The Asian Development Review is the professional journal of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that aims to disseminate the results of economic and development research carried out by ADB staff and resource persons. The Review seeks high-quality papers with relevance to policy issues and operational matters done in an empirically rigorous way. Articles are intended for readership among economists and social scientists in government, private sector, academia, and international organizations.

The Asian Development Review is a professional journal for disseminating the results of economic and development research carried out by staff and resource persons of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The Review seeks high-quality papers with relevance to policy issues and operational matters done in an empirically-rigorous way. Articles are intended for readership among economists and social scientists in government, private sector, academia, and international organizations. In this issue---Creating Good Employment Opportunities for the Rural Sector; Winners and Losers of Multinational Firm Entry into Developing Countries: Evidence from the Special Economic Zones of the People's Republic of China; Rural-Urban Migration and Employment Quality: A Case Study From Thailand; ADB Forum on the Use of Capital Controls.

This paper identifies, quantifies, and assesses fiscal risks in Bangladesh. By performing sensitivity analysis and using stochastic simulations, it measures risks arising from shocks to GDP growth, the exchange rate, commodity prices, and interest rates. It also analyzes specific fiscal and institutional risks, such as those related to the pension system, the issuance of guarantees, the state-owned commercial banks, and the external borrowing and debt management strategy. The paper finds that fiscal aggregates are particularly sensitive to shocks to commodity prices and exchange rates. Other factors that could affect fiscal aggregates are the unfunded pension system and the limited institutional capacity.

A decade after it took form, the Clean Energy Program of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was assessed according to the indicators set out in the 2009 Energy Policy. Drawing from hundreds of clean energy and energy access projects approved by ADB in 2008–2018, this review determines how far the bank has gone toward achieving its targets vis-à-vis baseline data from 2005 to 2007. It also explores what must to be done further in light of the new approach under ADB’s Strategy 2030 and the global goals in mitigating climate change and promoting sustainable development.

Impact evaluation aims to answer whether and to what extent a development intervention has delivered its intended effects, thus enabling evidence-based policy making. The desire for more hard evidence of the effectiveness of development interventions has fueled a growing interest in rigorous impact evaluation in the international development community. This report discusses the fundamental challenge of impact evaluation, which is to credibly attribute the impact, if any, to the intervention concerned. It then discusses the merits and limitations of various impact evaluation methods. It also presents a survey of recent applications of impact evaluation, focusing on the typical evaluation problems looked at, methods used, and key findings. The report includes six case studies and outlines practical steps in implementing an impact evaluation.

This publication outlines the performance of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in achieving the goals of Strategy 2030, the institution's long-term strategic framework. It is the 13th in a series of annual reports that tracks development progress in Asia and the Pacific, assesses ADB's development effectiveness over the years, and identifies areas where the institution's performance needs to be further strengthened.