Browsing by Author "Sarisae, Sufiana"

The main objective of this study is to examine the impacts of disaggregated capital flows, namely foreign direct investment (FDI) and equity foreign portfolio investment (EFPI) on economic growth in ASEAN-5 countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand), using panel data from the period 1987 to 2008. The purpose behind this study is to investigate whether financial development is the absorptive capacity that helps the host country to capture the capital inflows in order to harness real economic growth. The study also attempted to investigate how these two different types of flows (FDI & EFPI) have different impacts on economic growth of the ASEAN-5 countries. This study employs pooled OLS and fixed effects regression estimators. Overall, the empirical results suggest that FDI or EFPI alone has statistical insignificant impact on economic growth in ASEAN-5 countries. However, lagged FDI or lagged EFPI alone which is estimated together with lagged FDI or lagged EFPI based on interaction term- e.g. financial development-, respectively, has negative impact on economic growth. On the other hand, lagged FDI or lagged EFPI with interaction term- financial development- have a positive relationship with economic growth. Consequently, financial development is the key and important variable that helps the ASEAN-5 countries capture absorptive capacity to harness real economic growth. In addition, there is no much difference between the impact of FDI and EFPI on Economic growth. As result, the finding of this study will help policy makers to design elements for more stable and sociable global regulatory infrastructure, and also formulate policies in the liberalized world economy.

Efficient, fast, and low-cost trade logistics have become crucial in international trade, especially with the growth of global production networks (GPNs). Trade logistics enhances the international competitiveness of a country, through shortening time taken to export, improving certainty, and reducing trade transaction costs. This study examines the impact of trade logistics on Thailand’s export at aggregated and disaggregated sectoral levels, extensive export margin, intensive export margin and vertical specialisation (import of inputs content of export). It employs an augmented gravity model using panel data over 13 years and 58 country pairs between Thailand and its trading partners using a Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimator. Seven indicators are used as proxies for trade logistics, which include the overall logistics performance index (LPI) and its six components: 1) customs, 2) infrastructure, 3) international shipment, 4) logistics quality and competence, 5) tracking and tracing, and 6) timeliness. In addition, this study also conducts a focused group discussion and interviews with relevant trade logistics agencies and major industrial players to see whether the results are in line with empirical estimation results. The initial empirical result indicates that overall LPI and its three components (customs, infrastructure, and tracking and tracing) of Thailand and its trading partners are the significant factors in promoting the aggregated export of Thailand. The aggregated export of Thailand responds to improvement in customs of Thailand and its trading partners the most. A further investigation shows similar results across sectors. The machinery and transportation equipment export of Thailand is positively affected by the improvement in customs, as well as tracking and tracing of Thailand and its trading partners, while food and chemical sectors benefit from the improvement in customs of Thailand and its trading partners. Furthermore, the improvement in the overall LPI and its six components increases the extensive export margin as well as vertical specialisation of Thailand, while the improvement in overall LPI, customs, infrastructure, tracking and tracing of Thailand and its trading partners promotes intensive export margin of Thailand. The findings from the focused group discussion and interviews reiterate the empirical estimation results. The main policy implication is to enhance the investment in Thailand’s e-custom paperless and National Single Window (NSW) in order to promote export and vertical specialisation of Thailand.