New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives – serie

This book addresses two general questions that have arisen as a result of the uneven rise of the various Asian economies in contemporary times. First, to lift people out of poverty and to improve the quality of their lives, how do we institute policies that will ensure economic growth in the different regions of Asia? Second, what can we do to ensure that the economic growth we seek is sustainable so that the regional economic development that emerges is broad-based, inclusive, and environmentally conscious? Specifically, this edited book will provide a unified perspective on regional growth and sustainable development in Asia by focusing on the above two broad questions. The book will emphasize dynamic modeling and it will illustrate the role that sound theoretical and empirical modeling of an intertemporal nature can play in shedding light on salient public policy questions concerning regional growth and sustainable development. The specific topics to be addressed in this book include growth accounting, natural resource use and management, the regulation of environmental externalities, geographic information systems, and regional climate change. The individual chapters in this book will be written by international experts who are also active researchers in their respective fields. Therefore, this book is highly recommended to all readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date perspective on some of the most salient issues at the interface of regional growth and sustainable development in Asia.

This book addresses two general questions that have arisen as a result of the uneven rise of the various Asian economies in contemporary times. First, to lift people out of poverty and to improve the quality of their lives, how do we institute policies that will ensure economic growth in the different regions of Asia? Second, what can we do to ensure that the economic growth we seek is sustainable so that the regional economic development that emerges is broad-based, inclusive, and environmentally conscious? Specifically, this edited book will provide a unified perspective on regional growth and sustainable development in Asia by focusing on the above two broad questions. The book will emphasize dynamic modeling and it will illustrate the role that sound theoretical and empirical modeling of an intertemporal nature can play in shedding light on salient public policy questions concerning regional growth and sustainable development. The specific topics to be addressed in this book include growth accounting, natural resource use and management, the regulation of environmental externalities, geographic information systems, and regional climate change. The individual chapters in this book will be written by international experts who are also active researchers in their respective fields. Therefore, this book is highly recommended to all readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date perspective on some of the most salient issues at the interface of regional growth and sustainable development in Asia.

This book integrates value balance, material balance and energy balance into the interaction model of socioeconomic activities and the environment, providing a comprehensive environmental policy and technology evaluation method accessible for planners and decision makers who must determine the most effective environmental remediation technologies and policies. It provides the intellectual groundwork indispensable for understanding the importance of taking the three balances into account when the optimal set of technologies and policies is decided. It offers, as well, an ecological institutional framework for sustainable development and construction of a low-carbon society. The topics addressed in this book include, inter alia, social versus private value balances and the necessity of environmental policies in motion; the need for evaluation of environmental impacts on all environmental media based on material balance; the necessity of differentiation between fossil versus non-fossil energy sources based on energy balance and improvement of the trade-off between economic development and conservation of the environment with adoption of advanced environmental remediation technologies and policies. These topics are illustrated by applying a comprehensive evaluation method to urgent environmental issues such as sustainable development compatible with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenario in developing countries, the ecological institutional framework after COP3, an inclusive watershed management focusing on sustainable development, wide-ranging waste management and construction of a circular-oriented society. The book is highly recommended to readers who seek a comprehensive policy evaluation method for environmental remediation technologies adaptable to complex issues.

Based on micro-level empirical research, this book uniquely addresses the problem of arsenic contamination in ground water in Bangladesh in a comprehensive way. At the outset, the book puts forward the opinions of experts regarding the cause of arsenic contamination in ground water in Bangladesh, followed by sample surveys depicting socioeconomic and arsenic-related situations in three arsenic-affected villages in Meherpur district, Bangladesh. The major contribution of the author is the mixed-integer Pareto optimality model (tested and proved through computer simulation), developed in order to supply safe water to the badly affected people in Taranagar village. The model takes into account such issues as the costs of different safe water options, exposure to arsenic and bacteria, distance of the water source from home, indigenous cultural traits, environmental safety and acceptability of the options to the people. Besides successful development and application of the model, the book outlines ways to persuade people to change their habits regarding drinking tube-well water and proposes a system through which safe water can be supplied to Taranagar village. The book emphasizes socioeconomic, environmental and administrative aspects of selecting an optimal safe water option and ensuring consumption from safe water sources, which can be tested for other arsenic-affected areas as well. With relevant, attractive charts, tables, graphs, flowcharts and other graphics and with lucid language, the book makes rather difficult theoretical economics issues easily comprehensible and interesting to general readers, graduate and undergraduate students, researchers and NGO/GO workers who are dedicated to providing safe water to people affected by arsenic contamination.

Whether a natural event turns into a disaster depends on the severity of the hazard as well as the condition of the social sphere of its potential victims, i.e., vulnerability. We focus on regional vulnerability considering the fact that regional socioeconomic conditions determine the aspects of the damage and thus the risk management policy. This book provides the theory and methodology to understand and cope with regional vulnerability through an interdisciplinary approach. The fields mainly included in this work are welfare and environmental economics, the planning and management area of civil engineering, and risk management. In particular, we focus on hazard and vulnerability surrounding water issues and provide readers with knowledge of how the regional analysis is incorporated into the vulnerability analysis. Also considered is what risk management should be when the diversified regional background of the vulnerability is taken into account. A feature of this book is that it provides contrastive regional coverage: the vulnerability of a developed country—urban and regional areas of Japan—and that of a developing country, Bangladesh. The contents consist of three parts: (1) Socioeconomic Vulnerability in a Regional Perspective, (2) Evaluation of Regional Vulnerability, and (3) Coping with Regional Vulnerability. This book is highly recommended to researchers who need an up-to-date and interdisciplinary approach to deal with risk management where regional vulnerability plays an important role.

This book is the outcome of empirical research on the sharing of water of the Teesta River, which flows through India and Bangladesh. The main purpose is to show how regional cooperation between India and Bangladesh regarding sharing of Teesta River water can ensure optimal benefits for people living in the area of the Teesta Basin located in the two countries. The author takes an interdisciplinary approach focusing on the relationship between availability of water and the reduction of poverty in the Teesta Basin as a whole. The book presents findings of a comparative socioeconomic survey on the Dalia and Gazoldoba irrigable areas, with background information on the Teesta River and its origin, spatio-physical nature, geomorphic and hydrological characteristics, irrigation and water delivery system through the Gazoldoba barrage in India and the Dalia barrage in Bangladesh. Citing the principles of transboundary freshwater sharing, this work focuses on different approaches to international water sharing and introduces an optimal approach to dry season water sharing and welfare maximization by developing a bilateral water sharing model. The model is tested through computer simulation, and an alternative water allocation policy is proposed. Water Use and Poverty Reduction is highly recommended to readers who seek an optimum solution to transboundary and bilateral water sharing and poverty reduction issues.

This is the first English book that presents a professional analysis of the recent dynamic movement of the Chinese economy by focusing on the Yangtze River Delta region, which is the main engine of the Chinese economy. The impact of the international financial crisis on China’s economic development requires a change from the first wave of economic globalization oriented toward exports to the second wave of economic globalization characterized by expanding domestic demand. Taking this economic aspect into consideration, the following are proposed in this book: 1) expansion of the level of openness in the process of increasing domestic demand means shifting the industrial focus from manufacturing to the service industry; 2) promotion of the globalization of local services should be based on the globalization of local manufacturing; 3) the Yangtze River Delta region should aim at its own strategic positioning under new, changed circumstances and should achieve modernization in advance with the concept of integrative development; 4) Establishment of a support system is essential meanwhile for this area to develop an innovative economy and to promote the transition from manufacturing to promoting emerging industries, including a modern service industry. The book has an underlying concept, namely, that the key to economic transformation is to start the development of modern services and that only by transforming the development pattern of the service industry can the transition and upgrade of the economy be effectively achieved. For this purpose further urbanization and advancing the transformation from low-tech to high-tech industries by the effective development of industrial clusters is advocated. To ensure that these conclusions are based on a solid analysis, the authors draw heavily upon empirical analyses employing modern econometric methods and make use of economic theories such as endogenous growth theory and spatial economic theory.

This volume presents the most robust and useful methodology for the derivation of investment criteria for the evaluation and planning of public investment projects – public investment criteria. The methodological approach solves inherent defects of traditional methodology, namely an ad hoc application of the benefit-cost analysis in the static content.Although this approach originated in the water resources development project of the Harvard group, the authors’ methodology has achieved a discrete and dynamic inter regional input-output programming model by which: (i) establishment of priorities among potential investment targets by taking account of economic benefits that are brought by implementation of a set of selected projects, and diffusing into the whole national economy, and (ii) rational allocation of limited public funds to the selected investment projects are consistently made, based on the opportunity cost criteria in the dynamic content. As these benefits make up a source for the stream of further created capital funds for public as well as private sectors over the planning time horizon, optimal re-investment of thus created capital funds are solved recursively in the endogenous model by approaching the turnpike path of the whole national economy. As an optimal solution, the allocated levels for trunk expressway network as well as for other transport facilities, which are balanced with the allocation for industrial capital formation, are obtained by period and by region. In the background of these processes, the imputed price and opportunity costs as a sort of contemporary “god” are always latent.Readers with basic mathematical knowledge will learn functional and practical meaning of the opportunity costs (and the imputed price) in the evaluation and planning of investment. Conquering this small obstacle will be a source of strong self-confidence for society, a worthwhile objective. Other applications of the methodology are also included in this book, which is helpful for practitioners frequently using the feasibility study method as well as experts who wish to understand the theoretical arguments related to public investment criteria. As one of the applications, there is a numerical solution of a composite transport system in which the amounts of roads, railways, and ports are derived quantitatively, not qualitatively. These are results of authentic public investment criteria that are built in the inter-regional input-output programing model.

This book shows the necessity of measuring the incidence-basis indirect economic effects of public investments. The essential argument can be traced back to H. Mohring versus J. Tinbergen, the conclusions of one contradicting those of the other. Their arguments are called, respectively, “transfer” and “existing theory” of the indirect economic effect of public investments such as highways. The author has first defined the categories of “generation-basis” and “incidence-basis” economic effects in addition to the categories of direct and indirect economic effects, and has shown that it is essential to measure the incidence-basis indirect economic effects for decision making about public investments. The second major point is that, in this sense, the measurement must rely on the general and dynamic spatial modeling simulation approach. The third essential point is that Tinbergen is correct as far as we have to cope with a real setting in which the Marshallian type of external economies exists.Another characteristic is that the monetary (pecuniary) external economies are dealt with systematically, for the superiority of public investment criteria depends greatly on whether they are taken hold of or not. This book lays emphasis on the process toward the equilibrium, not the equilibrium itself.

Another is a macroeconomic policy to enhance the export of the restored 2 million tons of rice by the abolition of the policy of reducing rice acreage—a policy considered unreasonable by some.

This book integrates diversified methodologies of area studies, regional economic development, regional science, and related fields to draw up a strategy for forming the “regional food industrial cluster” in Northeast Asia. This is done by assigning “innovation” to a core concept, with the basic problem of food security as the horizontal axis and the areas of Northeast Asia as the vertical axis. Specifically, the principle of “collaborative advantage” as a key factor is extracted from case studies on food industrial clustering in each area. As a final objective, a practical policy recommendation is presented while the theorization of the industrial cluster is developed. Therefore it is also a challenge to the old and new issue of food security which has been argued until now.

This is the first book to provide readers with a theoretical and empirical analysis of sustainable economic growth in Asian countries. Recently, most Asian countries have achieved rapid economic growth and their existence cannot be ignored in the world economy. However, these countries now face the serious problems that have confronted more developed countries such as environmental problems, social security and unemployment. Rapid economic growth has brought environmental pollution, regional disparities, and serious congestion due to insufficient infrastructure. Thus, it is necessary to understand the background economic mechanism in order to find the prescription for each problem. This book is intended not only for the researcher but also for the policy maker, for both of whom it provides the basic methods for analyzing regional problems from the points of view of endogenous economic growth theory, environmental economics, and spatial economics. This work presents theoretical as well as empirical analyses. Particularly, we cite the examples of Asian countries: Japan, China, Korea, Thailand and others. The aim is for readers to apply the theories in this book to the above-mentioned problems in Asian countries as an aid in policy making. The authors are specialists in macroeconomics, public economics, environmental economics, transportation economics and spatial economics, all of which are important aspects of regional science.

This book shows that agglomeration economies, new industrial clusters, and Japanese multinational firms’ location are particularly important for the Japanese manufacturing industry in Japan and East Asia. For that industry, the author first estimated the flexible translog production function using four-digit SIC industry panel data and panel data of the indices of Ellison and Glaeser (1997) agglomeration with the same industry and coagglomeration with different industry groups for 1985–2000. From the estimated results, it was found that there are positive impacts of agglomeration economies on production, especially the externality coagglomeration effect and very slight increasing returns to scale in the Japanese manufacturing industry. Next, the estimation of the location for Japanese industry foreign direct investment (FDI) for 1986–2009 in East Asia using the new economic geography (NEG) model was shown. From these results of estimation of location factors, it was found that theagglomeration economies, market potential and supplier access are particularly important in the location choice of the Japanese manufacturing industry in East Asia.  Finally, as Japan’s overall population has been declining since around 2010, the author was to build new industry clusters with digital technologies and elucidate their economic effects to overcome the negative economic impact of declining population and the COVID-19 pandemic using a dynamic four-region computable general equilibrium (D4SCGE) model. The innovation is promoted by these horizontal and vertical agglomerations, and construction of a production pyramid with an efficient production linkage—that is, the construction of new, efficient industrial clusters—is an important policy issue.

This book integrates diversified disciplines, research approaches, and methodologies of area studies, regional economic development, and regional science. With its huge population, China has accomplished rapid economic growth since the 1990s, although the significant income gap among regions and individuals has become a serious problem for its society. China’s accession to the WTO in 2001 has had various influences on the entire food system, from agriculture to consumers, through the food manufacturing and distribution industries. The changes in the Chinese food system are considered to have also affected the agriculture and food industries in Asian countries where economic interdependence has been promoted in past decades. The author argues these issues based on interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary methods and approaches and has successfully derived empirical and theoretical results that are rich in policy implications. The topics addressed include food security and sustainabilityof agriculture especially in the suburbs of big cities; poverty reduction in rural agricultural areas amidst prosperity in urban and coastal areas; regional networks and international trade of the food industry in East Asia; creation of innovative knowledge and human capital for clustering of the agro-food sector; regional development strategy; and international cooperation. The book is interesting for researchers in the field, especially for those who are concerned with the food system that has been changed dynamically in the past two decades, and it is informative, as well, for practitioners who are engaged in related business.

This book presents a theoretical investigation of the formation of regional free trade agreements (FTAs), the behavior of global enterprises, and government trade policies in various game forms including multi-stage games, repeated games, and timing games. In the last few decades, the number of FTAs has been rapidly increasing in the world, especially in Asia. In particular, East Asian countries are expected to be main engines for sustaining the world economy. Focusing on East Asian economies, strategic behaviors of governments and firms in order to attain their own aims are examined. The analytical methods employed in this book are those currently being developed or that recently have been created. The topics are important contemporary issues in regional areas facing the rapid economic changes brought about by globalization. Most chapters of this book are based on original work that was published in international journals but now has been completely rewritten, with restructuring and extension of the original work. This book, with its up-to-date information, will be of interest to academic researchers in universities and economic research institutions and to students working on advanced degrees in economics.

This book aims to shed light on the potentially innovative ICT (information and communication technology) architectures from an East Asian regional perspective. The business environment brought about by the development of ICT intensified global competition and caused dramatic changes in the industrial architecture. Firms that are involved in manufacturing and maintenance of ICT hardware and that offer services for software development are continuously being created, giving rise to the provision of new and diverse services to an increasingly growing East Asian regional market. Such industrial activities are advancing the shift from an old to a new industrial architecture. Some parts of emerging economies have grasped this edge on economic globalization and informatization and have adopted business models that enable them to enter the world economy. Entering this century, China, the Philippines, and Vietnam in East Asia have been rapidly expanding their ICT-BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) businesses as destinations of offshoring of service activities by firms in the advanced economies, following India’s example. Policy makers and firms in those countries are also meeting the challenge of catching up with advanced economies through the development of such industries. It has enabled those economies to exploit new possibilities of further development, which may mean a new stage of manufacturing cum services in an ICT- and knowledge-based economy.

This book outlines the core concept of the theory of mixed oligopoly and presents recent results that have arisen in a mixed oligopolistic market. The wave of privatization since the 1980s has taken the development of the theory of mixed oligopoly in several directions. Although the main concern of the theory of mixed oligopoly focuses on the effect of regime change—especially privatization of a public firm—on social welfare, existing studies have not considered the difference in economic environments. With drastic changes in economic environments along with economic development in recent years, the domestic and foreign markets have become more and more integrated, firms have become concerned about corporate social responsibility, and governments or politicians have had various interests and preferences. Against that background, this book revisits the question of how privatization affects social welfare by incorporating regional and international interdependency and investigates how firms’ activities for corporate social responsibility, governments’ preferences, and political economic situations affect the market circumstance in a mixed oligopoly. The dynamic aspect of privatization is also investigated.

The main object of this book is to explain some of the mechanisms of integration and secession among regions from the point of view of game theory. To attain this goal, the incentives of regions in a country to unite or to secede and the conditions in the way for the member countries of a federation to leave peacefully are examined. Tensions over secession have become more and more serious, including separatist tensions in China, India, Iraq, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Studies included in this book stress differing preferences in the type of policy in each region and the influence of a third region on the power of secession. Decentralization strategies of tax-subsidy policy and governance policy in a political or economic group composed of two regions are shown to be important as a way to avoid wasteful conflict for the secession incentive of a minority region. How those incentives depend on heterogeneity costs associated with different preferences over the type of region and the relativesize of the two regions is shown. Also provided is an analytical framework in which secessions are the equilibrium outcome of explicit civil conflict, where regions with different preferences invest in costly conflict activities. Finally, an empirical analysis is made of determinant factors of secession movements in many regions to verify the validity of our theories of secession. This book is recommended to researchers who are interested in a new economic geography and an interdisciplinary approach for regional economics.

Whether a natural event turns into a disaster depends on the severity of the hazard as well as the condition of the social sphere of its potential victims, i.e., vulnerability. We focus on regional vulnerability considering the fact that regional socioeconomic conditions determine the aspects of the damage and thus the risk management policy. This book provides the theory and methodology to understand and cope with regional vulnerability through an interdisciplinary approach. The fields mainly included in this work are welfare and environmental economics, the planning and management area of civil engineering, and risk management. In particular, we focus on hazard and vulnerability surrounding water issues and provide readers with knowledge of how the regional analysis is incorporated into the vulnerability analysis. Also considered is what risk management should be when the diversified regional background of the vulnerability is taken into account. A feature of this book is that it provides contrastive regional coverage: the vulnerability of a developed country—urban and regional areas of Japan—and that of a developing country, Bangladesh. The contents consist of three parts: (1) Socioeconomic Vulnerability in a Regional Perspective, (2) Evaluation of Regional Vulnerability, and (3) Coping with Regional Vulnerability. This book is highly recommended to researchers who need an up-to-date and interdisciplinary approach to deal with risk management where regional vulnerability plays an important role.

This is the first book to provide readers with a theoretical and empirical analysis of sustainable economic growth in Asian countries. Recently, most Asian countries have achieved rapid economic growth and their existence cannot be ignored in the world economy. However, these countries now face the serious problems that have confronted more developed countries such as environmental problems, social security and unemployment. Rapid economic growth has brought environmental pollution, regional disparities, and serious congestion due to insufficient infrastructure. Thus, it is necessary to understand the background economic mechanism in order to find the prescription for each problem. This book is intended not only for the researcher but also for the policy maker, for both of whom it provides the basic methods for analyzing regional problems from the points of view of endogenous economic growth theory, environmental economics, and spatial economics. This work presents theoretical as well as empirical analyses. Particularly, we cite the examples of Asian countries: Japan, China, Korea, Thailand and others. The aim is for readers to apply the theories in this book to the above-mentioned problems in Asian countries as an aid in policy making. The authors are specialists in macroeconomics, public economics, environmental economics, transportation economics and spatial economics, all of which are important aspects of regional science.

This book integrates diversified methodologies of area studies, regional economic development, regional science, and related fields to draw up a strategy for forming the “regional food industrial cluster” in Northeast Asia. This is done by assigning “innovation” to a core concept, with the basic problem of food security as the horizontal axis and the areas of Northeast Asia as the vertical axis. Specifically, the principle of “collaborative advantage” as a key factor is extracted from case studies on food industrial clustering in each area. As a final objective, a practical policy recommendation is presented while the theorization of the industrial cluster is developed. Therefore it is also a challenge to the old and new issue of food security which has been argued until now.

This is the first English book that presents a professional analysis of the recent dynamic movement of the Chinese economy by focusing on the Yangtze River Delta region, which is the main engine of the Chinese economy. The impact of the international financial crisis on China’s economic development requires a change from the first wave of economic globalization oriented toward exports to the second wave of economic globalization characterized by expanding domestic demand. Taking this economic aspect into consideration, the following are proposed in this book: 1) expansion of the level of openness in the process of increasing domestic demand means shifting the industrial focus from manufacturing to the service industry; 2) promotion of the globalization of local services should be based on the globalization of local manufacturing; 3) the Yangtze River Delta region should aim at its own strategic positioning under new, changed circumstances and should achieve modernization in advance with the concept of integrative development; 4) Establishment of a support system is essential meanwhile for this area to develop an innovative economy and to promote the transition from manufacturing to promoting emerging industries, including a modern service industry. The book has an underlying concept, namely, that the key to economic transformation is to start the development of modern services and that only by transforming the development pattern of the service industry can the transition and upgrade of the economy be effectively achieved. For this purpose further urbanization and advancing the transformation from low-tech to high-tech industries by the effective development of industrial clusters is advocated. To ensure that these conclusions are based on a solid analysis, the authors draw heavily upon empirical analyses employing modern econometric methods and make use of economic theories such as endogenous growth theory and spatial economic theory.

Based on micro-level empirical research, this book uniquely addresses the problem of arsenic contamination in ground water in Bangladesh in a comprehensive way. At the outset, the book puts forward the opinions of experts regarding the cause of arsenic contamination in ground water in Bangladesh, followed by sample surveys depicting socioeconomic and arsenic-related situations in three arsenic-affected villages in Meherpur district, Bangladesh. The major contribution of the author is the mixed-integer Pareto optimality model (tested and proved through computer simulation), developed in order to supply safe water to the badly affected people in Taranagar village. The model takes into account such issues as the costs of different safe water options, exposure to arsenic and bacteria, distance of the water source from home, indigenous cultural traits, environmental safety and acceptability of the options to the people. Besides successful development and application of the model, the book outlines ways to persuade people to change their habits regarding drinking tube-well water and proposes a system through which safe water can be supplied to Taranagar village. The book emphasizes socioeconomic, environmental and administrative aspects of selecting an optimal safe water option and ensuring consumption from safe water sources, which can be tested for other arsenic-affected areas as well. With relevant, attractive charts, tables, graphs, flowcharts and other graphics and with lucid language, the book makes rather difficult theoretical economics issues easily comprehensible and interesting to general readers, graduate and undergraduate students, researchers and NGO/GO workers who are dedicated to providing safe water to people affected by arsenic contamination.

This book is the outcome of empirical research on the sharing of water of the Teesta River, which flows through India and Bangladesh. The main purpose is to show how regional cooperation between India and Bangladesh regarding sharing of Teesta River water can ensure optimal benefits for people living in the area of the Teesta Basin located in the two countries. The author takes an interdisciplinary approach focusing on the relationship between availability of water and the reduction of poverty in the Teesta Basin as a whole. The book presents findings of a comparative socioeconomic survey on the Dalia and Gazoldoba irrigable areas, with background information on the Teesta River and its origin, spatio-physical nature, geomorphic and hydrological characteristics, irrigation and water delivery system through the Gazoldoba barrage in India and the Dalia barrage in Bangladesh. Citing the principles of transboundary freshwater sharing, this work focuses on different approaches to international water sharing and introduces an optimal approach to dry season water sharing and welfare maximization by developing a bilateral water sharing model. The model is tested through computer simulation, and an alternative water allocation policy is proposed. Water Use and Poverty Reduction is highly recommended to readers who seek an optimum solution to transboundary and bilateral water sharing and poverty reduction issues.

This book shows the necessity of measuring the incidence-basis indirect economic effects of public investments. The essential argument can be traced back to H. Mohring versus J. Tinbergen, the conclusions of one contradicting those of the other. Their arguments are called, respectively, “transfer” and “existing theory” of the indirect economic effect of public investments such as highways. The author has first defined the categories of “generation-basis” and “incidence-basis” economic effects in addition to the categories of direct and indirect economic effects, and has shown that it is essential to measure the incidence-basis indirect economic effects for decision making about public investments. The second major point is that, in this sense, the measurement must rely on the general and dynamic spatial modeling simulation approach. The third essential point is that Tinbergen is correct as far as we have to cope with a real setting in which the Marshallian type of external economies exists.Another characteristic is that the monetary (pecuniary) external economies are dealt with systematically, for the superiority of public investment criteria depends greatly on whether they are taken hold of or not. This book lays emphasis on the process toward the equilibrium, not the equilibrium itself.

This book presents a theoretical investigation of the formation of regional free trade agreements (FTAs), the behavior of global enterprises, and government trade policies in various game forms including multi-stage games, repeated games, and timing games. In the last few decades, the number of FTAs has been rapidly increasing in the world, especially in Asia. In particular, East Asian countries are expected to be main engines for sustaining the world economy. Focusing on East Asian economies, strategic behaviors of governments and firms in order to attain their own aims are examined. The analytical methods employed in this book are those currently being developed or that recently have been created. The topics are important contemporary issues in regional areas facing the rapid economic changes brought about by globalization. Most chapters of this book are based on original work that was published in international journals but now has been completely rewritten, with restructuring and extension of the original work. This book, with its up-to-date information, will be of interest to academic researchers in universities and economic research institutions and to students working on advanced degrees in economics.

This book outlines the core concept of the theory of mixed oligopoly and presents recent results that have arisen in a mixed oligopolistic market. The wave of privatization since the 1980s has taken the development of the theory of mixed oligopoly in several directions. Although the main concern of the theory of mixed oligopoly focuses on the effect of regime change—especially privatization of a public firm—on social welfare, existing studies have not considered the difference in economic environments. With drastic changes in economic environments along with economic development in recent years, the domestic and foreign markets have become more and more integrated, firms have become concerned about corporate social responsibility, and governments or politicians have had various interests and preferences. Against that background, this book revisits the question of how privatization affects social welfare by incorporating regional and international interdependency and investigates how firms’ activities for corporate social responsibility, governments’ preferences, and political economic situations affect the market circumstance in a mixed oligopoly. The dynamic aspect of privatization is also investigated.

The main object of this book is to explain some of the mechanisms of integration and secession among regions from the point of view of game theory. To attain this goal, the incentives of regions in a country to unite or to secede and the conditions in the way for the member countries of a federation to leave peacefully are examined. Tensions over secession have become more and more serious, including separatist tensions in China, India, Iraq, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. Studies included in this book stress differing preferences in the type of policy in each region and the influence of a third region on the power of secession. Decentralization strategies of tax-subsidy policy and governance policy in a political or economic group composed of two regions are shown to be important as a way to avoid wasteful conflict for the secession incentive of a minority region. How those incentives depend on heterogeneity costs associated with different preferences over the type of region and the relativesize of the two regions is shown. Also provided is an analytical framework in which secessions are the equilibrium outcome of explicit civil conflict, where regions with different preferences invest in costly conflict activities. Finally, an empirical analysis is made of determinant factors of secession movements in many regions to verify the validity of our theories of secession. This book is recommended to researchers who are interested in a new economic geography and an interdisciplinary approach for regional economics.

This is the first book that takes a theoretical approach to the effects of international immigration by considering the current economic topics confronted by more highly developed countries such as Japan. Developed here is the classic trade model by Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson, McDougall’s basic model of the international movement factor, the urban–rural migration model by Harris–Todaro, and Copeland–Taylor’s well-known model in the field of environmental economics by introducing new trends such as economic integration including free trade and factor mobility between countries at different stages of development. Coexistence of two types of immigrants – legal, skilled workers and illegal, unskilled workers – without any explicit signs of discrimination, transboundary pollution caused by neighboring lower-developed countries with poor pollution abatement technology, difficult international treatment of transboundary renewable resources, the rapid process of aging and population decrease, the higher unemployment rate of younger generations, and the serious gap between permanent and temporary employed workers—are also considered in this book as new and significant topics under the context of international immigration. Taking into account the special difficulties of those serious problems in Asia, each chapter illustrates Japanese and other Asian situations that encourage readers to understand the importance of optimal immigration policies. Also shown is the possibility that economic integration and liberalization of international immigration should bring about positive effects on the economic welfare of the developed host country including the aspects of natural environment, renewable transboundary resources, the rate of unemployment, and the wage gap between workers.