Measuring Digital Trade Development in ASEAN: A Mixed-Method Framework

This type of research is quantitative descriptive. This study looks at the impact of tourism, foreign direct investment, and institutions on economic growth in ASEAN. The scope of this research is 10 ASEAN member countries from 2003-2021. This study uses five independent variables: international tourism receipts, Feign Direct Investment (FDI), the rule of law, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality. The dependent variable is GDP as a proxy for economic growth. The data used is secondary data sourced from the World Bank. The analytical method used is the panel data regression analysis method. Based on the results of this study, it was found that international tourism receipts, foreign direct investment, the rule of law, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality together affected GDP as a proxy for economic growth in ASEAN countries in 2003-2021. Partially, international tourism receipts, the rule of law, and government effectiveness positively and significantly affect economic gr. In contrast, FDI and regulatory quality have yet to influence economic growth in ASEAN countries from 2003-2021.

Corruption has become an issue in ASEAN and it bring a negative impact on ASEAN economic growth. On the other hand, quality of governance closed related to corruption. Poor governance will increase corruption. Furthermore, good governance is important to contribute to a stable nation and economic growth. So, this study aims to investigate the relationship between corruption, governance and economic growth in five ASEAN which include (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines). The purpose of this study is to examine the long run relationship between economic growth, corruption and governance in ASEAN 5. This study used static panel data analysis to analyse the relationship. The results show that corruption related to the gross domestic product per capita. The coefficient of corruption is statistically significant mean according the economic theory that corruption brings negative effect to economic growth.

Institutional quality plays an important role in supporting economic growth through the reduction of transaction costs. This study aims to analyse the effect of institutional quality on economic growth in ASEAN. The data used is a panel of ASEAN countries for the period 2002-2020. Three variables are used as proxies for institutional quality, namely regulatory quality, rule of law, and voice and accountability, while GDP per capita is a proxy for economic growth. Pooled least squares (PLS) was chosen to estimate the relationship between institutional quality and economic growth. The findings of this study show that all institutional quality variables have a significant effect on economic growth in ASEAN. Specifically, rule of law and voice and accountability exert a significantly positive impact on economic growth. However, it is noteworthy that the quality of regulatory frameworks exhibits a significantly negative impact on economic growth in the ASEAN region. The results of this study confirm the institutional role theory which shows that institutions play an important role in promoting economic growth. This study implies that the formulation of regulations or laws should not overlap so that the execution of regulations can run systematically. In addition, it is imperative to foster public participation as a means of government oversight and quality institutions can create a conducive climate for investment.

Introduction. African Union’s regional economic communities are stronghold for the African continent towards economic integration in various sub-regions and sectors of the African people. Their efforts have further deepen both trade and political interests among them which have equally boosted the integration drive of the African Union for the overall benefits of the Africans. Their moves have articulated many incentive, for more investments and attraction of Foreign Direct Investment that have brought continental reforms like stabilization, market policy, liberalization and privatisation methods adopted for regional arrangements to increase both private and public investments. Methods and materials. The paper adopts secondary source of data to elicit information while it makes use of integration theory to Midwife the import for the study towards economic, monetary market development and political union in African. Analysis and Results. The paper posits to examine their areas of dimensions, problems and prospects for collaboration to maximize economic goals and objectives which include security governance, economic growth, etc. The paper identifies problems like over concentration with the regional economic communities and their attendant peculiarities, while it notes the prospects of joint activities between the African Union and the regional economic Communities to build their capacities, harmonize and coordinate their institutions towards collaborations.

The relationship and causality direction between electricity consumption and economic growth is an important issue in the fields of energy economics and policies towards energy use. Extensive literatures has discussed the issue, but the array of findings provides anything but consensus on either the existence of relations or direction of causality between the variables. This study extends research in this area by studying the long-run and causal relations between economic growth, electricity consumption, labour and capital based on the neo-classical one sector aggregate production technology mode using data of electricity consumption and real GDP for ASEAN from the year 1983 to 2012. The analysis is conducted using advanced panel estimation approaches and found no causality in the short run while in the long-run, the results indicate that there are bidirectional relationship among variables. This study provides supplementary evidences of relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth in ASEAN.

This study aims to analyze the effect of domestic credit to private sector, bank overhead cost to total assets, stock prices volatility and loand net bank to GDP on economic growth in ASEAN, research countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam during the period 2001-2020 by applying the panel equation analysis method. An important finding in this study is that domestic credit to the private sector has a negative and significant impact on economic growth in ASEAN, while bank overhead costs to total assets affect economic growth positively and significantly in ASEAN. Furthermore, stock price volatility affects economic growth negatively and is significantly influenced in ASEAN and net bank loans to GDP affects economic growth positively and significantly in ASEAN. This study recommends that policy makers need to seek appropriate economic strategies to increase economic growth from the aspect of financial development.

After the era of independence in the 1960s, the newly independent states in Africa were not prepared for the idea of state cooperation. The reason for this was borne out of their belief that colonialism had exploitative effects on them, hence any form of state cooperation was feared to carry with it potentials of such effects. For them protectionism in economic policies was the way forward. The drawbacks of this attitude started becoming clear to these states as they were increasingly marginalized on the international front. Regional integration was, as such, thought as a possible way forward. The overarching platform for regional economic integration on the continental front was the Organisation of African Union (OAU) which was established in 1964. In the constituting Treaty, it had the aim of fostering economic development of the continent through economic cooperation among the economies of the states in Africa. It sought to achieve this through coordination and harmonisation in the field of economic and political cooperation. Other sub-regional efforts were established in Africa and existed concurrently with the OAU. Sub-regional groupings were formed among countries sharing the same geographical region on the continent and they were known as Regional Economic Communities (RECs). RECs were formed in Southern Africa, Northern Africa, Eastern and Central Africa and West Africa. Other RECs were formed along the lines of similarities in colonial heritage. These RECs had similar aims as the OAU, which was to foster economic development through sub-regional economic

Inter-governmental authority on development (IGAD) as a regional bloc is operating with a lot of impediments that delayed the organization from attaining greater economic integration. The objective of this study was to show the ways in which IGAD can actualize credible economic integration in the region, though the best is yet to come. Qualitative data collection approaches (interview and literature as primary and secondary data sources respectively) were employed. Finding of this study revealed that multi-level governance (MLG) model is the suitable approach to make IGAD successful in realizing greater economic integration. Decentralization of power, effective participation, designing specific objectives, sharing the lows as well as the highs, and establishing standing technical committee were the main strategies to effectuate MLG model on IGAD integration context. The major internal IGAD integration impediments were the presence of poor governance structure and weak leadership, the existence of weak Secretariat, the absence of annual meeting and the lack of cross-border institution. Whereas, the external hindering factors were the existence of longstanding political instability, armed conflicts and emergence of terrorist groups, lack of political determination, overlapping membership, similarity of import-export goods and the absence of uniformity among member states in undertaking responsibilities. In the nutshell, IGAD regional integration process is slow in its pace and needs urgent re-revitalization with the concept of MLG model. In order to make IGAD viable regional bloc re-revitalization of the IGAD governance structure with the concept of MLG model, having ordinary summit to address strategic agenda of the organization and drawing lessons from the EU integration process as the EU decentralized power along its layers of governance structure were recommended. Key words: Horn of Africa, Inter-governmental authority on development (IGAD), multi-level governance, regional economic communities, regional economic integration.

Economic growth is still the main indicator to see the development of economic activity. This study aims to determine the effect of consumer confidence, business confidence, government spending, and exports on economic growth in Asian countries, before the Covid pandemic occurred. Panel data were collected during the period 2015 - 2019 in Asian countries, which were analyzed using multiple linear regression equations. The results show that all the proposed variables have a positive effect on economic growth in Asia, except for the Government Expenditure factor. These results also show that before the Covid pandemic, consumer confidence, business confidence and exports in each country still contributed to economic growth, although based on the determination test, only 50.27% of these variables explained the movement of economic growth in Asia

The paper is aimed at assessing the impact of capital flows from commercial banks and FDI on sustainable economic growth in ASEAN countries. The study has conducted quantitative secondary analysis on data collected from 1980 to 2018 for Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Descriptive statistics, correlation and ARDL are applied to measure the impact of each variable on sustainable economic growth. The study has shown a significant long-run relationship of short-term debt, long-term debt, technology, capital flows and savings and investment on sustainable economic growth. Short-term debt is found to have a negative impact in the long run. The short-run relationship between long-term debt, short-term and sustainable economic growth is significant while insignificant for all other variables. The study is useful for countries that are aiming for sustainable economic growth since all the factors are helpful to consider. Future researchers can use other regions to empirically examine the same model. The study is focused on only 3 countries from ASEAN countries and is only focused on one region. As economic and political scenarios different, results might not be same in other parts of the world.

This study investigates the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in facilitating digital trade and its impact on economic growth in Ethiopia through an empirical time series analysis. Leveraging data from 1992 to 2023 and employing a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), the research examines the dynamic relationships between GDP growth and key determinants of digital trade, including internet penetration, ICT infrastructure, digital trade activity, and the trade index. The findings reveal a significant long-term relationship between GDP growth and these determinants, with internet penetration and ICT infrastructure playing pivotal roles in fostering economic development. Additionally, the trade index and digital trade activity are identified as critical in advancing Ethiopia's integration into the global digital economy. The study highlights the transformative potential of AI in digital trade by improving efficiency, accessibility, and market competitiveness. However, it identifies gaps in Ethiopia's adoption of AI, which limits the country's ability to fully capitalize on digital trade opportunities. By offering actionable recommendations for policymakers, this research underscores the need for strategic investments in AI and ICT infrastructure to harness the benefits of digital trade. Such efforts are crucial for driving sustainable economic growth and positioning Ethiopia as a competitive player in the global digital economy.

The Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are the pillars of the African Union (AU), and have been recognized by the AU as the key vehicles for economic integration and cooperation in Africa. The 2003 Session of the AU Conference of African Ministers of Health (CAMH) considered and adopted, inter alia, recommendations on a proposal to establish Health and Social Affairs Desks within the RECs. The 2003 Maputo Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government duly endorsed the Report of the Ministers and their recommendations. This paper represents an attempt to assess the extent to which the 2003 decision of CAMH has been implemented. It also argues that regional integration and cooperation should not be geared solely towards economic, trade or political purposes (but to the social sector as well), and proposes a set of criteria as useful starting points for determining which social (i.e. health) activities can be undertaken at the regional and sub-regional levels. Finally, it also proposes various programmatic options to be considered in strengthening the roles of the RECs in regional integration and cooperation in the social sector (in the context of NEPAD), as Health Desks are established within the RECs. African Journal of Health Sciences Vol. 14 (3-4) 2007: pp. 104-113

This paper examines the impact the economic community of West African States (ECOWAS) as a regional economic community (REC) has exerted on the backward integration of her member states into global value chains between 2007 and 2012. The conventional indicator of regional economic integration is compared vis-a-vis a relatively newly proposed indicator in order to investigate which one performs better in respect of economic expectations. Using the systems generalised method of moments, this study finds that the newly proposed indicator, which uses the rest of the world as the benchmark rather than the world while measuring the indicator of regional economic integration, outperforms its counterpart. Estimates also show that although ECOWAS as a REC has contributed positively to her members' backward integration into GVCs, this contribution is not statistically significant. To enhance members' access to the needed quality inputs via the backward integration, more intensified efforts are needed from this REC.

Based on the panel data from 1980 to 2014, this article examines the effect of services export on economic growth in the ASEAN countries. The results show that there has been evidence of services export-led growth in ASEAN during the past decades. The services export data are disaggregated into modern and traditional services exports, and the estimations show that both exports contribute to the GDP growth with the less strong positive effect from the modern services exports. The goods export, conventional engine of growth, also maintains its significant and robust role as the growth-enhancing factor for ASEAN. In the period of a slow growth of goods exports and the direction of the growth policy towards services-oriented sector, the services exports have become increasingly significant as a new engine of growth, which also complement to the existing growth engine. JEL Codes: F43, O4

Chapter 8 reviews the various stages of economic integration that can be distinguished and discusses VAT (and excise tax) coordination in the presence and absence of border controls. All African countries belong to a regional economic community (REC), and often to more than one. The countries are closely monitoring the remarkable combination of free politics and free economics achieved by the common market (now the single market) of the member states of the EU. Free trade and free competition raise the standards of living in participating member countries. In this setting, tax coordination should ensure that equal conditions for competitors are not distorted by discriminatory tax systems—a criterion that is referred to as tax neutrality. At the same time, however, the participating countries should retain as much tax autonomy as possible in order to be able to pursue their own social and economic policy goals.