ESCAP Repository (United Nations ESCAP)
Not a member yet
8868 research outputs found
Sort by
Concept note. 2020 SPECA Economic Forum
No full textTheme: Regional Cooperation to Support Socioeconomic Recovery in the Wake of COVID-19The 2020 SPECA Economic Forum aims to strengthen cooperation in the subregion to support sustainable and inclusive economic recovery in the wake of COVID-19. The Forum provides a platform for SPECA participating countries and their partners to discuss and develop ideas for coordinated actions by Governments, United Nations system and other relevant stakeholders to respond to the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19, keeping in view the experiences and lessons learned from recent policy actions. The Forum will also discuss the complementarities between the implementation of short- to medium-term measures to support socioeconomic recovery and responding to the call for action to accelerate implementation of relevant international agendas such as the 2030 Agenda and the VPo
Information notice. 2020 SPECA Economic Forum, “Regional Cooperation to Support Socioeconomic Recovery in the Wake of COVID-19”, and Fifteenth Session of the SPECA Governing Council
No full textThe Governing Council of the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA) will hold its 15th session on 20 November 2020, on virtual modality. Under the chairmanship of Kyrgyzstan, seven SPECA participating countries, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, will discuss the outcomes of 2020 SPECA Economic Forum and adopt its conclusions and recommendations.This Information notice provides logistical details regarding 2020 SPECA Economic Forum and the fifteenth session of the SPECA Governing Council jointly organized by the Government of Kyrgyzstan, the present Chair country of the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
NIS Diagnosis and STI strategy development to achieve national sustainable development goals
Get PDFThis manual describes the process of adopting a National Innovation System (NIS) framework, and evolves strategies to strengthen the process of creating and diffusing new technologies and innovation within a nation state’s economy. While innovation can be created without research, the increasing globalization has not reduced the importance of NIS framework in national economy. The framework maps out the institutions and incentive system that support technological change within a nation. Particular attention is paid to the interaction between the different actors or elements that constitute an NIS. The process of adoption of the NIS framework for identifying systemic failures that hamper the generation of innovation and its diffusion, and then correcting them so that innovative activity is promoted in a sustainable manner entails a series of five logical steps. The five steps are defining the core of the NIS, gathering data on innovative activity at the core, diagnosing health of the NIS by employing a variety of tried and tested innovation indicators, designing policy instruments to promote generation and diffusion of innovation, and finally evaluating the effectiveness of these policy instruments and making required corrections for optimizing their effectiveness. The manual would be very useful for policy makers working within the government ministries and institutions that support technological change, as well as to researchers in and students of the economics and policy regimes of technological change. </p
Inequality of opportunity : who are those left behind in Thailand?
Get PDFA new policy paper explores available data from Thailand to identify those groups that have been left furthest behind in a range of indicators. Using innovative methodologies and analytical tools, the paper reveals gaps between those who have access to basic opportunities and services, and those who don't
Civil registration in South Asia : regulations, relationships and the role of ICT
Get PDFThis publication builds on the success of the first meeting of the Civil Registration Professionals of South Asia in July 2018 and expands on the conversations from the second meeting, 26-28 November 2019, in Maldives. While the 2018 compendium of papers laid the groundwork for ‘Coordination, Connections and Collaboration’, the present papers review legislative frameworks, marriage and divorce in South Asia, and strengthening the use of ICT in civil registration.Introduction 1Acronyms & Abbreviations 2Considering Legislative Frameworks 5The Status of Marriage and Divorce Registration 23The Role of ICT in Strengthening Civil Registration 43Bibliography 56Conclusions and Recommendations 62Meeting Attendees</p
Monitoring the state of statistical operations under the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region: Highlights from a global COVID-19 survey of National Statistical Offices (2nd Round)
No full textThis report presents a summary of the Asia-Pacific results of the second round of a global survey on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on statistical operations of National Statistical Offices launched on 7 July 2020. The global survey was carried out under the aegis of United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Statistics Division (UNSD), in partnership with World Bank’s Development Data Group and in coordination with the UN Regional Commissions.
- Evidence of a commencement or re-commencement of face-to-face data collection.
- Continued impact on compilation of essential monthly and quarterly series including price statistics (such as CPI), national accounts and household sector statistics.
- National Statistical Offices serving on government crisis response groups or national level advisory groups.
- COVID-19 related data collection efforts being led by institutions other than the National Statistical Office and results of such data collection efforts not being used by the majority of National Statistical Offices.
- The opening (fully or partially) of all National Statistical Offices in Asia and the Pacific, but the majority of staff are being instructed to work from home. Adequate ICT equipment or infrastructure is the main barrier to staff face working from home.
- NSOs in Asia-Pacific continue receiving assistance international development partners.
- Additional assistance with equipment and infrastructure is greatly needed
Social media, development and governance
No full textThe rapid growth of social media has been influencing people worldwide in various aspects, be they social, economic, cultural or political. Against the backdrop of the global spread of social media, this Module, designed for government officials and policymakers, introduces the concept of social media; discusses the relationship between social media and society; examines the role social media plays in governance and achieving Sustainable Development Goals; and above all, aims to guide them through the development of a Government Social Media Policy by illustrating good practices in the use of social media in different governments. </p
Can this time be different? challenges and opportunities for Asia-Pacific economies in the aftermath of COVID-19
Get PDFAsia and the Pacific is facing its worst economic contraction at least since the 1970s due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The consequent economic weakness is likely to set back the region’s socio-economic progress and is predicted to push a significant number of people into unemployment and poverty while increasing inequality. Although slowdown in economic activities has provided some breathing space to the environment, such a benefit could turn out to be temporary. The region faces a difficult path to recovery, due to deepened existing vulnerabilities that include weak economic conditions and other exogenous shocks. These challenging times call for unprecedented relief and stimulus policies and offer an opportunity for countries to align their socio-economic policies with the 2030 Agenda to ensure a more inclusive, greener and more resilient future. Such policies include increasing investments in Sustainable Development Goals and strengthening governance to improve investment efficiency. Climate resilience should be built into investment projects. Regulatory changes could catalyze such efforts to “build forward better”. Partnership with local, national and international stakeholders is critical for Governments to support this development transition
Financing structure, micro and small enterprises' performance, and woman entrepreneurship in Indonesia
Get PDFAccess to finance has been found crucial in influencing firms’ real activities and economic performance. This paper investigates the relationship between the financing structure and firm performance by exploring a unique panel dataset of 59,968 Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) operating in the manufacturing sector in Indonesia over the 2010-2015 period. We collected a rich set of information about source of loans to assess the firm performance using yearly total factor productivity (TFP) and labor productivity of each firm. We then examined whether more financing options available to women entrepreneurship improves firm performance. Our results show that financial factors are highly decisive to firms’ TFP and labor productivity. The MSEs which have access to external formal financing directly improves productivity at the firm level. Moreover, the study finds a significant underperformance of firms owned by women entrepreneurs compared to those owned by men entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, we found that women entrepreneurs who have access to formal financing improve their firm’s performance. The effects of finance on productivity are also linked to the firm’s ownership, education, size and age. Our results are robust as demonstrated through the use of different approaches. These results provide support for policymakers to alleviate credit constraints to enhance productivity of micro and small enterprises and especially woman entrepreneurship in Indonesia.I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
II. Related Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
III. MSEs & financing sources in Indonesia: stylized facts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A. Main difficulties experienced by manufacturing MSEs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
B. Market structure of the Indonesian manufacturing sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
C. Heterogeneity of geographical attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
IV. Data and variables of interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
A. Data description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
B. Descriptive statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
a. Dependent variables: firm performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
b. Independent variables: financing structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
c. Control variables: firm characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
V. Empirical strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
VI. Results and Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
A. Formal financing and firm productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
a. Fixed effect regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
b. GMM estimator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
B. Woman entrepreneurs, formal financing and productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
C. Alternatives firm performance measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
D. Robustness Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
a. Alternative productivity measures: using the LP method . . . . . . . . . . . 26
b. Excluding Java island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
VII. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
A Data definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
A. List of variables included in the analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
B. Industry classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
B Additional Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3