Peer-to-peer lending is an emerging form of finance enabled by the Internet, matching investors with borrowers to get around rigid bank requirements faced by small and medium-sized enterprises—SMEs—and start-ups.

Borrowers apply to a peer-to-peer—P2P—platform of investors. The platform assesses the borrower’s credit risk and gives a credit score based on the platform’s own credit rating model. Investors then split up their money and lend it to borrowers, usually depending on the maturity of the loan and the risk entailed.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xL5QyY

About the speaker

David Storey was an analyst at the Asian Development Bank Institute at the time he presented his research. He is pursuing further studies at Warwick University, UK.

Know more about ADBI’s research on SMEs

http://bit.ly/2kVLk8U

The idea of sharing future tax revenues with private investors is being promoted by the Asian Development Bank Institute—the ADBI—in Tokyo to help finance the region’s huge demand for infrastructure. But Naoyuki Yoshino, the dean of the institute, warns that future revenues need to be sustained for such financing to succeed in the longer term.

Japanese private railway companies played a major role in expanding the country’s transport sector in the 20th century. These companies were much more profitable than Japan National Railways, the public railway operator that was split up into seven private companies three decades ago after incurring massive public debt.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2yV3gCA

About ADBI dean, Naoyuki Yoshino

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/dean

Watch an ADBI video about spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2eZaTQM

Know more about ADBI’s work on spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2vVF81w

Remittances to developing countries in Asia help improve their economies with the net gains from exporting labor, and improve the lives of the poor people forced to work overseas—often for decades—because jobs are lacking at home.

A small gain in the contribution of remittances to gross domestic product has led to huge declines in poverty in 10 developing countries, notably Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in South Asia; and the People’s Republic of China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand in East and Southeast Asia.

A 1% rise between 1981 and 2014 parallels with a 22.6% decline in the poverty gap ratio and a 16.0% decline in the poverty severity ratio—taking into account the average poor household’s spending and the minimum income needed to pay for basic everyday needs.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xtH4Do

Read the blog post

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/2017/08/international-remittances-and-poverty-reduction/

Read the working paper

https://www.adb.org/publications/international-remittances-and-poverty-reduction

Authors

Naoyuki Yoshino is the ADBI dean

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/dean

Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary is a professor of economics at Keio University, Tokyo

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/author/farhad-taghizadeh-hesary/

Miyu Otsuka is a graduate student of economics at Keio University, Tokyo, and Science Po University in Paris

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/author/miyu-otsuka/

Know more about ADBI’s work on remittances

http://bit.ly/2zb1wpK

Economic corridors forming around the Greater Mekong Subregion have opened the way to greater development as better infrastructure leads to improved roads and bridges between neighbors.

The corridors are boosting economic growth in the GMS, and promoting intraregional trade and investment for Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Viet Nam, Thailand, and Yunnan Province and the Guanxi Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China.

Questions remain about the net benefits after the high cost of infrastructure; how evenly the benefits are spread; and how border security can be maintained in the face of trafficking of people, drugs, timber, wildlife, weapons, and black market goods.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xvHJ2l

Read the working paper

http://bit.ly/2y6Etia

About the author

Manabu Fujimura, a professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo.

Know more about ADBI’s work

https://bit.ly/2SkWboG

Ha Noi, the Vietnamese capital, is renowned for its congested traffic. The government wants to build a third ring road around the city.

But it doesn’t have enough money for such a major project, with two other ring roads already under way. Some of the construction is being funded on a BOT basis—build, operate, transfer, whereby the investor constructs and maintains the ring road and gets the toll revenue for a certain period before handing it back to the public—and official development assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

However, private investors aren’t much interested because the expected returns on investment are too low. How can the government increase the returns to make investment more attractive to private companies?

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2wsCssC

About ADBI dean, Naoyuki Yoshino

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/dean

Watch an ADBI video about spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2eZaTQM

Know more about ADBI’s work on spillover effects

http://bit.ly/2vVF81w

Think tanks try to influence the powerful—people who hold government office and make decisions—by independently speaking the truth and not being afraid to do so.

Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, says that doesn’t seem to be enough these days.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2kfLNSX

Watch the complete presentation

http://bit.ly/2yCzvGD

Know more about the Global Think Tank Summit

https://www.adb.org/news/events/global-think-tank-summit-2017

Japanese banks, insurance companies, and pension funds are investing in the US and other financial markets, due to the low or even negative interest rates at home. But their demand is pushing up the price of hedging, so when their dollars get converted back into yen, they lose money along the way.

Robert McCauley, senior adviser at the Bank for International Settlements, told the audience at the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Annual Conference 2016 that strong demand by Japanese entities was pushing up the price of yen–dollar swaps, an instrument to hedge foreign investment. In short, it’s becoming more expensive for Japanese investors to get out of yen and into dollar.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2yieiFV

Watch the full presentation

http://bit.ly/2xTMvdW

Know more about ADBI’s work on low interest rates

http://bit.ly/2xMCRI1

As the People’s Republic of China — the PRC — develops its “Go Global” suite of policies, it has expanded international capacity cooperation as a way to adjust to the “new normal” of low industrial growth.

It’s a novel approach to overcapacity — where an industry is capable of building or producing more than it can sell — which was caused in the PRC by the 2008–2009 spending stimulus that flooded traditional industries. Steel, cement, aluminum, paper, glass, and everything from pork production to robots are in 2017 overwhelmed by cyclical overcapacity.

Extending the lifespan for reform in the PRC’s industrial economy by moving production offshore from industrial-policy-protected provinces into the global system is an innovative solution to the country’s industrial slowdown.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xqb1Dv

Read the blog post

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/2017/07/the-prcs-international-capacity-cooperation-exports-both-industrial-capacity-and-financial-risk/

Author

Tristan Kenderdine

https://www.asiapathways-adbi.org/author/tristan-kenderdine/

Obesity and overweight are among the main risk factors of noncommunicable diseases that kill millions of people worldwide. How much do these diseases cost health systems and economies?

In the United States, every obese person spends about $2,741 a year for additional health care. In Japan, overweight and obesity cost $1,537 a person. US businesses spend about $66 billion because of the absenteeism and lower productivity caused by overweight and obesity. The numbers are similar for European countries.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xtM7k6

Read the report

https://www.adb.org/publications/imminent-obesity-crisis-asia-and-pacific-first-cost-estimates

Authors

Matthias Helble, ADBI senior economist and co-chair of the Research Department

https://www.adb.org/adbi/about/staff-profiles/matthias-helble

Kris Francisco, ADBI research associate at the time the report was published

Know more about ADBI’s work on overweight and obesity

https://www.adb.org/adbi/search/year/2017?keywords=obesity

Read a related ADBI blog post

Obesity in Pacific Island countries and territories: How big a problem is it?

By Jillian Wate

bit.ly/2xqE5b5

Developing country economies are proving to be a competitive market for investment in local bonds because they offer relatively high yields and long maturities, which limit the risk of fluctuations in the US dollar, although not the risk to the developing economy.

The lessons of the Asian financial crisis 20 years ago have shown that the movement of capital can be a gamble.

The reality of international finance is complex, said Hyun-Song Shin, economic adviser and head of research at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) at a recent Asian Development Bank and ADBI conference, 20 Years After the Asian Financial Crisis.

Read the transcript

http://bit.ly/2xzrZyz

Watch the full presentation

https://youtu.be/ZA6l-aBJ44Y

Know more about the conference

http://bit.ly/2oYbBk6

Know more about ADBI’s work on the Asian financial crisis

http://bit.ly/2xq2S22