Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Member Research Articles

Evaluating renewable energy consumption efficiency and impact factors in Asia-pacific economic cooperation countries: A new approach of DEA with undesirable output model

Balancing economic growth with environmental protection is a global priority. Both developed and developing nations face the challenge of optimizing renewable energy use to achieve sustainable development while minimizing ecological harm. This study employs the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model, incorporating undesirable output, to assess the efficiency of renewable energy consumption across 21 member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) from 2011 to 2020. The main variables include foreign direct investment, total energy consumption, total renewable energy capacity as inputs, and gross domestic product growth and greenhouse gas emissions as desired outputs. Results reveal varying levels of renewable energy consumption efficiency, with Brunei, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong exhibiting the highest efficiency, while Russia, China, and Vietnam demonstrate the lowest. Notably, developed nations display greater efficiency in utilizing renewable energy compared to their developing counterparts. Moreover, optimizing foreign direct investment, renewable energy consumption, and total renewable energy capacity can enhance overall energy efficiency. By leveraging empirical evidence and estimation techniques, the study provides actionable recommendations for policymakers, emphasizing the pivotal role of financial development and green finance initiatives in promoting sustainable energy development across APEC member countries.

The Influence of Agricultural Exports, High-Technology Exports, Investment, and Regulatory Quality on the Gross Domestic Product of APEC Member Countries

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is one of the macroeconomic indicators that reflects the level of welfare of a country's population. The APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) forum has the main goal of promoting economic growth and enhancing prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. This is done by encouraging and facilitating more open trade and investment in the region. APEC member countries have different export characteristics, namely agricultural exports and high-technology exports. This study analyzes the influence of agricultural exports, high-technology exports, Foreign Direct Investment, and regulatory quality on the Gross Domestic Product of APEC member countries. The research data used are secondary data from the World Bank from 2011 to 2020, analyzed using the Fixed Effect Model approach of panel data regression method using E-Views 12. The results show that simultaneously, agricultural exports, high-technology exports, Foreign Direct Investment, and regulatory quality have a significant influence on the economies of APEC member countries. Partially, high-technology exports and regulatory quality have a positive and significant impact, while agricultural exports and Foreign Direct Investment have a positive but not significant impact on GDP. APEC countries should focus on productivity by harnessing technology and achieving inclusive economies for societal welfare.

Sustaining Integrity: The Role of Education and Macroeconomic Variables for Corruption Eradication

This study aims to analyze the effect of education level and several macroeconomic variables on the corruption index in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries. This study uses the two-stage least square (2SLS) estimation method. This study found that the lifelong learning index, higher education participation, and foreign direct investment have a negative and significant effect on corruption in all APEC member countries and developing country members. Secondary education and government efficiency index have a negative and significant effect on corruption in all countries (all member states, developed and developing countries). GDP per capita and economic openness have a positive and significant effect on corruption levels in APEC member states and developing countries. The fight against corruption must be immediately implemented as a political influence. Delaying this will reduce the effectiveness of future policies. Institutional reforms bring more positive benefits in countries that are really fighting corruption.

Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the APEC Region (Case Studies in 5 Countries, namely Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Indonesia for the Period 2012-2019)

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is an important factor in the development of a country and plays a crucial role in the growth and development of a country’s economy. FDI can be a source of capital in developing countries to help fund various sectors that are underfunded, this FDI also creates many new jobs so that the unemployment rate can be reduced. The entry of foreign investment is usually accompanied by technology transfer. One of the areas targeted by investors is the member countries of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). This study aims to determine the effect of inflation, interest rates, and trade openness on FDI (case studies in five APEC member countries, namely Australia, Japan, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, and Indonesia, period 2012-2019). The analytical method used in this study is the panel data regression analysis method with the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) model using STATA 16 software for data regression and Eviews 10 to test stationary data. The stationary test of the data in this study uses the Augmented Dickey–Fuller (ADF) method at the first difference because the data level is not stationary. The results of research conducted using the SUR Model show that inflation has a negative and significant effect on FDI, interest rates have a positive and significant effect on FDI, and trade openness has a significant and negative effect on FDI.
 Keywords: foreign direct investment, inflation, interest rates, seemingly unrelated regression, trade openness

Economic Convergence Among Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Members. A Comparative Analysis, 1960–2020

The process of global economic integration is justified by the primary goal of inclusive and balanced growth for all economies, so it is relevant to identify the extent to which this goal has been achieved. This research evaluates whether the member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have experienced economic convergence during the 1960–1990 (pre-APEC) and 1990–2020 (post-APEC) periods. For this purpose, beta, sigma and gamma convergence are estimated, which are methodological approaches proposed by Barro and Sala-i-Martin (1991, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1991(1), 170–182) and Marchante et al. (2006, Fundación de Estudios de Economía Aplicada Working Papers No. 2006-05), for APEC as a region and for the high- and middle-income economies that conform it. The results show that the process of economic convergence among APEC members intensified after its formation in 1989 and that the region can be categorized as an ‘economic convergence club’. As well as that, the high- and middle-income groups are converging towards their respective stationary state.

Merger as Strategic Partnership to Support SDG: A Positive Signal for Investors in Stock Market of APEC Member Countries

A merger is one of the strategic partnerships undertaken by a firm to pursue future growth and sustainability. Merger information signals a firm’s prospects to investors in the stock market. The present study examines investors’ reactions toward merger announcements under the different payment methods. The sample comprised 115 firms from the member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) that announced a merger between 2014 and 2018. The study employed the event study to test whether the bidding firm generates abnormal returns during the time surrounding the merger announcement and evaluate the differences in the returns between cash and stock payment of the merger. The results revealed that cash payment earned a significantly higher abnormal return post- than the pre-merger announcement, while there was no significant abnormal return for the period of pre- compared to the post-merger announcement in stock payment. Additionally, cash payments generated significantly higher cumulative average abnormal returns than stock payments. These findings imply that investors’ sentiments respond more positively to cash financing. The study confirms the signaling theory in which a firm action announcement conveys information to investors in the stock market.
 Keywords: merger, event-study, APEC, sustainability

Forecasting carbon dioxide emissions in APEC member countries by a new cumulative grey model

The continuous increase of global carbon dioxide emissions has been the focus of human concern. Discrete Grey forecasting Model (DGM) is used to forecast the CO2 mission in Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries in 2020–2023 using data from 2014 to 2019 and the accuracy of the model was tested by the MAPE value. The results show that among the 17 predicted member states, carbon dioxide emissions show an upward trend in 13 countries, while only 4 countries show a downward trend. Faced with the current situation, all countries should pay more attention to the issue of carbon dioxide emissions and adjust their climate and energy policies.

THE APEC INTEGRATED COMPETITIVE FORCE INDEX

The number of actors that affect the distribution of the competitive force in the global economy is growing, and the spheres of economic competition or cooperation are expanding to build up the competitive force. The article emphasizes the significant impact of international economic integration on the sustainable economic development of the world economy. It also shows that the study of the competitive force of interstate integration groupings is highly relevant today, as international economic integration plays a fundamental role in the development of trade and competitive relations between countries. The paper offers the methodology for competitiveness grouping of Member States of the international integration groupings in order to assess the global competitive force of trade and economic groupings in the world economy. The purpose is to investigate the Integrated Competitive Force Index of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) 2019 in order to analyze the attractiveness of APEC in terms of the global competitive force. It is also important to determine the attractiveness of APEC competitive environment according to 12 criteria on the basis of the research, which, in turn, allows for a better understanding and ranking of interstate integration groupings according to their competitive forces. Result. Based on the data of the Global Competitiveness Report 2019 on the competitiveness of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Member States (APEC), the Integrated Competitive Force Index of APEC as an interstate integration grouping has been calculated. The Index will help to assess economic integration or disintegration processes in the global economy. The article proves the necessity of the annual integrated competitive force ranking of international integration groupings. Practical implications. The introduction of the new Integrated Competitive Force Index of interstate integration groupings will help competition policymakers to decide which processes of economic integration or disintegration should be preferred in order to build up their competitive force in the global economy.

Fintech as a Strategy of Financial Inclusion in the Age of Digitalization

Inclusive growth is at the top of international organizations’ agenda in recent years and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is no exception. Since the 2008 global financial crisis revealed the intrinsic limitations of market-driven economic system despite its own merits incomparable to other alternatives, civil society and policymakers altogether have called for more shrewd policy actions that can achieve two critical public policy goals at once: promoting financial empowerment of the less privileged and enhancing competition in the financial market. While the emergence of fintech in financial markets in the past few years cannot be attributed to the competence of financial regulators and policymakers as to this call, what fintech has already achieved in terms of financial inclusion and competence of financial markets through disruption of traditional financial market structure demonstrate the importance of fintech as a strategy and policy tool of achieving the goal of inclusive growth. This strategy of achieving financial inclusion and financial market competition via fintech is more relevant to the APEC member countries because the region includes fast-growing fintech markets such as China, India, and Russia. Moreover, the growing significance of fintech services for SMEs (Business-to-Business, B2B) implies that fintech services have more relevance to the APEC economies as SMEs account over 97% of enterprises and employ over half of the workforce in the region.

EU GDPR or APEC CBPR? A comparative analysis of the approach of the EU and APEC to cross border data transfers and protection of personal data in the IoT era

This article examines the two major international data transfer schemes in existence today – the European Union (EU) model which at present is effectively the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cross Border Privacy Rules system (CBPR), in the context of the Internet of Things (IoT).While IoT data ostensibly relates to things i.e. products and services, it impacts individuals and their data protection and privacy rights, and raises compliance issues for corporations especially in relation to international data flows. The GDPR regulates the processing of personal data of individuals who are EU data subjects including cross border data transfers. As an EU Regulation, the GDPR applies directly as law to EU member nations. The GDPR also has extensive extraterritorial provisions that apply to processing of personal data outside the EU regardless of place of incorporation and geographical area of operation of the data controller/ processor. There are a number of ways that the GDPR enables lawful international transfer of personal data including schemes that are broadly similar to APEC CBPR.APEC CBPR is the other major regional framework regulating transfer of personal data between APEC member nations. It is essentially a voluntary accountability scheme that initially requires acceptance at country level, followed by independent certification by an accountability agent of the organization wishing to join the scheme. APEC CBPR is viewed by many in the United States of America (US) as preferable to the EU approach because CBPR is considered more conducive to business than its counterpart schemes under the GDPR, and therefore is regarded as the scheme most likely to prevail.While there are broad areas of similarity between the EU and APEC approaches to data protection in the context of cross border data transfer, there are also substantial differences. This paper considers the similarities and major differences, and the overall suitability of the two models for the era of the Internet of Things (IoT) in which large amounts of personal data are processed on an on-going basis from connected devices around the world. This is the first time the APEC and GDPR cross-border data schemes have been compared in this way. The paper concludes with the author expressing a view as to which scheme is likely to set the global standard.

Identifying the influencing factors on the quality of China’s forestry exports

Purpose China is not only the biggest importing country of the raw materials of forest products, but also the biggest exporting country of intermediate and final forest products. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the Khandelwal (2010) method and trade data from 2000 to 2014 of bilateral forest products between China and ten main developed countries to evaluate the quality of China’s forestry imports and exports. Subsequently, the influencing factors of product quality are analyzed. Findings The results show that the current export quality of plywood and fiberboard is decreasing, and the export quality of particleboard and paper products is on the rise. A further study finds that several factors have the positive effects on the quality of forestry exports, including gross domestic product of the importing country, forestry export value of the importing country as well as the number of forestry higher education graduates of the exporting country. Moreover, the study also finds that the status of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member has a negative effect on the quality of forestry exports, while the distance cost has a negative influence on fiberboard, paper and paperboard. Practical implications The study suggests that China needs to strengthen the research and development investment on forest products, and improve the quality of forest products to promote the trade development of forestry exports. Originality/value The existing literature has not shown much research regarding the quality of China’s forestry exports through econometric analysis. Therefore, the research results provide new perspective about the influencing factors on China’s forestry trade activities.

Mental health indicators in APEC.

The World Economic Forum (2011) concluded that the economic impact of mental illness is the single most important contributor among all non-communicable diseases to loss of productivity. The 21 economies represented by Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) responded to that information with efforts to address mental health as an integral component of economic development. In order to help assess the progress of APEC region compared to other regions of the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) granted us access to a subset of the 2014 Mental Health Atlas database containing health indicators from all 21 APEC economies. APEC-specific data were extracted using the same format used by WHO in its Mental Health Atlas to compare/contrast data in APEC versus the six WHO regions of the world. It was observed that mental health workforces in APEC include a higher number of psychiatrist providers compared with WHO regions. Suicide rates reported in three APEC economies are among the highest in the world. All APEC economies continue their individual and coordinated efforts to support their ' APEC Roadmap to Promote Mental Wellness in a Healthy Asia Pacific (2014-2020)'. Significant challenges for APEC members exist to coordinate regional efforts to improve mental health due to highly variable income levels, existing health infrastructures and social preferences. The findings in this report may serve as a helpful baseline for measuring success within the APEC region by 2020, the year in which progress in support of economic development will be reassessed.

Consumer Goods Market Integration Among Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Member Economies: A PPP-Based Analysis

This paper examines persistent behavior of deviations from purchasing power parity (PPP) constructed using consumer price indices and nominal exchange rates for APEC member economies over the period of 1981-2015. In particular, we ask if these deviations tend to converge to their long run equilibrium value. For this, we consider three different sample periods of 1981-2015, 1997-2015, and 1981-1996. We find that the panel unit root test rejects the unit root hypothesis that a deviation from PPP does not converge to its long run value for the period of 1997-2015 but does not reject it for the other two periods. We then investigate how quickly this deviation converges to its long run value and find that a half-life of a deviation from PPP is 5.7 quarters, which is much quicker than the estimates of 3 to 5 years reported by previous studies. This result is consistent with the argument that globalization and advancement in transportation and information technology significantly contribute to lowering trade barriers among APEC member economies.

Regional Port Productivity in APEC

The regional growth of the goods and services trade has placed greater pressure on the ports of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members, especially in the developing countries. The purpose of this study is to apply the generalized metafrontier Malmquist productivity index (gMMPI) to compare the port productivity of developed countries (DCs) and developing countries (LDCs) in APEC. The results indicate that, first, the average rate of utilized capacity among the ports of APEC members was only 65.7% during 2002–2011, which means that another 34.3% of additional through put can be handled with the same level of resources. Second, the average productivity of the container ports in the DCs appeared to be higher than those located in the LDCs. The main sources of productive growth in the DCs were based on scale efficiency change (SEC), technical efficiency change (TEC), and potential technological relative change (PTRC), while the main source of productive growth in LDCs was based on SEC. Third, SEC appeared to be the dominant factor that affects the utilization of all ports.

The integrated efficiency of economic development and CO2 emissions among Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation members

In recent years, the evaluation of energy, economic and environmental efficiency, employing the data envelopment analysis models, has been a hot topic in academe. When choosing models, people always expect to improve desirable outputs, while reducing undesirable outputs at the same time (e.g. when using a directional distance function model). However, directional distance function models may lead to biased estimations due to different directions given to different units. To overcome this shortcoming, in this paper, we propose another non-radial efficiency evaluation model based on previous literature, which can also improve desirable outputs and reduce undesirable outputs. Then we employ this model to analyse the economic efficiency and CO2 emissions efficiency of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members. Meanwhile, we also measure the efficiency change by using the Luenberger index, and analyse the reasons for efficiency changes from the perspectives of technical efficiency, and technical, changes. The results indicate that most countries have an extremely high economic efficiency, but relatively low CO2 emissions efficiency and integrated efficiency except for the United States, Japan, and Singapore. According to the Luenberger index, we find an increase in integrated efficiency and CO2 emissions efficiency for most members from 2001 to 2010; however, technical progress is the main contributor. Technical efficiency exhibits a downward trend for most members.

Non-communicable diseases in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member economies: Opportunities for achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030

Non-communicable diseases in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation member economies: Opportunities for achieving the sustainable development goals by 2030

Measuring the economic impacts of trade liberalisation on forest products trade in the Asia-Pacific region using the GTAP model

SUMMARY The paper examines the effects of unilateral trade liberalisation of forest products amongst the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member countries. It attempts to quantify the gains from liberalised trade when APEC member countries extend their preferential treatment to non-member countries in forest products trade using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model. Given that forest products comprise only a relatively small proportion of world merchandise trade, it is expected that trade liberalisation would cause small changes in terms of trade, real GDP, production, consumption and prices of forest products amongst APEC member countries. The results suggest that in general, when more countries participate in trade liberalisation the more welfare could be improved with the exception of the region North America which is comprised of three countries, the United States of America, Canada and Mexico.

Trade liberalization and trade performance of environmental goods: evidence from Asia-Pacific economic cooperation members

In this article, we study the impact of trade liberalization, including reductions in both tariff and nontariff trade barriers, on environmental goods (EGs) exports. Using bilateral trade data from 20 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation members, we find that tariff reduction in an exporting country has a larger positive impact on its exports of EGs than tariff reduction in an importing country. Our results also show that a lower nontariff barrier in an importing country increases its imports of EGs. A considerable amount of heterogeneity also exists in subsample results based on countries’ income levels.

Assessment of APCC multimodel ensemble prediction in seasonal climate forecasting: Retrospective (1983–2003) and real‐time forecasts (2008–2013)

AbstractSince 2007, the Asia‐Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Climate Center (APCC) has monthly issued multimodel ensemble (MME) seasonal predictions for 3 months, with 1 month lead time, and disseminated it to APEC member economies. This paper gives a comprehensive documentation of the current status of the APCC operational multimodel performance, with a large set of retrospective (1983–2003) and real‐time (2008–2013) predictions of temperature and precipitation. In order to investigate the enhancement in seasonal predictability that can be achieved by empirically weighted MME (using multiple regression) and calibrated MME (by correcting single‐model prediction using a stepwise pattern projection method) schemes, operationally implemented at the APCC, we compare them with a simple averaged MME (with equal weightings), for predicting seasonal mean temperature and precipitation 1 month ahead. The results indicate that the simple averaged MME consistently outperforms the multiple regression‐based MMEs, when considering all aspects of the predictions from operational prediction systems (i.e., in different variables, regions, and seasons) whereas the calibrated MME shows the capability to reduce errors and improve forecast skills in a large proportion of cases. The possible causes of the failure and success of the different MME methods implemented in the APCC operations are discussed.

Characterizing Good Review Practices: A Survey Report Among Agencies of APEC Member Economies.

As a first step in the implementation of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Best Regulatory Practice Project, the Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science conducted a gap analysis survey among regulatory agencies of 14 APEC member economies to assess the current use of good review practices (GRevP) to support transparent, consistent, predictable, and good-quality regulatory decision making. Although the majority of responding agencies have established some form of GRevP, most practices are currently evolving and are applied on an informal basis. Most agencies have developed standard operating procedures and guidelines and use a variety of training methods. The use of a common approach to regulatory review across jurisdictions would help build trust and confidence in each agency's processes, setting the stage for the possibility of work sharing across resource-constrained agencies and bringing consistency and transparency to the review process.