes the European Union (EU), Japan, and United States (US) are projected t...

This paper contributes to the debate on the use of temporary controls on capital outflows as a crisis resolution measure by examining the outcome of Malaysia's radical response to the 1997-98 financial crisis. The analysis suggests that carefully designed temporary capital controls were successful in providing Malaysian policymakers a viable settin...

This paper examines the implications of international fragmentation of production for trade patterns of Singapore and the other ASEAN economies, with emphasis on their regional and global economic integration. The analysis reveals that the degree of dependence of these countries on this new global division of labor is much larger compared to the ot...

During the first four decades of the post-independence era India continued to remain an underperformer in world export markets, relative to both her own potential and the performance of many other developing countries. The consensus of the sizeable literature on this subject is that domestic economic polices, rather than external demand conditions,...

TThis paper examines the implications of China's rapid integration into global production networks for export performance of countries in Southeast Asia. In a clear departure from the conventional practice, the trade flow analysis of the paper is based on a careful disaggregation of reported trade data into components and final goods, with a view t...

This is a product of a research project on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, under the leadership of Kym Anderson of the World Bank's Development Research Group. The authors are grateful for helpful comments from workshop participants and for funding from World Bank Trust Funds provided by the governments of Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands (B...

This paper examines US-China trade relations, focusing on the ongoing process of global production sharing global production sharing—the breakup of the production processes into geographically separated stag—and the resulting trade complementarities between the two countries in world manufacturing trade. The results suggest that the USChina trade i...

Terms of trade implications of diversification into manufactured exports in a traditional primary-exporting country are examined in the light of the Sri Lankan experience over the past two decades. The empirical analysis focuses on trends in both commodity and income terms of trade, employing a methodology which takes care of the 'spurious regressi...

The objective of the paper is to examine the role of the two donor agencies, the IMF and the World Bank in the formulation of social welfare policies in the post-independence Sri Lanka. The ideologies of the two major parties in Sri Lanka, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), became the determining factor in the f...

This paper investigates the relationship between tariff and growth in the Australian economy over the period from 1871 to 2002. The study is motivated by the debate on the apparent 'tariff-growth paradox', a sign switch in the link between tariff rate and growth between the first and second episodes of globalization in world history, established fr...

This paper examines the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is the expansion of manufacturing exports from developing countries, in the light of the Asia experience. First a typology of MNE-export nexus is developed in the context changes in patterns of international production over the past two decades. The typology is then applied to empiric...

This paper examines the implications of international production fragmentation for global and regional trade patterns, with special emphasis on countries in East Asia. It is found that, while trade in parts and components (fragmentation trade) has generally grown faster than total world manufacturing trade, the degree of dependence of East Asia on...

This article examines Sri Lanka's industrialisation experience following the policy reforms initiated in 1977, with a view to informing the contemporary debate on the role of outward-oriented trade and investment policy in industrialisation in developing countries. There is strong evidence that improved performance of domestic manufacturing through...

This paper examines post-crisis export performance in Indonesia against the backdrop of pre-crisis experience and the comparative export performance of other Southeast Asian countries. It surveys trends and patterns of export performance, focusing on comparative experience in major commodity categories and changing revealed comparative advantage. I...

This paper examines the current state of the trade policy regime in Vietnam against the backdrop of market-oriented policy reforms undertaken over the past one-and-a-half decades. The core of the paper is an in-depth analysis of the structure of protection, focusing on both incentives for import-competing production and the bias in the incentive st...

This paper examines emerging patterns of labour migration in East Asia and related policy issues from the perspective of labour-importing countries. Following a survey of the characteristics of labour flows stemming from, but more importantly occurring within, the region, it probes inter-country differences, both in the timing of the entry of migra...

This paper examines patterns and determinants of overseas R&D expenditure of US-based manufacturing MNEs using a new panel dataset over the period 1990-2001. It is found that inter-country differences in R&D intensity of operation of US MNE affiliates are fundamentally determined by the domestic market size, overall R&D capability and cost of hirin...