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This position paper sets out to examine value creation in the engineering enterprise, a process that has mostly been associated with innovation and entrepreneurs. An analysis of the literature on engineering value creation in business studies, engineering and engineering education publications shows that there has been surprisingly little empirical study and thus the means by which most engineers contribute value is unclear in the literature. Analysis of published data and data from studies by the authors in engineering workplaces in Australia, South East Asia and Portugal suggests that the work performed by most engineers has little to do with innovation. Based on these data the authors identify 14 ways in which engineers create value. An important finding is that routine engineering performances by a majority of engineers, not associated with innovation or entrepreneurial activities, not only can be shown to create value, but also to protect accumulated value from inadvertent destruction. The paper outlines the educational implications of these findings and proposes measures that engineering educators can adopt to improve the understanding of engineering graduates about engineering value creation.

Abstract: Population aging (an increase in the share of the elderly in total population) is occurring in many, if not most, countries in the world, including those in Asia. Both economists and policymakers warn that population aging can have many deleterious effects on a country's economy including a decline in its saving rate, the emergence of a labor shortage, a deterioration in government finances owing to increased spending on old‐age related programs, and reduced innovation and productivity growth. It is therefore imperative for countries to prepare themselves for the advent of an aged society. The emerging and developing countries in Asia are no exception, with the region generally lacking adequate systems in such areas as long‐term care, public pensions, and health insurance. Against this background, an international workshop on “Aging in Asia” was held in Kitakyushu City, Japan, on November 15 to 16, 2016. The workshop was jointly sponsored by the Asian Development Bank Institute and the Asian Growth Research Institute and was organized by Charles Yuji Horioka, Peter J. Morgan, Yoko Niimi, and Guanghua Wan. This special issue of the Review includes nine papers presented at this workshop plus one paper that was not presented there but was written by one of the workshop participants. All of these papers underwent the usual rigorous refereeing process of this Review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of fiscal expenditure in China has been suffering from over-reliance on a single type, while synchronisation and coordination with economic growth are lacking. This paper studies and analyses fiscal expenditure and green from a theoretical perspective. There is a close link between the structure of fiscal expenditure and green economic growth, and a reasonable and appropriate selection and allocation is conducive to promoting the overall development level of China, while financial resources input is a key consideration in optimising the structure of fiscal expenditure. This paper proposes hypotheses and establishes a regression model after an in-depth study of fiscal expenditure in a provincial economy in Asia in the light of domestic and international literature. Through empirical analysis, a green GDP reflecting economic growth and environmental pollution is synthesised using the principle of output per unit of pollution, and the impact of fiscal expenditure structure on green economic growth in China is empirically tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National contributions to science are influenced by a number of factors, including economic capacity, national scientific priorities, science policy, and institutional settings and cultures. Nations do not have equal opportunities to access the global scientific market, and therefore, often seek out international partners with complementary resources and expertise. This study aims at investigating national collaboration strategies, with a focus on research leadership—measured through corresponding authorship—and its relationship with scientific impact. Results show that countries with higher R&D investments are more scientifically independent, and confirm that international collaboration is positively related to citation impact. However, leadership in international collaboration is inversely related with a countries’ share of international collaboration and there is a very little relationship between citation impact and international leadership. For instance, most countries—and particularly those that have fewer resources—have higher scientific impact when they are not leading. This suggests that, despite increasing global participation in science, most international collaborations are asymmetrical, and that the research system remains structured around a few dominate nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to demonstrate the impact of coal enterprises’ vertical integration on the performance of innovation corporate social responsibility (ICSR) and to elaborate its specific transmission path through financing structure and market power. This paper takes the data of A-share listed coal company from 2008 to 2017 as samples, uses input-output table method to measure the degree of vertical integration, and explores the relationship between the four factors through multiple linear regression and Bootstrap method. We found that: (1) the vertical integration of coal enterprises has positive incentives for the promotion of ICSR. (2) Financing structure and market power play a chain intermediary role in this process of incentive. (3) In areas with high marketization process, vertical integration has more significant incentive effect on ICSR. The paper extends the research on the relationship between vertical integration and innovation, which provides a reference for the improvement of China’s supply-side reform and corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment policy. It is helpful to promote the sustainable development of the coal industry, stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises, and improve the fulfillment of CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to establish a mathematical model to design a maximizing social welfare intervention mechanism of healthcare service goods in China. The intervention mechanism is helpful to facilitate the adoption of the healthcare service goods. We consider a research problem that regulates the supply chain system for healthcare service goods by an intervention mechanism, and two intervention strategies composed of demand-growth strategy and subsidy strategy are used to the combination of intervention mechanism. Then this paper presents a new method based on fuzzy set and bilevel programming to design the intervention mechanism. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model, we conduct a case study for Wudang personalized health package and verify our model by the specific result analysis, the result indicates that our joint intervention mechanism is helpful to achieve the target and increase social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is about transnational cancer care in Asia. People with terminal diseases such as cancer increasingly escape devastating prognosis of their local regimes of clinical diagnostic truth by traveling to destinations where medicine is more advanced, yet affordable for them, and hence offers a broader scope for hope. The paper suggests that transnational cancer care provides an instructive case of the enormous geographical disparities in the availability of therapies and how this, combined with economies of hope and the marketization of health care, affects patients and their family caregivers. The primary contribution of the paper is the introduction of the concept of relational subjectivities to the health mobilities literature. The findings presented proof that the concept provides a fruitful analytical lens, yielding not only fresh empirical insights but prompting re-conceptualizations of medical travel itself as hopeful, yet risky transnational acts of family care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), ostensibly a connectivity and developmental program, was launched by the Chinese President Xi Jinping with the primary objective of connecting the common people in Asia through trade, infrastructure and culture. The initiative is designed to enhance connectivity in areas such as trade, infrastructure, investment, capital and people. That said, since its inception, the project seems to confront certain hurdles such as regional geopolitical complexities and launching of other alternative proposals that tend to hamper its progress. As part of the BRI, the BCIM--EC proposes to connect eastern China with South Asia that will also ultimately connect Southeast Asia through different modes for better economic and cultural connectivity. This paper attempts to evaluate the challenges and opportunities of the BCIM--EC project in the context of South and Southeast Asian nations. The paper concludes that the challenges are rather overriding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the evolution of industry structure in the World Bank’s eight high performing Asian economies (HPAEs) displays the U-shaped relationship between manufacturing concentration and per capita income widely held to foster economic development. Increasingly prosperous HPAEs have long been hailed as models for success by other emerging economies. Focusing on a regional group of high performing economies enables us to relate policies used by successful HPAEs directly to observed patterns of manufacturing diversification and provide policy guidance to emerging economies.Design/methodology/approach A robust locally weighted scatterplot smoothing procedure is employed to generate the U-shaped relationship between manufacturing concentration and level of economic development. Policies used by the most successful HPAEs are discussed.Findings The relationship between manufacturing concentration and level of economic development is found to be U-shaped. Diversification of manufacturing is a prerequisite for successful economic development. Countries further along the economic development path such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan made extensive use of active and selective interventionist policies to diversify manufacturing before eventually specializing in a narrower range of export activities.Practical implications Emerging economies should follow examples set by the most successful HPAEs that demonstrated significant government assistance is required to foster economic development.Originality/value The paper is the first to investigate the evolution of manufacturing concentration over the economic development path HPAEs. Success enjoyed by HPAEs holds important lessons for developing and emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Largest continent of the world 'Asia' is challenged by the China slowdown after getting in the spotlight due to Prudent Monetary policy, devaluation of Yuan, plunging real estate prices and doubts on the reliablityof published data. The current paper seeks to climb on the hardships which are faced by various Asian countries especially India by virtue of main competitor due to anamoly in the Chinese economy. Also, the paper discusses about the measures adopted by the Government of China and People's Bank Of China to provide stability to the vibrant situation of the country. We find out that the countries having strong macroeconomic fundamentals are able to handle the turmoil else have a big reason to worry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the rapid development of China's air transport industry and the change in market consumption structure, service quality has become one of the important factors affecting airline revenue. How to formulate a reasonable pricing strategy and maintain competitiveness in the fierce market competition has become an urgent problem for airlines. First, the impact factor of service quality level in the traditional pricing model is introduced and a static price competition model for multi-oligopoly airlines based on service quality is established in this paper. And then, a dynamic pricing model based on service quality of the multi-oligopoly airlines is established. The model incorporates the weight factor of service quality impact, which is used to indicate the weight of the service quality level in the process of airline dynamic pricing. The research results show that the service quality level of airlines has an indispensable influence on its development. Airlines should improve service quality as soon as possible to enhance market competitiveness and achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the calculation of the inclusive financial development level of 22 provinces and 4 municipalities in China from 2004 to 2017, this paper uses the Kernel density estimation method to further analyze the evolution of the inclusive financial index. Based on the above analysis, we make empirical analysis of the impact of China's inclusive financial inclusion development index on farmers' entrepreneurship using static panel and dynamic panel estimation method. The empirical conclusions show that there are certain differences in inclusive financial inclusion development level in various provinces in China. Improving the inclusion development level of inclusive finance can better promote farmers' entrepreneurship. Urbanization level, economic openness and regional economic development level have a significant positive effect on farmers' entrepreneurship, while farmers' income and education level have a significant negative effect on farmers' entrepreneurship. It is possible to promote farmers' entrepreneurship by improving the inclusive development level of inclusive finance, combining urbanization, increasing government investment in productive fixed assets, increasing economic openness and improving regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the relentless logic of commodification has served to undermine a key element of the social cement of contemporary capitalism: home ownership. In addressing this issue, the paper explores the development of the post war ‘social project’ of home ownership with particular reference to mature home ownership societies such as the USA, Japan, Britain and Australia. The paper then outlines the new fault lines and fractures which have emerged in post-crisis home ownership systems and the way in which a more vigorous, financialised private landlordism has emerged from the debris of the subprime meltdown. A key argument is that in a new and more intensified process of housing commodification, the social project promise of home ownership for a previous generation has shifted to a promise of private landlordism for current generations. In summary, the social project of Keynesian-embedded liberalism has been undermined by the economic project of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rise of mega-regionalism in the Asia-Pacific has become a significant development for the region itself as well as the global trading system. Europe, in particular, has a great deal at stake in this process. This paper considers the economic costs of EU exclusion from Asia-Pacific economic cooperation initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Out of pocket payments are the predominant method of financing healthcare in many developing countries, which can result in impoverishment and financial catastrophe for those affected. In 2010, WHO estimated that approximately 100 million people are pushed below the poverty line each year by payments for healthcare. Micro health insurance (MHI) has been used in some countries as means of risk pooling and reducing out of pocket health expenditure. A systematic review was conducted to assess the extent to which MHI has contributed to providing financial risk protection to low-income households in developing countries, and suggest how the findings can be applied in the Pakistani setting.Methods: We conducted a systematic search for published literature using the search terms "Community based health insurance AND developing countries", "Micro health insurance AND developing countries", "Mutual health insurance AND developing countries", "mutual OR micro OR community based health insurance" "Health insurance AND impact AND poor" "Health insurance AND financial protection" and "mutual health organizations" on three databases, Pubmed, Google Scholar and Science Direct (Elsevier). Only those records that were published in the last ten years, in English language with their full texts available free of cost, were considered for inclusion in this review. Hand searching was carried out on the reference lists of the retrieved articles and webpages of international organizations like World Bank, World Health Organization and International Labour Organization.Results: Twenty-three articles were eligible for inclusion in this systematic review (14 from Asia and 9 from Africa). Our analysis shows that MHI, in the majority of cases, has been found to contribute to the financial protection of its beneficiaries, by reducing out of pocket health expenditure, catastrophic health expenditure, total health expenditure, household borrowings and poverty. MHI also had a positive safeguarding effect on household savings, assets and consumption patterns.Conclusion: Our review suggests that MHI, targeted at the low-income households and tailored to suit the cultural and geographical structures in the various areas of Pakistan, may contribute towards providing protection to the households from catastrophe and impoverishment resulting from health expenditures. This paper emphasizes the need for further research to fill the knowledge gap that exists about the impact of MHI, using robust study designs and impact indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the prevalent forms of intimate partner violence (IPV), and the factors associated with IPV among women and men living in the two migrant communities of Baglung district, Nepal. 357 adult women and men were enrolled following a family model, interviewing young married women with daughter-in-law status in the home, their husbands, and mothers-in-law and fathers-in-laws using an electronic questionnaire. Random effects regression modelling compared men and women, as well as young married women with daughter-in-law status and older women with mothers-in-law with status. 28.6% of women had ever experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner compared to 18.2% of men ever perpetrated these forms of violence against their wives. Being older, male controlling behaviour and poor relations with husband increased women’s IPV in their lifetime while perceptions that the mother-in-law is kind were protective. Being ashamed of being unemployed and childhood trauma were associated with men perpetrating IPV in their lifetime. Borrowing money or food increased young married women’s lifetime IPV risk while mother-in-law cruelty and male control increased older married women’s lifetime IPV exposure. Factors associated with IPV in the past year among men were being younger, job seeking, experiences of childhood trauma and depression exposure among men while difficulty accessing money for emergencies, holding inequitable gender attitudes, and depression was associated with women’s increased IPV exposure. Unemployment stress, holding inequitable gender attitudes and mother-in-law kindness were associated with young women’s increased IPV risk and hunger, mother-in-law cruelty and depression with older women’s IPV risk. There is a need to critically challenge harmful social and gender norms by using approaches that are sensitive to young married women’s position and unequal gender relations in the family. IPV prevention interventions need to employ a holistic approach that combines changing social and gender norms and improving socioeconomic conditions of women living in migrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of the shared prosperity goal by the World Bank in 2013 and Sustainable Development Goal 10, on inequality, by the United Nations in 2015 should strengthen the focus of development interventions and cooperation on the income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution. This paper contributes to the incipient literature on within-country allocations of development institutions and assesses the geographic targeting of World Bank projects to the bottom 40 percent. Bivariate correlations between the allocation of project funding approved over 2005–14 and the geographical distribution of the bottom 40 as measured by survey income or consumption data are complemented by regressions with population and other potential factors affecting the within-country allocations as controls. The correlation analysis shows that, of the 58 countries in the sample, 41 exhibit a positive correlation between the shares of the bottom 40 and World Bank funding, and, in almost half of these, the correlation is above 0.5. Slightly more than a quarter of the countries, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, exhibit a negative correlation. The regression analysis shows that, once one controls for population, the correlation between the bottom 40 and World Bank funding switches sign and becomes significant and negative on average. This is entirely driven by Sub-Saharan Africa and not observed in the other regions. Hence, the significant and positive correlation in the estimations without controlling for population suggests that World Bank project funding is concentrated in administrative areas in which more people live (including the bottom 40) rather than in poorer administrative areas. Furthermore, capital cities receive disproportionally high shares of World Bank funding on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops two-stage inverse data envelopment analysis models with undesirable outputs to formulate resource plans for 16 Chinese listed commercial banks whose outputs are increased and overall efficiency is kept unchanged in the short term. We use these models to meet three different output targets, namely, increasing both the desirable and undesirable outputs by the same percentage, increasing these outputs by different percentages, and increasing only the desirable outputs while keeping the undesirable outputs unchanged. We find that operation cost and interest expense are more flexible than labor in the adjustment process and that deposits have no obvious law of change. The findings of this work provide some suggestions for bank managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deterioration of water quality has become a primary environmental concern worldwide. Understanding the status of water quality and identifying the influencing factors are important for water resources management. However, reported analyses have mostly been conducted in small and focused areas. It is still unclear if factors driving spatial variation in water quality would be different in extended spatial scales. In this paper, we analyzed spatial pattern of inland surface water quality in China using a dataset with four water quality parameters (i.e., pH, DO, NH4+-N and CODMn) and the water quality level. We tested the effects of anthropogenic (i.e., land use and socio-economic) and natural (i.e., climatic and topographic) factors on spatial variation in water quality. The study concluded that the overall inland surface water quality in China was at level III (fair). Water quality level was strongly correlated with CODMn and NH4+-N concentration. In contrast to reported studies that suggested land use patterns were the determinants of inland surface water quality, this study revealed that both anthropogenic and natural factors played important roles in explaining spatial variation of inland surface water quality in China. Among the tested explanatory variables, mean elevation within watershed appeared as the best predictor for pH, while annual precipitation and mean air temperature were the most important explanatory variables for CODMn and DO, respectively. NH4+-N concentration and water quality level were most strongly correlated with the percent of forest cover in watershed. Compared to studies at smaller spatial scales, this study found different influencing factors of surface water quality, suggesting that factors may play different roles at different spatial scales of consideration. Therefore management policies and measures in water quality control must be established and implemented accordingly. Since currently adopted parameters for monitoring of inland surface water quality in China are largely influenced by natural variables, additional physicochemical and biological indicators are needed for a robust assessment of human impacts on water quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines a Granger causality test and a VAR model to investigate the relationships among oil price shocks, global economic policy uncertainty (GEPU), and China’s industrial economic growth. Based on monthly data from 2000 to 2017, we reveal that GEPU and world oil prices jointly Granger cause China's industrial economic growth; world oil prices have a positive effect on China's industrial economic growth, while GEPU has a negative effect. Further analyses investigate the asymmetry effect of oil prices and find that the negative component shows a more significant impact on China's industrial economic growth. The results are robust to different oil price and EPU proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of corruption as an important element of weak governance, with control variables such as inflation rate, openness to trade and dependency ratio on gross domestic product (GDP) per capita income of nine selected countries in Asia and the Pacific. Design/methodology/approach -- This study is based on an annual panel data covering the period from 1985 to 2012, and a simple multiple regression for empirical investigation is used. Both fixed effects and random effects models were used as analytical techniques. Findings -- The study reveals that both corruption and inflation rate are negatively related to GDP per capita and are statistically significant. As to the impacts of the control variables i.e., dependency ratio is found to be negative and openness to trade to be statistically significant which shows a positive impact on GDP per capita. Practical implications -- The results resoundingly confirmed the importance of good governance, therefore, reducing endemic corruption and controlling inflation needs to be among the foremost factors for consideration for policymakers in adopting and implementing macroeconomic and public policies. In order to be most effective in tackling corruption, it is important to get to the root of the problem. In light of the study findings, it is suggested that corruption need to be put under control and economies be made more open to attain more benefits and accelerate economic growth and development. Originality/value -- Explicitly, this study provides some valuable evidence on the linkage between endemic corruption and economic growth in some Asia and the Pacific countries in particular and on developing world in general. Presumably, this is the first inclusive investigation on the subject under the study in the context of Asia and the Pacific countries and will emphatically contribute to the literature as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to both the environmental impacts and the economic opportunities brought about by climate change, interest in the Arctic is rising in Asia. While there is a growing scholarship analyzing Asian interest in the Arctic, Iceland's reception to this interest has been under-studied. This paper explores Iceland's rising interest in the Arctic and its linked response to growing Chinese overtures toward Iceland and the region. Data were gathered from peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, popular media articles, participant observation at the Arctic Circle conference, and semi-structured interviews from October to December 2013 with a cross-section of Iceland's political, economic, and scientific elite. Results indicate that Iceland is trying to capitalize on the increasing global visibility and economic opportunities in the Arctic while working to ensure regional geopolitical and environmental stability. While Iceland generally welcomes Chinese overtures into Arctic political and scientific spheres, the response to economic overtures is more nuanced. Specifically, Iceland is trying to balance a desire for economic gains, Chinese investment in Icelandic industries, and an associated ability to ‘scale up’ economically with a perceived vulnerability to being dominated by a country which dwarfs Iceland in both size, power, and influence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The author discusses the economic characteristics of international housing cycle co-movement among East Asian countries from 2001-2010. The author examines the use of econometric techniques which cites the issues on demand and supply for non-traded housing sectors. The author also highlights the economic factors of fiscal and monetary policies on both the supply and demand for housing.

Why has East Asia had such a poor record of regional leadership? This is an important question given the fact that East Asia is synonymous with remarkable economic growth and development. At one level, the absence of indigenous leadership might not seem to matter. And yet, when America’s “long-distance” leadership is in apparent decline and China is actively seeking to assert itself, the question of leadership has assumed renewed importance. This paper considered the nature and importance of leadership and explores its impact in case studies of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the so-called “global financial crisis” of the late 2000s. At this stage, it is unlikely that China will be able to replace America’s leadership role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Hidden hunger' is a term used to describe human deficiencies of key vitamins and minerals, also known as micronutrients. While global in scale, the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies is particularly high in South Asia despite recent successes in economic growth, agricultural output and health care. The present paper reviews the most recent evidence on patterns and trends of hidden hunger across the region, with a focus on the most significant deficiencies - iodine, Fe, vitamin A and Zn - and interprets these in terms of health and economic consequences. The challenge for South Asian policy makers is to invest in actions that can cost-effectively resolve chronic nutrient gaps facing millions of households. Appropriate solutions are available today, so governments should build on evidence-based successes that combine targeted health system delivery of quality services with carefully designed multisector actions that help promote healthier diets, reduce poverty and ensure social protection simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess to what extent intraday data can explain and predict long-term memory.Design/methodology/approach This article analysed the presence of long-memory volatility in five Asian equity indices, namely, SENSEX, CNIA, NIKKEI225, KO11 and FTSTI, using five-min intraday return series from 05 January 2015 to 06 August 2015 using two approaches, i.e. conditional volatility and realized volatility, for forecasting long-term memory. It employs conditional-generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH), i.e. autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA)-FIGARCH model and ARFIMA-asymmetric power autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (APARCH) models, and unconditional volatility realized volatility using autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and ARFIMA in-sample forecasting models to estimate the persistence of the long-term memory.Findings Given the GARCH framework, the ARFIMA-APARCH long-memory model gave the better forecast results signifying the importance of accounting for asymmetric information when modelling volatility in a financial market. Using the unconditional realized volatility results from the Singapore and Indian markets, the ARIMA model outperforms the ARFIMA model in terms of forecast performance and provides reasonable forecasts.Practical implications The issue of long memory has important implications for the theory and practice of finance. It is well-known that accurate volatility forecasts are important in a variety of settings including option and other derivatives pricing, portfolio and risk management.Social implications It could be said that using long-memory augmented models would give better results to investors so that they could analyse the market trends in returns and volatility in a more accurate manner and reach at an informed decision. This is useful to minimize the risks.Originality/value This research enhances the literature by estimating the influence of intraday variables on daily volatility. This is one of very few studies that uses conditional GARCH framework models and unconditional realized volatility estimates for forecasting long-term memory. The authors find that the methods complement each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One important phenomenon to be observed in the world today is the rapid growth of the middle classes in emerging economies, especially in Asia. This development called for a new concept, the global middle class. The purpose of this paper is twofold: one is to examine the ways this term is currently used and clarify its meaning, and the other is to examine one empirical case of South Korea and highlight important processes involved in the making of a global middle class. The term global middle class has 2 meanings: (1) all the middle classes that exist in the world or (2) the affluent and globally oriented segments of the middle classes in developing countries. These 2 different conceptions serve different purposes and address different aspects of globalization's effect on the affected economy and society. While the expansion of the middle classes around the world is an unquestionably welcome phenomenon, the rise of the affluent global middle classes in developing countries represents a more complex and problematic phenomenon. The Korean case demonstrates that the emergence of the global middle class is associated with growing internal division within the middle class and intense processes of class distinction and educational pursuits in the global education market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Food security is a complex phenomenon made up of multiple dimensions - food availability, physical access to food, economic access to food, food utilization - each of which has a stability dimension which underpins it. This review provides details on these dimensions and links them to two published indices which provide assessments of the state of food security in a country. The paper further provides analyses of the main supply and demand factors in the food security equation. Food security faces natural and anthropogenic threats such as loss of productive land and water, climate change and declining crop productivity, all of which are potentially amenable to solutions provided by science and technology. Demographic and accompanying diet changes further exacerbate the demands made on the natural resource base for food production. Finally, possible responses to the challenges confronting a secured food future are discussed from technological, policy and system level perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author expresses his perspectives on economic measures in housing price cycles in East Asia based on dynamic correlation and time-varying dynamic conditional correlation. The author mentions the factors that influence housing prices to move in tandem in East Asia such as animal spirits, uncertainties and expectations. The author also cites the constraints in the demand and supply for housing.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles in the issue on topics including effects of population aging on the growth prospects of Asia's middle-income economies; infrastructure investment in middle-income countries; and total factor productivity growth.

Many studies investigate relationships between economic growth in specific economies and the depth in the stock market, or between its growth rate and its trade openness (exports plus imports). Advancing on earlier work, this paper uses panel cointegration and causality tests applied to ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) countries over the period 1960- 2012. The countries included in this analysis are Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Korean Republic, Russian Federation, the United States, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, Pakistan, East Timor, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Our novel panel-data estimation procedure offers more robust estimates by utilizing variations between countries as well as variation over time. We identify important long-run causal links among the variables and show their implications for economic policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to new developments of work and employment in high-income countries (HICs), psychosocial aspects of work and health have received increased attention. In contrast, middle-income countries (MICs) are mainly concerned with severe challenges of noxious- and dangerous-material work environments, poor employment conditions, and deficient social policies, which leaves the psychosocial aspects with a marginal role, at best, in occupational health. More recently, differences between these two worlds were even aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, with economic globalisation and the growing worldwide interconnectivity, the world of work in MICs is being rapidly transformed, starting to share several concerns with the modern Western societies. In this process, psychosocial occupational health will become an increasingly pressing issue. This contribution explores the extent to which psychosocial aspects of work and health are already addressed in research originating from MICs. Using a narrative review approach, a selective focus on recent findings from two regions, Asia Pacific and Latin America, revealed an increasing interest in work stress-related problems, but a restricted impact of the respective research findings. It is hoped that future scientific developments in MICs will enrich the international state of the art in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new economic geography model is used to assess the impacts of trading arrangements on the industrial development of a small economy with footloose entrepreneur movement toward China. With three regions-the small economy, the large economy (China), and the global market-the simulation results show that, to maintain itself as an industrial core, the small economy should pursue a decentralizing trade arrangement, either by significantly lowering its trade costs with the global market, or by serving as a trading hub. Without reducing the small economy's trade costs with a third region, the trade liberalization between the small and the large economy will cause the core-periphery effect, even if labor costs rise in the large economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malnutrition is common in Asia, especially among people who are critically ill and/or older. Study results from China, Japan, and Taiwan show that malnutrition or risk of malnutrition is found in up to 30% of communitydwelling people and as much as 50% of patients admitted to hospitals-with prevalence even higher among those older than 70 years. In Asia, malnutrition takes substantial tolls on health, physical function, and wellbeing of people affected, and it adds huge financial burdens to healthcare systems. Attention to nutrition, including protein intake, can help prevent or delay disease- and age-related disabilities and can speed recovery from illness or surgery. Despite compelling evidence and professional guidelines on appropriate nutrition care in hospital and community settings, patients' malnutrition is often overlooked and under-treated in Asian healthcare, as it is worldwide. Since the problem of malnutrition continues to grow as many Asian populations become increasingly "gray", it is important to take action now. A medical education (feedM.E.) Global Study Group developed a strategy to facilitate best-practice hospital nutrition care: screen-intervene-supervene. As members of a newly formed feedM.E. Northeast Asia Study Group, we endorse this care strategy, guiding clinicians to screen each patient's nutritional status upon hospital admission or at initiation of care, intervene promptly when nutrition care is needed, and supervene or follow-up routinely with adjustment and reinforcement of nutrition care plans, including post-discharge. To encourage best-practice nutrition in Asian patient care settings, our paper includes a simple, stepwise Nutrition Care Pathway (NCP) in multiple languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia gained attention for its use of capital controls in 1998, but since the early 2000s it has emphasised its commitment to an open capital account, despite experiencing volatile capital flows. As well as opting for financial openness, Malaysia chose to manage the value of its exchange rate after de-pegging from the US dollar in 2005. In a bid to escape the macroeconomic constraints that arise from capital mobility, Malaysia also chose to sterilise a large portion of capital inflows. It then made a further choice to use market-based sterilisation instruments more than regulatory sterilisation measures. These choices have carried costs and led to a build-up of economic risk. Three interrelated factors explain these choices: Malaysia’s strategy to manage the stigma arising from its imposition of controls in 1998, the increased level of financial integration that followed from this strategy, and the politically privileged position of groups that have benefitted from Malaysia’s commitment to capital openness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction to the journal is presented that discusses articles published on this issue including the one by Wallace Chan on the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, another by Heather Boetto on promoting an eco-social approach in social work practice, and the one on ecological justice principles.

To explore factors impacting access to and participation in rehabilitation for people with lower limb amputation (LLA) in East, South, and Southeast Asian developing countries. A scoping review was undertaken following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Five electronic databases (PsycINFO (Ovid), Medline (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), AMED, and Proquest Social Sciences) were searched for articles from January 1980 till March 2020. Two authors independently assessed articles for inclusion. Included articles were classified according to the Health Care Delivery System Approach (HCDSA) framework levels. Twenty-four studies from 14 countries were identified. At patient level, age, gender, limited rehabilitation awareness, and economic status; at the rehabilitation level, gaps in referrals, family support, and professional skills; at the environmental level, services availability, and location; and, at government level, service costs, income loss, and lack of supporting policies were identified as important influencing factors. Rehabilitation access and participation factors were identified at multiple levels of the HCDSA. Contextually appropriate and accessible services considering individual characteristics and socio-economic status of individuals with LLA are needed, with timely referral to rehabilitation by trained professionals. Improving rehabilitation services for people with LLA in Asian developing countries requires supportive environments, accessible transport, social and financial security, and increased awareness, underpinned by appropriate policy. Provision of timely referral to rehabilitation by primary/acute health care settings with involvement of family/peer supports. Improved government support systems to facilitate individual access to and participation in rehabilitation with consideration of contextual socio-demographic and economic factors. Prioritisation of adequately resourced and well-designed rehabilitation centres by health care organisations in accessible locations. Implementation by local government of strategies to support development and implementation of well resourced, accessible, equitable, and contextually responsive rehabilitation services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies have shown that disease threat increases people's hostility towards immigrants. However, in our survey (N = 9571) conducted in five advanced Asian economies during the outbreak of COVID‐19, we found that COVID‐19 vulnerability was positively associated with support for immigration. Drawing on insight from policy feedback theories, we propose that the positive association is caused by the presence of widespread border crossing restrictions, which have changed the meaning and cost implications of COVID‐19. As the outbreak expands, the pandemic has become not just a threat to people's health but also a barrier to globalization. Consequently, people who are worried about the disease may see globalization processes, including migration, as signs of pandemic relief. We find supportive evidence in our analysis. First, the positive association between COVID‐19 vulnerability and support for immigration is more salient among respondents who considered restrictions on international travel to be stringent. Second, the positive association between COVID‐19 vulnerability and immigration attitude was mediated by perceived economic threat from the pandemic and contribution by immigrants towards the containment of the pandemic. These findings suggest that disease control measures adopted at the global level may alter certain widely accepted effects of disease threat on immigration attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Asia is home to the largest number of stunted children worldwide: 65 million or 37% of all South Asian children under 5 were stunted in 2014. The costs to society as a result of stunting during childhood are high and include increased mortality, increased morbidity (in childhood and later as adults), decreased cognitive ability, poor educational outcomes, lost earnings and losses to national economic productivity. Conversely, investing in nutrition provides many benefits for poverty reduction and economic growth. This article draws from analyses conducted in four sub ‐ Saharan countries to demonstrate that investments in nutrition can also be very cost ‐ effective in South Asian countries. Specifically, the analyses demonstrate that scaling up a set of 10 critical nutrition ‐ specific interventions is highly cost ‐ effective when considered as a package. Most of the interventions are also very cost ‐ effective when considered individually. By modelling cost ‐ effectiveness of different scale ‐ up scenarios, the analysis offers insights into ways in which the impact of investing in nutrition interventions can be maximized under budget constraints. Rigorous estimations of the costs and benefits of nutrition investments, similar to those reported here for sub ‐ Saharan countries, are an important next step for all South Asian countries in order to drive political commitment and action and to enhance allocative efficiency of nutrition resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is very challenging for resource-limited settings to introduce universal health coverage (UHC), particularly regarding the inclusion of high-cost renal dialysis as part of the UHC benefit package. This paper addresses three issues: (1) whether a setting commits to include renal dialysis in its UHC benefit package and if so, why and how; (2) how to ensure quality of renal dialysis services; and (3) how to improve the quality of life of patients using psychosocial and community interventions.Discussion: This article reviews experiences of renal dialysis programs in seven settings based on presentations and discussions during the International Forum on Peritoneal Dialysis as a Priority Health Policy in Asia. A literature review was conducted to verify and validate the data as well as to fill information gaps presented in the forum. Five out of the seven settings implemented renal dialysis as part of their benefits package, while the other two have pilots or programs in their nascent stage. Renal replacement therapy has become part of the universal access package because these governments recognize the rising number of chronic kidney disease (CKD) cases, the catastrophically high costs of treatment, and that this is the only life-saving treatment available to patients. The recommendations are as follows: Governments should have a holistic approach to CKD interventions, including primary prevention as well as psychosocial interventions. Governments should consider subsidizing CKD treatment costs depending on their resources. Multi-stakeholder cooperation should be facilitated to enact these policies and conduct research and development for all aspects of interventions. International collaboration should be initiated to share experiences, good practices, and joint activities (e.g. capacity building and multinational procurement of medical supplies).Conclusion: This study provides practical recommendations to country governments as well as the international community on how to meet the demand for good quality renal dialysis as part of UHC in resource-limited settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 30 years, serviced apartment complexes have become one of the defining architectural typologies of Asian urbanization. Relatively unknown before the 1980s, these complexes are designed to accommodate foreign business people, knowledge workers and students for a fixed period, typically three to six months. The rapid expansion of serviced apartments testifies to the substantial increase in the number of people who are working, training and studying outside their home countries, and provides physical evidence of the impact of these short-term populations on the urban fabric of South East Asian cities. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork conducted in Bangkok and Singapore, the paper posits shifts in the design and use of serviced apartments as a useful lens for investigating both the emergence of a geographically mobile middle class and the increase in temporary housing types to meet its residential needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not all foreign direct investment (FDI) is alike as far as its impact on various dimensions of human development is concerned. This paper focuses, in particular, on child labor and it undertakes a cross-country empirical analysis of this issue, using data on 100 countries spanning the period 1990–2009. Unlike earlier studies that focus mostly on total FDI, we also utilize data on disaggregated FDI, covering the main economic sectors of interest such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing, services, and finance. The empirical results suggest that different economic sectors generate varied effects on child labor. For instance, FDI in agriculture in Europe and Central Asia tends to exacerbate child labor, whereas FDI in manufacturing in South and East Asia and FDI in mining in Latin America appear negatively linked to child labor. Furthermore, signing on to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is positively associated with child labor. One possible explanation for the latter result is that stronger anti-child labor laws could lead to multiple equilibria in labor markets, including the possibility of increasing child labor in certain sectors. Selected case studies help clarify the possible reasons behind this varied FDI impact on child labor, emphasizing among other factors supply chain management and the critical importance of policy implementation and coordination with the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governments in the Asian region have been taking actions in the form of voluntary targets and policy commitments to improve the production and use of low carbon goods (LCG). However, these commitments are often challenged by many constraints, such as technological barriers and financial deficiencies. Within this context, the main objective of this study is to measure the potential of major emerging Asian economies for exports in LCG under the grand regional coalition, partial regional coalition, and standalone scenarios. The analysis indicates that emerging Asian economies will increase their export potential in LCG more under the grand coalition scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the paper "Professional Asian Football Leagues and the Global Market" by S. Szymanski. Topics discussed include the author commending the paper for providing a good summary of the development of the professional soccer industry, the domestic and foreign challenges of the Korean soccer league such as acquiring players, and why gathering domestic audiences is a challenge for the Korean soccer league.

Background: In resource-constrained health systems medical travel is a common alternative to seeking unavailable health services. This paper was motivated by the need to understand better the impact of such travel on households and health systems. Methods: We used primary data from 344 subsidized and 471 non-subsidized inbound medical travellers during June to December 2013 drawn from the North, Centre and South regions of the Maldives where three international airports are located. Using a researcher-administered questionnaire to acquire data, we calculated annual out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on health, food and non-food items among households where at least one member had travelled to another country for medical care within the last year and estimated the poverty head count using household income as a living standard measure. Results: Most of the socio demographic indicators, and costs of treatment abroad among Maldivian medical travellers were similar across different household income levels with no statistical difference between subsidized and non-subsidized travellers (p value: 0.499). The government subsidy across income quintiles was also similar indicating that the Maldivian health financing structure supports equality rather than being equity-sensitive. There was no statistical difference in OOP expenditure on medical care abroad and annual OOP expenditure on healthcare was similar across income quintiles. Diseases of the circulatory system, eye and musculoskeletal system had the most impoverishing effect – diseases for which half of the patients, or less, did not receive the public subsidy. Annually, 6 and 14% of the medical travellers in the Maldives fell into poverty ($2 per day) before and after making OOP payments to health care. Conclusion: Evidence of a strong association between predominant public financing of medical travel and equality was found. With universal eligibility to the government subsidy for medical travel, utilization of treatment abroad, medical expenditures abroad and OOP expenditures on health among Maldivian medical travellers were similar between the poor and the rich. However, we conclude mixed evidence on the linkages between public financing of medical travel and impoverishment which needs to be further explored with comparison of impoverishment levels between households with and without medical travel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]