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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the tourism-led growth hypothesis in Laos.

The authors test the tourism-led growth hypothesis using autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration estimation (Pesaran et al., 2001) and Granger causality tests.

The results of this paper show that when tourism is forcing variable, there is no long-run relationship between tourism development and economic growth. The Granger causality test demonstrates that there is a uni-directional causality running from economic growth in tourism.

The empirical results and policy recommendation may be useful for other small developing countries.

This study is the first study to investigate the relationship between tourism development and growth in Laos, using a relatively new econometric approach – ARDL bound testing.

This study aims to lay out a framework to quantify the impacts of mining booms on the macro-economy in Laos.

A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to investigate the impact of the mining sector on the Laos’ economy by examining this sector’s increase in both stock and the productivity of capital.

It was found that higher capital stock and productivity lead to increased value added, production, exports and investment in the mining sector. These increases result in higher real gross domestic product, exports and investment. Unfortunately, the effects from the associated Dutch disease negatively impact real production and value added in the agriculture and industry. Suitable macroeconomic management and prudent administration of the windfall income from mining are therefore important.

The finding is important for policymakers to implement policy to deal with the negative impact of mining booms.

It is the first study to attempt to investigate the impact of the mining sector on the Lao economy using the CGE model. Second, we also provide recommendation to cope with the negative impact from mining booms which provide important implications for other developing countries that face the negative impact from mining booms.

In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PRD), the services sector accounts for more than 41% of GDP and more than 80% of total trade (World Bank, 2021). Empirical studies show that most of the services trade occurs in the travel and tourism sectors, accounting for more than 50% of the total services trade in the Lao PDR. The services sector also plays an essential role in the Lao PDR’s wholesale and retail sectors, which employ the most significant number of people across all services sectors. The services trade balance was in a surplus between 1997 and 2011, though in 2012, it entered a significant deficit that continues to the present. This study investigates the link between services trade and economic growth in the Lao PDR, building on a recent analysis of the services trade in various economic and economic growth. The authors use econometric methods such as the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound test and the Granger causality test to analyze time-series data for the Lao PDR from 1990 to 2019. The econometric results demonstrate the long-run relationship between economic growth and variables related to the services trade. This indicates the government and policymakers of the Lao PDR should invest in infrastructure, particularly in trade facilitation and the liberalization of the services sector, to facilitate the acceleration of economic growth.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether the village development fund (VDF) program reduces poverty in terms of income and expenditure.

The authors use cross-sectional data that are collected from 361 households in 15 villages in the rural district of Sukhuma of Champasak province in 2012 and use regression for analysis.

The estimate of the empirical model that is used for the econometric analysis is based on the model constructed by Coleman (1999). This study finds that VDF program has a positive impact on household income and expenditure but that the impact is statistically insignificant.

The authors conclude that the VDF program has a minimal impact on poverty reduction in the study area.

Policy-maker should be aware that promotion of the VDF program might not reduce poverty in terms of income and expenditure.

This finding might have significant impacts on poverty reduction strategy of Lao PDR.

It is the first study to investigate the impact of the VDF program on poverty in Lao PDR.

Laos joined ASEAN in 1997 and has practiced the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme under ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) since 1998. To estimate the effects of AFTA on international trade in Laos, this paper has built a gravity model to analyze the specific effects of AFTA on aggregate international trade volume, import and export in Laos by using bilateral trade data between Laos and 29 partner countries during 2000 and 2012. Binary variables and the size of economy of AFTA are chosen to be the two variables reflecting the effect of AFTA on international trade of Laos. Results indicate that AFTA has positive effects on aggregate international trade volume and import while negative effects on export in Laos.