Measuring economic convergence: evidence from container throughputs of ASEAN-5 countries
by Chutarat Noosuwan; Yuthana Autsadee; Cherdvong Saengsupavanich; Abdullah Açık
World Review of Intermodal Transportation Research (WRITR), Vol. 12, No. 1, 2024

Abstract: The main purpose of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) union is economic integration and sustainable growth. In this regard, measuring whether past policies implemented are successful or not is important in deciding whether there is a need for improvement in future policies. The success of integration can be measured by the convergence hypothesis, and successful policies are expected to generate convergence between countries. Unlike the literature, we aimed to determine whether there is economic convergence among ASEAN-5 countries by testing convergence on their container throughputs that are not affected by inflationary effects. According to the results we obtained with panel unit root and stationarity tests, countries are converging to each other, and the difference in trade volumes is closing. This shows that the implemented policies are successful and the sustainable growth target is being achieved. Our study supports the findings of economic convergence in the literature through a less manipulable variable. It is recommended that policymakers and researchers also consider container throughput volumes when measuring the success of implemented policies.

Online publication date: Mon, 19-Aug-2024

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