Fumitaka Furuoka

The Relationship between Population and Economic Growth in Asian Economies

The main aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between population and economic growth in Asian economies. Generally, the results of the Johansen (1988) and Gregory and Hansen (1996) cointegration methods show that there is no long-run relationship between population and economic growth. Nonetheless, the study finds that there is bidirectional Granger causality between population and economic growth for Japan, Korea, and Thailand. For China, Singapore, and the Philippines, population is found to Granger cause economic growth and not vice versa. For Hong Kong and Malaysia, economic growth is found to Granger cause population and not vice versa. For Taiwan and Indonesia, there is no evidence of Granger causality between population and economic growth. On the whole, the relationship between population and economic growth is not straightforward. Population growth could be beneficial or detrimental to economic growth and economic growth could have an impact on population growth.

Military expenditure and economic development in China: an empirical inquiry

Increases in military spending have a big impact on the socioeconomic conditions in any country. However, there is no consensus as to whether the rising military expenditure is beneficial or detrimental to economic growth. The present study chose China as a case study to empirically examine a complex relationship between military expenditure and economic development. The findings from the Johansen cointegration test indicated that there existed a long-run relationship between China’s military spending and economic growth. Furthermore, the Granger causality test detected a unidirectional causality from economic development to military expenditure. These results were further confirmed by the findings from the impulse response function. This means that China represents an example of a developing economy where the size of military expenditure expands in the process of economic transformation.

Are unemployment rates stationary in Asia-Pacific countries? New findings from Fourier ADF test

This article examines whether the unemployment rates in five Asia-Pacific countries can be described as a stationary process. It employs a newly developed nonlinear Fourier ADF test for this purpose. The findings indicated that South Korea’s unemployment rate could be described as a stationary process; the unemployment rates in Australia and Hong Kong could be considered as a stationary process around the structural breaks; in China and Japan the unemployment rates exhibited a weak tendency to return to equilibrium level.

A new test for analysing hysteresis in European unemployment

ABSTRACT This article proposes a new unit root test to analyse unemployment hysteresis. The test is able to incorporate cross-sectional dependence, unattended nonlinearity and unknown structural breaks in the time-series data. This study used data on unemployment in five European countries. The findings indicated that conventional unit root tests failed to reject the null hypothesis of hysteresis for all countries. However, the newly proposed unit root test was able to reject the null hypothesis for the Spanish unemployment rate.

Determinants of China's and Japan's Foreign Aid Allocations in Africa

Foreign aid plays an important role in promoting economic development in Africa. Recently, several countries, most notably China, have emerged as alternative sources of foreign aid. However, their motives for providing foreign aid have been questioned. The present study examines and compares determinants of Chinas and Japans foreign aid allocations in Africa. It assumes that the distribution of foreign aid was determined by the aid donors’ self-interest and also by the aid recipients’ needs. Three panel model methods, namely, the pooled OLS method, the one-way fixed effects method and the two-way fixed effects methods, were employed to examine and compare the patterns of Chinas and Japans foreign aid allocation in Africa. The main finding was that the provision of foreign aid by China and Japan was primarily driven by the aid donors’ self-interest. Additionally, the size of population in a recipient country was an important element to determine Chinas and Japans aid allocations. The findings also suggest that Japan tended to pay more attention to the aid recipient countries’ needs as well as to the quality of governance and institutions in these countries. Overall, the findings indicate that there was no considerable difference in the motives for the provision of aid between the two aid donor countries.

“A Distant Land of Snow …”: Russian Language Learners’ Representations of Russia

Abstract Extensive research has been done on language learners’ perceptions and representations of the target language country, culture and speaking community. However, first of all, there is a lack of such studies in the context of Russian language teaching and learning. Secondly, no attempts have been made in the previous studies to quantitatively assess the favourabillity of the country images held by the language learners. The present study addresses these gaps in research literature. It employs an interdisciplinary approach to explore the content of Russian language learners’ stereotypical representations of Russia and to assess favourability of these stereotypes. The findings indicate that the students’ representations of Russia were predominantly positive though their knowledge about the country was limited. The study offers a discussion on pedagogical implications of its findings.

Exports and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: New insights from innovative econometric methods

ABSTRACT This study examined the relationship between exports and economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. It employed innovative econometric methods, including the Fourier ADF with structural break test, a comparative analysis of three causality tests and a rolling causality test procedure. The findings suggested that there was a statistically significant relationship between exports and economic growth in several Sub-Saharan countries. However, the causal linkages between exports and economic growth in these countries were found to be weak and unstable. These empirical results have some notable policy implications.

Do CLMV countries catch up with the older ASEAN members in terms of income level

ABSTRACT This article examined whether Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam were catching up in terms of real per capita Gross Domestic Product with the older six Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, namely Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The findings indicated that Cambodia succeeded in reaching Indonesia’s income level and Vietnam was catching up with Indonesia and the Philippines. However, the income gap between Laos and Myanmar and the older ASEAN members was not reduced. These findings have some policy implications.

Unemployment Dynamics In The Asia-Pacific Region: A Preliminary Investigation

This study empirically examined unemployment dynamics in 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, namely, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. It used quarterly data on the unemployment rates from the first quarter of 1980 to the first quarter of 2013. This paper employed three different econometric methods, including the recently-developed powerful unit root test with structural break (Lee and Strazicich, 2003, 2004) and the nonlinear unit root test (Enders and Lee, 2012). The findings indicated that the unemployment rates in five countries of the region, namely, China, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand, had highly dynamic labor markets in which higher-than-normal unemployment rates would revert to the normal level. The other seven Asia-Pacific countries had less dynamic labor markets. The findings of this study have some important policy implications.

Mitigating Shadow Economy Through Dual Banking Sector Development in Malaysia

Theory argues that as long as the shadow economy is of sufficient size, the leakage or loss of tax revenue through tax evasion will also be substantial. In this chapter, we provide new estimates of the size of the shadow economy in Malaysia for the period 1971–2013. Further, we relate the shadow economy to its determinants as measured by the misery index. This chapter reveals that the relationship between the shadow economy and financial development in Malaysia exhibits an inverted U-shaped curve. The chapter concludes that the Malaysian government should embark on programs that can reduce the size of the shadow economy, relying on its dual banking system of Islamic and conventional banks.