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This paper investigates the trend of servicification in global value chains (GVCs). The degree of servicification is measured as the share of service value added in manufacturing exports. Service inputs are either from domestic market or from foreign countries, which are measured by the domestic servicification and the foreign servicification, respectively. Using the international input–output tables from 1995 to 2011, we estimate the degree of servicification across 61 countries with a focus on Asian nations which have been rarely studied in previous research. We observed an evident trend of servicification in manufacturing in the Asian countries, especially in the 16 countries associated with Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Asian countries tend to have a lower level of domestic servicification but a higher level of foreign servicification than OECD countries. We also identified five key factors in driving the trend of servicification. Countries with broader participation and lower positions in GVCs tend to have higher levels of foreign servicification in manufacturing. Improvements in information and communication technology (ICT) also raise the level of foreign servicification. However, countries with a larger supply of service workers, better regulation quality and less government governance have a higher level of domestic servicification in manufacturing.

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This paper studies the impacts of the 2011 mega flood on preferences, subjective expectations, and behaviors among rice-farming households in Cambodia, a country with weak formal institutions. We find flood victims to have larger risk aversion and altruism, and lower impatience and trust of friends and local governments. The disaster also induced flooded households to adjust upward their subjective expectations of future floods and of natural resources as a safety net. Mediating (partially if not all) through these changes in preferences and expectations, the 2011 flood also affected households' behaviors, some of which could further affect long-term economic development and resilience to future floods. We find flooded households to have lower productive investment, to substitute away social insurance by increasing self-insurance and demand for market-based instruments, and more importantly, to increase the use of natural resources as insurance. These findings shed light on the design of incentive-compatible safety nets and development interventions in an economy with underdeveloped institutions.

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