Asia Program

Implications of Asia’s Gender Gap in Financial Inclusion

Posted July 30, 2019

Across the world, women face a variety of hurdles to reaching their full economic potential. Challenges associated with educational and financial access, structural economic factors, and culture can all pose impediments to women’s economic participation. This blog reviews women’s access to the financial services as well as the decision-making that enable them to prosper in economic terms.

The State Strikes Back: The Diminishing Role of China’s Private Sector

Posted July 12, 2019

In this episode, we sat down with Nick Lardy, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Nick is one of the world’s most prominent analysts of China’s economic development and the role of its private sector in generating growth. We sat down to discuss Nick’s new book, The State Strikes Back: The End of Economic Reform in China? Nick walked us through some troubling statistics about the Chinese private sector’s diminishing role as measured from a number of data sources and qualitative indicators of slowing economic reform.

Asia Focus

How Digital Innovation Can Increase Small Business Access to Finance in Asia

This Asia Focus summarizes the small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) credit gap in Asia and assesses ways certain emerging technologies and innovative business models—commonly known as “fintech”—can improve SME access to financial services in Asia and boost long-term economic growth in the process.

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