Yoshiro Higano – författare

This book brings together new studies on regional disparities in the provision and maintenance of health in Asia. Specifically, the individual chapters shed light on the various health challenges that Asian regions face with regard to environmental health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, reproductive health, and the development of health systems. The book departs from the existing literature on this subject in three ways. First, it explicitly recognizes that health is essential to the daily lives of human beings. Second, it underscores the fact that good health improves learning, employee productivity, and incomes. Third, the book demonstrates the ways in which an understanding of the preceding two points contributes to our grasp of economic growth and development. 

Because Asia is now the fastest-growing and most dynamic continent in the world, the respective chapters provide practical guidance concerning two key questions: First, how do we effectively address the health challenges in individual regions of Asia? Second, how do we ensure that the proposed health interventions lead to sustainable economic growth and development? To this end, the book emphasizes modeling and illustrates the role that sound empirical modeling can play in developing measures that sustainably address the health challenges confronting disparate Asian regions. All chapters were written by international experts who are active researchers in their respective fields. Hence, this book is highly recommended to all readers seeking an in-depth and up-to-date perspective on some of the most important issues at the interface of human health and regional growth and development in Asia.

This edited book brings together in one place new studies of rural–urban interactions and their implications for regional growth and development in different regions within Asia. Specifically, the individual chapters in the book shed light on the different kinds of rural–urban interactions that we witness in Asian regions, particularly those that are based on migration, poverty, inequality, education, economic dependence, and the flow of goods and services. The book departs from the existing literature in three ways. First, it explicitly recognizes that different kinds of rural–urban interactions have dissimilar impacts on the lives and hence on the welfare of the residents of rural and urban regions. Second, the book emphasizes the varied spatial and temporal dimensions of the interactions and the ways in which these dimensions influence rural and urban societies. Third, this book demonstrates the ways in which an understanding of the preceding two points contributes to our knowledge about economic growth and development. Because Asia is the fastest-growing and most dynamic continent in the world today, the research delineated in the individual chapters of the book provides practical guidance concerning two salient questions. First, how do we effectively address the economic development challenges stemming from the interactions between alternate rural and urban regions within Asia? Second, how do we ensure that the policies we design to address these challenges give rise to broad-based economic growth and development that is sustainable?

This book is especially valuable for its policy evaluation studies using both a theoretical model for policies carried out at national and regional levels and for gathering policy evaluation studies in diverse disciplines by empirical study.

Policy analysis shown here employs theoretical models such as an international trade model, an optimal tariff, and spatial reorganization. At the same time, factors in well-being are taken into consideration with land development, changes in migration and local economies by natural disasters, validation of efficiency for emission control methods, the relationship between cyberspace and physical space in urban networks, and NPOs’ investment activities.

The empirical research reported in this volume analyzes Japan, China, and Asian-Pacific cities. In the case of Japan, studies focus on the finances of local governments, the real estate industry, the role of consumer cooperatives in a food system, and agriculture and its productivity in hilly and mountainous areas. As well, the effects of industrial clusters in megacities and investment in high-speed railways and prediction of human behavior during an earthquake are studied. In China’s case, studies focus on food policy and the effect of ecology and environment on migration policy. For Asia-Pacific cities, studies show performance rankings of “super cities” in the region.

The book defines the frontier of policy evaluation following a middle path between theoretical study and empirical study with regard to evaluation. In addition, the book contributes to an understanding of the relationship between the goals and targets of sustainable development. This book is highly recommended for graduate students, policymakers, and researchers concerned with policy evaluation.

This collection of essays presents insight and methodology that are highly relevant for readers today as they consider the future of the world they live in. Experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, people have realized how fragile the current economy is and the necessity for reconstructing the socio-economic system. That system, which was considered the default for so long, was succeeded by the analytical framework of economics and regional science. The contents of this book are diversified, as are the achievements of Prof. Yasuhiro Sakai, to whom this volume is dedicated, and cover a wide area from mathematical and experimental economics to conventional and emerging fields of regional science. Some are timeless topics that have had new life breathed into them.

Part I deals with, among other areas, risk management with uncertain events; the effectiveness and impacts of regulation and friction related to trading; the stability of strategic behavior and market equilibrium; and sustainable regional development and urban planning from the long-term perspective. Part II also presents a diversity of subjects, including input–output analysis and computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling for internal as well as external structure and network linkage, such as a value chain; openness and creativity as related to competition among cities and regions; dispersion versus concentration; and inequality versus equality.

This edited book is the first to bring together in one place new theoretical and empirical evidence as well as case studies about spatial spillovers, with a particular focus on spillovers in Asia. In the context of this book, spatial spillovers are locally bounded and territorially rooted interactions between one or more economic agents and their environments. They are salient because they affect regional economic growth and development. Specifically, the individual chapters in this book shed light on the different kinds of spatial spillovers witnessed in Asian regions, particularly those that derive from the acquisition and transfer of knowledge, those that arise from horizontal or vertical industrial interactions, and those that come about because of economic growth. The book departs from the existing literature in three ways. First, the book explicitly recognizes that different kinds of spatial spillovers have dissimilar impacts on the lives and therefore on the welfare of the residents of different regions. Second, the book emphasizes the varied dimensions of the interactions and the ways in which these dimensions influence different societies. Third, this book demonstrates the ways in which an understanding of the preceding two points contributes to our knowledge about the nexuses between spatial spillovers and regional economic growth and development. Because Asia is the fastest growing and the most dynamic continent in the world today, the research delineated in the individual chapters of the book provides practical guidance concerning two salient questions. First, how do we effectively address the economic growth and development challenges stemming from spatial spillovers between one or more regions within Asia? Second, how do we ensure that the policies we design to address these challenges give rise to broad-based and sustainable economic growth and development?