Does Regional Cooperation and Integration Contribute to Inclusive Development? A Guide to Policymaking

Rahul Sen and Sanchita Basu Das
Additional contact information
Rahul Sen: Auckland University of Technology
Sanchita Basu Das: Asian Development Bank

No 861, ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank

Abstract: Regional cooperation and integration (RCI) encompasses trade and investment, infrastructure connectivity, institutions, people on the move, regional value chains, diverse environments, and digital integration. This paper assesses the impact of RCI from 2006 to 2023 on job creation and income inequality, contributing to the empirical literature on regional cooperation in Asia and the Pacific. Using ADB’s Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation and Integration Index, the analysis focuses on four RCI dimensions—trade, infrastructure, institutions, and people and social mobility—and examines intra- and inter-regional cooperation. It finds that RCI improves job creation across the region, with infrastructure playing a greater role in driving intra-regional gains. But it also finds more nuanced effects on inequality: while RCI does not uniformly reduce inequality, the institutional dimension is found to significantly lower inequality at the interregional level. Overall, these evidence-based insights can guide the design and prioritization of RCI agendas, particularly by strengthening infrastructure connectivity and institutional cooperation to promote inclusive development in Asia and the Pacific.

Keywords: ARCII index; job creation; inequality; regional cooperation and integration (RCI); intra-regional RCI; interregional RCI; inclusive development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C38 C43 F15 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38
Date: 2026-09-16
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.adb.org/publications/rci-inclusive-development-guide-policymaking Full text
None

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:adbewp:023612

DOI: 10.22617/WPS260409-2

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ADB Economics Working Paper Series from Asian Development Bank 6 ADB Avenue, Mandaluyong City, 1550 Metro Manila, Philippines. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Orlee Velarde ().