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This paper evaluates the relationship between corruption and operational efficiency of airports in Asia, by analyzing a panel dataset of 26 Asian airports over the 2003–2019 period. Our estimation results for Asia confirm the findings for other regions that there exists a negative association between the operational efficiencies of airports and the corruption level in the country. Airports owned, operated and/or managed by government corporations (100% government) are the most affected, in that they experience significant loss of efficiency when located in a high corruption country. The residual variable factor productivity (RVFP) from the Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) airport benchmarking reports is used as measure of airport operational efficiency. Regression analyses are applied to evaluate the relationship between airport efficiency and corruption. The results are robust to alternative corruption indexes. The findings of this paper have important policy implications for the management of large public infrastructure projects and airport governance reforms in Asia. • We assess the impact of corruption on airport efficiency in Asia. • The dataset covers 26 airports located in 10 Asian countries over the 2003–2019 period. • Residual Variable Factor Productivity is used as measure of airport efficiency. • Analyses show a negative association between airport efficiency and corruption in Asia. • Corruption impacts are stronger for airports under public corporations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid internet penetration and technological advancements have facilitated accessibility to internet-enabled devices globally. Since Asia lacks comprehensive data on internet addiction among college students, this review aims to estimate its pooled prevalence. This was a systematic review and meta-analysis. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and MEDLINE from their inception through August 2022 using terms appropriate to internet addiction and Asian countries/territorial for publications in English peer-reviewed journals. The studies included those done on current college students and provided unambiguous indicators of the threshold of internet addiction. The pooled prevalence was calculated through a random-effects meta-analysis by RStudio software, and I 2 statistic was used to assess heterogeneity. The Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal checklist was used for quality assessment. Overall, between 2007 and 2021, 39 papers comprising 45 effect sizes and totaling 58,058 participants met the inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of internet addiction among Asian college students was 24.3% (95% confidence interval: 19.8%–29.5%, Q = 6234, df = 44, τ2 = 0.79, I 2 = 99.29%), and strikingly, this percentage increased over time. A high degree of heterogeneity was seen, and no publication bias was found. To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive review report on Asian college students, which found that one-fifth suffer from internet addiction. The findings emphasize the significance of multidisciplinary prevention and management strategies to mitigate the harmful effects of internet addiction. Further research is warranted to develop a standardized diagnostic tool for a more precise estimation of internet addiction among this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ecosystem services (ES) approach has been widely applied for assessing nature's values and human-nature links. Over the past two decades, this research approach has experienced remarkable growth, exerting global influence on the sustainability policy agenda. Recent literature indicates that North America, Europe, East Asia, and Australia are major contributors to ES research, while other regions are progressing at a slower pace. Many countries in these regions remain under-represented due to various factors, including but not limited to knowledge transfer gaps, disparities in research capacities, as well as distinct needs and challenges among researchers in the Global North and South. Although the ES literature in Asia is growing in topics, methodologies, quality and quantity, many Asian researchers, especially Early Career Researchers (ECRs), still face problems typical of the Global South while conducting ES research. In this paper, we outline four major challenges from the perspective of ECRs. They include: 1) Inequality in career prospects and capacity-building, 2) Inequality and challenges in data access & knowledge transfer, 3) Circulation of research findings in global scientific publishing, 4) Challenges in funding. This perspective paper draws special attention to the challenges faced by ECRs in ES research in Asia. By presenting recommendations, we strongly advocate that the research community work together to make ES research a level playing field for ECRs like ourselves working in Asia and elsewhere. • We provide an overview of the inequalities in scientific production on Ecosystem Services in Asia. • From an early career perspective we highlight four key categories young researchers face difficulties in. • These include: career prospects & capacity-building, data access & knowledge transfer, access to publishing, and funding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 5th Asia Partnership Conference of Regenerative Medicine (APACRM) was held online on April 7, 2022 to promote regulatory harmonization of regenerative medicine products throughout Asia. The recognition of domestic regulatory guidelines within each country and region and the underpinning rationales are important initial steps toward the harmonization of regulations. The 5th APACRM featured open dialog regarding non-clinical, quality and environmental impact assessment settings for cell and gene therapy products through presentations from the industry and panel discussions with regulatory agencies. The latest updates on regenerative medicine fields in each country and region were also introduced. This paper summarizes the proceedings of the 5th APACRM for public dissemination to foster future discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The causes presented in the literature of the middle-income trap are generic, emphasizing the quality of the legal institutions of the country, demographic problems, the lack of social infrastructure, poor macroeconomic policies, etc. were already present in developing countries when they were growing fast. Besides, the income interval used on the studies on the trap was too large. • Instead of promoting the growth, the liberalizing reforms, which were more radical in Latin America than in Asia, caused an increase in the interest rate and dismantled the mechanism that neutralized the Dutch disease – both facts leading to the chronic overvaluation of the exchange rate, which represented a competitive disadvantage of the companies utilizing the best technology available. • In the economic literature, it is well established that the currencies of the commodity-focused economies tend to be appreciated in the long run because they face the Dutch disease. On the other hand, central banks in the region tend to define a high interest rate around which they organize their monetary policy so as to attract foreign capital and "grow with external savings" – this representing a second major cause of overvaluation of the national currencies of Latin American countries. • The main conclusion of the research is that, in the period of 1980–2016, the Latin American countries didn't fall into middle-income but a liberalization trap; the reason why they have fallen into quasi-stagnation while Asian countries did not lie in the liberal reforms. Opening trade in countries that have the Dutch disease meant dismantling the pragmatic mechanisms that neutralized it; financial liberalization limited the ability of countries to control distorted flows of capital and created conditions for the increase in the interest rate. • The instrument to neutralize the Dutch disease on the domestic market side were import tariffs on manufactured goods. To the extent that they were just neutralizing the Dutch disease, they were not protectionist – they were just giving the local manufacturing industry equal conditions of competition with the companies of other countries. If the import tariffs on manufactured goods were higher than what was required to neutralize the Dutch disease, they would be also protectionist. This paper offers an alternative explanation to the slow-down observed in the growth of developing countries. Instead of a middle-income trap what happened was a liberalization trap. Growth didn't happen because countries turned middle-income, but happened in a given period, around the 1980s, when these countries faced a serious foreign debt crisis and were constrained to open their economies. The studies on the middle-income trap have adopted a broad income interval and were unable to offer new historical facts that explained why these countries stop growing fast. Differently, this paper shows that the trade liberalization and the financial liberalization that started in the 1980s involved the dismantling of the mechanism that neutralized the Dutch disease and the change from low to high interest rates – both facts leading to a long-term or chronic overvaluation of the exchange rate that made the manufacturing industry non-competitive and caused deindustrialization and low growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 4th Asia Partnership Conference of Regenerative Medicine (APACRM) was held online on April 15, 2021, to promote regulatory harmonization of regenerative medicine products throughout Asia. Recognizing domestic regulatory guidelines within each country and region, and their underpinning rationales, is an important initial step toward a convergence of regulations. The 4th APACRM consisted of an open dialog with regulatory agencies regarding nonclinical and quality settings for cell therapy products (CTPs) through industry presentations and panel discussions with regulatory agencies. The latest updates on regenerative medicine fields in each country and region, and specific regulatory schematics in Japan, were also introduced. The objective of this paper is to summarize the proceedings of the 4th APACRM for public dissemination and to foster further discussion in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian Forensic Sciences Network was formed in 2008 by a small group of six forensic institutes from six countries in Asia, with the vision to create a common platform for scientists in the region to come together to advance forensic science, raise quality standards, and foster collaboration. Since its inception, the network has experienced remarkable growth, now comprising 70 member institutes from 18 countries across Asia. An Annual Meeting & Symposium, hosted by a member institute each year, serves as a cornerstone event for the network. In addition, the network runs nine technical workgroups covering areas in Crime Scene Investigation, Digital Forensics, DNA, Fingerprint, Forensic Medicine, Illicit Drugs, Questioned Document, Toxicology, and Trace Evidence, alongside a dedicated Quality Assurance and Standards Committee. These workgroups and committee work in tandem with the AFSN Board to formulate strategies aligned with the network's core objectives. This paper chronicles AFSN's journey over the past fifteen years, highlighting the pivotal role of the Board and the Workgroups, as well as the dedicated passion and unwavering commitment of the members in shaping the network through numerous activities. • AFSN was formed in 2008 by 6 forensic institutes from 6 countries in Asia. • It now comprises 70 member institutes from 18 countries. • It has 9 Technical Workgroups and 1 Quality Assurance and Standards Committee. • AFSN publishes peer-reviewed newsletter ForensicAsia. • Different member institutes host the AFSN Annual Meeting & Symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on rural field research in three provinces of Northeast Thailand, the paper seeks to understand the ways in which life course, generational, era-defining and developmental change intersect, and why rural smallholders and smallholdings continue to persist notwithstanding deep structural change. We outline the creative ways that households and their members have sought to address the scissor effects of declining land holdings, rising needs, reduced relative returns to agriculture, and often precarious non-farm work. We posit, drawing on this work from Thailand, that while Asia’s ‘truncated agrarian transition’ goes some way to explaining the current empirical fact of persistent smallholders, we raise doubts whether the rural development agenda of modernisation, marketisation and rural exit will have the traction that governments and some scholars anticipate. A focus on production obscures how rural livelihoods also embody acts of consumption, care, reproduction and redistribution. Our study finds that the current experience of occupational multiplicity where households’ livelihoods comprise farm and non-farm, commoditised and quasi-subsistence, in situ and ex situ , production and care, and reproduction and redistribution will likely also persist, if non-farm occupations remains classically precarious and social safety nets thinly woven. The paper contributes to debates over agrarian and rural livelihood transitions in Asia, and sheds explanatory light on why the farm-size transition has not taken hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agronomy–livestock–forestry nexus is critical as it influences ecosystem services, food production, and land use. Asia, a diverse and technologically dynamic region, faces disparities in agronomy tech adoption. Studies emphasize agronomy and forestry's pivotal role in determining livelihoods in the region. Challenges like rising food demand, land scarcity, climate change, and biodiversity loss require innovative solutions. Digital technologies offer enhanced productivity, sustainability, and resource management opportunities, defining the era of smart agriculture and forestry. This work presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), which examines the potential for using digital technology in agronomy and forestry across Asian countries and evaluates evidence of the potential benefits for practitioners and the environment. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method guided the choice of relevant publications. Of the 375 papers located in Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases, only 24 were considered relevant to the research questions. In the agronomy and forestry sectors in Asia, the adoption of digital technologies has the potential to contribute toward the promotion of biodiversity, the preservation of ecosystem services, improved labor efficiency, risk reduction, and the promotion of climate change resilience. Geospatial tools, modeling tools, decision support systems, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and the Internet of Things (IoT) have emerged as prominent technologies driving these positive outcomes. The study lists evidence from various articles supporting these benefits, although most demonstrate indirect causation. This underscores the need for more direct experiments to establish the broader contribution of digital technologies as well as provide evidence showing farmer uptake and the potential negative impacts of implementation. The findings from this study offer a comprehensive view of the potential use of digital technologies for agronomy and forestry in Asia, as well as evidence of their potential benefits. It gives stakeholders valuable information on digital technologies and provides a springboard for future studies regarding the application of digital technology in agronomy, animal husbandry, and forestry. [Display omitted] • Digital solutions can mitigate the impact of uneven tech adoption on livelihoods in Asia's agronomy and forestry sectors. • Presents SLR provide the evidence of benefits for practitioners and environment. • Key technologies include geospatial tools, modeling tools, decision support systems, UAS, IoT. • Digital tech enhances Asia's agronomy/forestry by improving biodiversity, labor and risk management. • Provides information for stakeholders and highlighting research potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As population grows considerably in the world, the correlation between intensity of population in urban areas and energy intensity becomes an important issue in energy field. This paper aims at examining the effects of urbanization on energy intensity for 10 Asian countries by employing annual data from 1990 to 2014. The Asian countries are Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. To this end, the paper, first, follows cross-sectional dependence and heterogeneity tests. Then, the paper conducts unit root and cointegration tests, cointegration analyses and causality analyses. Finally, the paper estimates the short run parameters as well as long-run parameters to capture the possible dynamic relationships among variables. This paper, thus, employs energy intensity as dependent variable and GDP per capita, the square of GDP per capita, urbanization, and ruralization as regressors within the relevant models and explores that there exists a long-run relationship of energy intensity with GDP per capita, the square of GDP per capita, urbanization, and ruralization in panel data. The paper, later, observes additional explanatory variables of export, renewable energy consumption and nonrenewable energy consumption, and, concludes that (i) the urbanization variable has significant influences on energy intensity in the short-run and long-run, (ii) despite the some differences in cross-sectional estimations, the Asian panel data, overall, yield negative impact of urbanization on energy intensity. The latter output indicates that the urbanization path increases the energy productivity in Asian panel models. Within this scope, the paper presents some policy proposals related to the reduction of energy intensity in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how migration infrastructure conditions migrant mobilities within receiving states. The paper examines two infrastructural case studies, language testing and housing markets, in relation to Asian ‘middling’ migrants, that is, the relatively educated and skilled but not elite, who arrive in Australia on temporary visas. The analysis highlights the interplays and dependencies of different ‘logics of operation’ (Xiang and Lindquist, 2014) of infrastructure in relation to these migrants’ status mobilities and housing mobilities within the receiving society. The paper draws on data from in-depth narrative interviews with migrants to also understand how infrastructure produces perceptions and meaning-making around the migration process. This analysis reveals that, in this empirical context, migration infrastructure produces varied kinds of spatio-temporal insecurity as much as it mediates mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, many developing countries have introduced policies to promote seed industry growth and improve the delivery of modern science to farmers, often with a long-term goal of increasing agricultural productivity in smallholder farming systems. Public, private, and civil society actors involved in shaping policy designs have, in turn, developed competing narratives around how best to build an innovative and sustainable seed system, each with varying goals, values, and levels of influence. Efforts to strike a balance between these narratives have often played out in passionate discourses surrounding seed rules and regulations. As a result, however, policymakers in many countries have expressed impatience with the slow progress on enhancing the contribution of a modern seed industry to the overarching goal of increasing agricultural productivity growth. One reason for this slow progress may be that policymakers are insufficiently cognizant of the trade-offs associated with rules and regulations required to effectively govern a modern seed industry. This suggests the need for new data and analysis to improve the understanding of how seed systems function. This paper explores these issues in the context of Asia's rapidly growing seed industry, with illustrations from seed markets for maize and several other crops, to highlight current gaps in the metrics used to analyze performance, competition, and innovation. The paper provides a finite set of indicators to inform policymaking on seed system design and monitoring, and explores how these indicators can be used to inform current policy debates in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even though a deeper financial integration and higher economic and financial stability are the prime goals of many Asian policymakers, no researcher has studied the relationship between integration and (in)stability in Asia. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper investigates the causality between financial integration and macroeconomic and financial instability. To this end, we use the Generalized Method of Moments to estimate a set of dynamic panel data models for a block of Asian countries over the period 2000–2017. Our estimation results show that there is a bidirectional causal relationship between financial integration and instability in Asia. Moreover, we find that financial integration causes instability in output and credit markets. The overall results show that macroeconomic and financial instability in Asia leads to financial disintegration. More specifically, the volatilities of the exchange rate and output growth cause financial fragmentation. Furthermore, we underscore the role of coordinated fiscal and monetary policies in offsetting the adverse effect of financial integration on macroeconomic and financial stability in Asia. Finally, the global financial crisis of 2008 has increased financial disintegration and instability in Asia. Our findings might help Asian policymakers to choose their policy targets when integrating into the global financial system. • There is bidirectional causality between financial integration and instability. • Financial integration leads to instability in output and credit markets in Asia. • In general, economic and financial instability leads to financial disintegration. • The volatilities of exchange rate and output growth cause financial fragmentation. • Coordinated policies might offset the adverse effect of integration on stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Recognizing that enterprises operate at varying levels of informality, this paper evaluates the determinants of their degree of informality. Reporting a 2012 survey of 300 informal microenterprises in the city of Lahore in Pakistan, the finding is that the key predictors of their level of informality are the characteristics of the entrepreneur and enterprise, rather than their motives or the wider formal and informal institutional compliance environment. Lower degrees of informality are associated with women, older, educated, and higher income entrepreneurs and older enterprises with employees in the manufacturing sector. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that one of the fundamental forces shaping contemporary periurban political and spatial change in Asia is the rapid escalation of land values. These land price increases present state actors with acute opportunities and challenges, leading them to develop new strategies of land management that seek to exploit urbanization processes in the interest of extending state power. Specifically, governments in much of Asia have sought to monetize land—to use government powers of land management to realize substantial increases in land values, in order to extend state power either by directly extracting revenue for government from land development, or by distributing the profits of land development to powerful corporate backers of the state. Focusing attention on this comparative political economy of land monetization can therefore provide powerful explanatory insights into emergent patterns of social and spatial inequality and political contestation. The paper further compares state land monetization strategies in Jakarta, Chongqing, and Kolkata, and uses the findings to sketch out a comparative framework for understanding these strategies and their implications for spatial and political development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic identification is a public health care concern for management of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) associated cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This study presents the spectrum and distribution of LDLR, APOB, PCSK9 gene mutations in Asia. Databases were searched for English papers from 1950 to 2019. The spectrum of the variants was investigated in 8994 FH families in 48 Asian countries. We determined the frequency of variants, zygosity, and clinical features. Twenty countries have studied LDLR variants. A total of 629 mutations were reported and twenty variants were accounted as common variants in different populations. China, Japan, India and Taiwan constituted 68% of published articles. The most frequent mutation was reported in Japan but was not common in other countries. Other missense variants accounted for 50% of the mutations, frameshifts 19%, and nonsense 11%. The pooled frequency of variation was estimated in 1867 individuals. Approximately 67% of Iranian families were homozygous.,The common variant was p.Ser130Ter. p.Arg3527Trp in APOB was common among 184 heterozygous patients; the common variant of PCSK9 was p.Glu32Lys. This is the first systematic review of LDLR, APOB, PCSK9 mutations in FH patients in Asia. These findings underscore the need to fill in the gap of studies on different populations in Asia. It also underlies the importance of early detection and management to decrease atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk in different ethnicities. Image 1 • This systematic review provides information on LDLR, APOB, PCSK9 variants in Asia. • Among 8994 FH families in 48 Asian countries, 629 LDLR variants were reported. • Twenty variants were reported as the common variants in Asia. • The frequency and distribution of the variants were high in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the turmoil in the global financial sector over the years, Asian banking stood still with many positive characteristics - stable, balanced competition, good governance, and profitable – becoming a fertile ground for performance studies. This paper departs from previous banking performance studies in Asia by proposing a novel stochastic Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) based on sign decomposition, offering a novel perspective in five analytical fronts. First, criteria decorrelation and filtering from country and time impacts as an initial data treatment. Second, endogenous computation of bank criteria importance for the alternatives comprised by each bank and year under analysis, in a "one-stop-shop" approach. Third, derivation of partial performance scores for each criterion under each alternative, besides traditional overall performance scores for each alternative. Fourth, mapping the exogenous/endogenous relationships among bank filtered criteria from country and year impacts using transfer entropy. Fifth, prediction of the overall performance drivers in terms of country-related contextual variables using neural networks. Our findings indicate that bank liquidity, bank capitalization, net income as well as the ability to generate profit for the shareholders are significantly related to bank performance. In addition, we find that accounting standards have a significant impact on bank performance. Although inflation is found to be positively related to bank performance, the results show that bank performance is helpful to promote people's economic standard and life expectancy. Our study provides important implications to macroeconomic management to balance the development of macroeconomic development and bank performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The growing cities in developing Asia require a massive provision of infrastructure, public transportation, housing and jobs for their population, as well as a healthy environment. On the other hand, urban Asia contributes increasingly to climate change, and suffers its impacts. The climate co-benefits approach in this paper refers to the development and implementation of policies and strategies that simultaneously contribute to addressing climate change and solving local environmental problems, which also have other development impacts. The co-benefits approach is important especially for developing countries, which have to overcome many challenges simultaneously with limited capacities and resources. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine the main obstacles, opportunities and challenges to implementation of environmental co-benefit related policies in urban areas. The paper focuses primarily upon sub-national processes, particularly in cities in developing countries, but the research also looked into the links of sub-national processes to national and international processes. The paper relies on the results of research done in China, Indonesia and India. It offers a series of lessons for understanding initiatives that generated co-benefits and the factors that influence them. This paper provides insight on successful ways to promote, design and implement the urban co-benefits approach in urban areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• 18 new Ancestry informative markers (AIMs) were screened from the 1000 Genomes Project. • A novel panel of 18 AIMs can improve ancestry distinctions among Asian populations. • Our panel could distinguish the GIH (Gujarati Indian in Houston, TX) from other South Asian groups. At present, several mature ancestry informative SNP (AISNP) panels are used to distinguish between continental regions of the world, but a more accurate division within the continent requires a secondary panel to complete. However, many AISNPs for the subgroup ancestry inference are selected from the Kidd Lab panel of 55 AISNPs or other published papers. These panels inevitably lack valuable markers for subgroup ancestry inference. Therefore, instead of choosing from the published panels, we used the 1000 Genomes Project to screen potentially informational markers in Asian populations, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion/deletion polymorphisms (InDels). The allele frequencies of all autosomal SNPs and InDels of the 1000 Genomes Project were compared between 10 populations in Asia to identify markers with the largest pairwise allele frequency differences. Finally, we established a second-tier panel of 18 AIMs in this study, which not only divided the 26 populations of the 1000 Genomes Project into six clusters, but also divided the Asia subgroup into four clusters: Gujarati, East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Global sustainability is increasingly influenced by processes of industrialisation and urbanization in non-OECD countries, especially in Asia. Growth models suggest that developing economies and regions will become first relatively more resource- and pollution-intensive, before converging on more resource-efficient and low-pollution production and consumption patterns expressed in developed countries. Alternative less resource- and pollution-intensive growth models for latecomer countries promise social and economic benefits in the short- and long-term. Drawing on insights from system innovation research on long-run change in socio-technical systems, we discuss the potential role of ‘sustainability experiments’ to generate innovations that will constitute new ‘greener’ growth models. We observe a great number of technology-based initiatives that we characterize as sustainability experiments in East and South Asian countries. These experiments emerge in the context of the growth of new socio-technical regimes in key sectors, including energy, transport, manufacturing, food and the built environment. We set out a conceptual framework for assessing the role of experiments, and for evaluating how they link with and become anchored into alternative more sustainable regimes. In this paper we argue that sustainability experiments represent a significant new source of innovation and capability-formation, linked to global knowledge and technology flows, which could reshape emergent socio-technical regimes and so contribute to alternative development pathways in latecomer countries. We conclude by summarizing the six papers published in this Special Issue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper examines the role of social capital in the sustainability of induced community-based organizations (CBOs). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from 14 villages and 129 CBOs in Southern Nepal. This paper argues that social capital can be both positive and negative, affecting collective action and the sustainability of CBOs. Major problems include rule breaking with impunity and elite capture of resources, especially during the transition phase from external to internal management. While external agencies play an important role in inducing and sustaining CBOs, they should also address the complex issue of social capital and its downside. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper represents a collaborative effort by the Asian Strategic Alliance for Pneumococcal Disease Prevention (ASAP) Working Group to collate data on the disease burden due to invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) in participating Asian countries and territories; namely, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand. A review of both published and unpublished data revealed that the incidence of IPD in some countries is well documented by way of large, long-duration studies, while in other countries, much of the available data have been extrapolated from international studies or have come from small population studies of limited geographical coverage. This paper confirms that data regarding the incidence of IPD in Asia are grossly lacking and reinforces the need for urgent and more substantial studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper first presents a 10-year outlook for major Asian dairy markets (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) based on a world dairy model. Then, using Heien and Wessells’s (1988) [Heien, D.M., Wessells, C., 1988. The demand for dairy products: structure, prediction, and decomposition. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 70, 219-28] technique, dairy product consumption growth is decomposed into contributions generated by income growth, population growth, price change, and urbanization and these contributions are quantified. Using the world dairy model, the paper also analyzes the impacts of alternative assumptions of higher income levels and technology development in Asia on Asian dairy consumptions and world dairy prices. The outlook projects that Asian dairy consumption will continue to grow strongly in the next decade. The consumption decomposition suggests that the growth would be mostly driven by income and population growth and, as a result, would raise world dairy prices. The simulation results show that technology improvement in Asian countries would dampen world dairy prices and meanwhile boost domestic dairy consumption. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It has been claimed that Asia lags behind the rest of the world in the privatization of airports. At the same time, the air transport sector has been growing quickly and this has placed enormous pressure on airport infrastructure. This paper reviews the situation and finds that the private sector is involved extensively with new airports and the upgrading of existing airports in Asia. Although the models used to accommodate the private sector appear similar to those used elsewhere, governments in Asia have retained majority control in every case. Despite the fact that some governments say that efficiency is important to them, the most common and important motive in “privatization” in Asia is to mobilize a new source of finance. Airports remain high on the agenda of public policy. Governments are concerned about abuse of monopoly powers and they want to cross-subsidize regional airports, but they lack the institutional strengths to regulate effectively. By retaining majority control, however, governments risk losing the efficiency benefits of privatization. The paper explores the reasons why airports are such difficult cases to deal with and concludes that there is a greater need than ever to be able to compare the performances of airports. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Context: The contribution of copper-bearing intrauterine devices (IUDs) to overall contraceptive protection has declined in many countries, despite their well-known advantages. In response, initiatives to promote this method have been undertaken.Objective: To review and interpret the experience of interventions to promote use of IUDs in low- and middle-income countries in order to provide strategic guidance for policies and programs.Methods: We conducted a systematic search of Medline, Popline, Embase and Global Health electronic databases for relevant journal papers, reports and gray literature since 2010. Telephone interviews were held with two donors and six international family planning organizations.Results: We identified a total of 31 publications. Four reported the results of randomized control trials and three were derived from quasi-experiments. The majority were based on service statistics. Eight publications concerned interventions for HIV-positive women or couples, nine for postpartum or postabortion cases and 14 for general populations. Intervention approaches included vouchers, franchising of private practitioners, mobile outreach services, placement of dedicated staff in high-volume facilities and demand creation. Most publications adduced evidence of a positive impact and some reported impressively large numbers of IUD insertions. Results to date on the uptake of IUDs in postpartum interventions are modest. There is also almost no evidence of effects on IUD use at national levels. Implant uptake generally exceeded IUD uptake when both were offered.Conclusion: The evidence base is weak and offers few lessons on what strategies are most effective. The overall impression is that IUD use can be increased in a variety of ways but that progress is hampered by persistent adverse perceptions by both providers and potential clients. Provider enthusiasm is a key to success. The lack of a population impact stems in part from the fact that nearly all interventions are initiated by international organizations, with limited national reach except in small countries, rather than by government agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urban populations grow and climate exposure increases, more cities are introducing formal planning processes to adapt to climate change. This paper explains the process applied to eight cities in the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) for developing indicators for planning and monitoring local climate resilience. This process relied on transferring a common conceptual framework for climate resilience, together with a locally led iterative and collaborative process that engaged technical and planning authorities and vulnerable groups. The process varied slightly between cities and generated indicators that were chosen for their contextual fit and availability of data. The main benefit of developing resilience indicators in this way was the local capacity that the process built, in terms of understanding resilience, shared understanding of concepts and measurement and establishment of a common platform for future planning and monitoring of climate adaptation interventions at the city level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change in the Arctic is leading to the fast recession of sea ice in the summer. This evolution leads several observers, scientists, media and government officials, to consider the possibility of developing new shipping routes along Arctic routes, as these routes are much shorter between Europe and Asia. The literature displays a strong discourse about interest from Asian countries for these potential shipping routes. This paper tackles with this idea and examines to what extent Asian shipping companies, the ultimate economic agents, are really interested in Arctic shipping routes. The image the research portrayed is that only a minority of Asian shipping companies are indeed interested, and those that are interested stress the destinational dimension of Arctic shipping, not transit shipping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Farmer Business School (FBS) is a participatory, action learning process focused on product and business development, and like the Farmer Field School, is a complex, multi-dimensional innovation with the potential to benefit large numbers of farming households economically, socially and institutionally. Scaling this approach requires rethinking both innovation and scaling. The paper draws on the insights of recent research which argues that a systems approach to innovation can better address the complexity of scaling processes and provides frameworks that link together processes of innovation and scaling. In examining these frameworks, the paper identifies the key role of partnership dynamics in those processes. Drawing on both the innovation and scaling literature and literature on partnership dynamics, a conceptual framework is developed to analyze how partnership dynamics contribute to and constrain the transition from small-scale 'niche' innovation testing led by researchers, to large scale integration of the approach by development partners in agricultural 'regimes'. Using case studies involving partnerships between a small international agricultural research grant recipient and six large development projects supported by IFAD multilateral loans and managed by government agencies undertaken in four Asian countries between 2011 and 2018, the study analyses the variable dynamics of the partnerships from initial networking to integrated collaboration, in the process of scaling the FBS innovation. Responding to the main research question about the drivers of partnership dynamics that contribute to scaling, the paper examines the partnerships in terms of six drivers which derived both from the literature and also from the empirical evidence presented in the study. The drivers include two dimensions of "fit", one about the convergence of research expertise and development demand, the other about the systematic integration of the innovation with different elements of the development actions. Other drivers relate to the issue of the convergence of project cycles, the stability of staffing in partner organizations, internal decision-making processes and the dimension of "partnering" – the value-based and behavioral aspects of collaboration. The paper also discusses the results of a "partnership health check-up" process conducted periodically during the partnerships and reconsiders the driver about system fit to understand the extent to which there had been a transformation in the conventional 'regime' approach to innovations and scaling. Finally, the paper proposes to adjust the conceptual framework based on the analysis of these partnerships for scaling innovations. • To scale complex innovations like Farmer Business School, a systems understanding of innovation and scaling is needed • Research-development partnerships and their dynamics are integral to a systems understanding of innovation and scaling • The recognized stages through which most partnerships pass provides a useful framework for analyzing the dynamics and drivers of partnerships for scaling • Key drivers of partnership include 'fit' between research expertise and development demand and between the innovation and livelihood systems aspects of the development action [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Philippines may be the face of today's 'drug wars', but its experience is by no means exceptional - as the contemporary examples of Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka show. In the early 2000s Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra also embarked on a 'drug war' with striking parallels to the Philippines in terms of its human toll and failed outcomes. This paper uses the framework of populism - defined as a political style - to survey punitive drug regimes in Asia and make sense of their social and political efficacies. It identifies the divisions mobilized and reinforced by populists as well as the ways in which they perform and spectacularize national crises.Methods: Drawing from journalistic and scholarly sources, as well as official documents, four case studies are presented: two historical (1970s Philippines and 2000s Thailand) and two contemporary (Bangladesh and Indonesia) to show how this style travels across the region.Findings: While drug wars can be understood in terms of the moral panics that surround them, this paper highlights the role of individual political actors who mobilize these panics by dramatizing crises, forging divisions, and making knowledge claims about drugs and the people who use them. Particularly for the region's 'drug wars', common elements include the conflation of the 'drug menace' with ethnic, economic 'others' - as well as misleading or exaggerated epidemiological and medical claims.Conclusion: If, as demonstrated by the illustrative examples in this article, those who choose to invoke drugs do so by making knowledge claims and forging divisions, then possible responses include challenging those claims (and providing evidence to do), uncoupling drugs with particular groups, and furnishing historical perspectives that belie populist claims of exceptional crises and the purported efficacy of punitive, dramatic responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finance has become a crucial agenda in climate change negotiations in recent years. Meanwhile, multilateral negotiations on climate change as a whole are making meager progress, and increasingly observed are activities by national governments and transnational non-state actors. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how investment towards low-carbon development could be materialized in Asia. A thorough review of current financial assistance for developing countries in Asia was conducted, and the amount of funding proved to be relatively modest to achieve the aim. We then examined financial policy instruments that could be implemented in the region. We estimated that USD125–149 billion per year would be needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region by 2035. We also estimated that more than a half of this amount of funding could be achieved by public sector if several key policy instruments were agreed upon and enacted at regional and national levels in Asia. The role of private sector investment was also found to be indispensable in fulfilling all the long-term investment needs related to climate mitigation in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces adult basic life support (BLS) guidelines for lay rescuers of the resuscitation council of Asia (RCA) developed for the first time. The RCA BLS guidelines for lay rescuers have been established by expert consensus among BLS Guidelines Taskforce of the RCA on the basis of the 2015 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science with Treatment Recommendations. The RCA recommends compression-only CPR for lay rescuers and emphasizes high-quality CPR with chest compression depth of approximately 5cm and chest compression rate of 100-120min(-1). Role of emergency medical dispatchers in helping lay rescuers recognize cardiac arrest and perform CPR is also emphasized. The RCA guidelines will contribute to help Asian countries establish and implement their own CPR guidelines in the context of their domestic circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined relationships between financial development and energy consumption in Asia for the period of 1980–2012. For the purpose of the empirical analysis, it performed the heterogeneous panel causality test suggested by Dumitrescu and Hurlin [1] . The findings of the panel cointegration test indicated that there was a long run equilibrium relationship between finance and energy consumption in the region. Moreover, the heterogeneous panel causality test detected a unidirectional causality from energy consumption to financial development but not vice versa . These results indicate that an expansion of energy usage could be a driving force behind financial development in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As countries in Asia converge on the goal of universal health coverage (UHC), some common challenges are emerging. One is how to ensure coverage of the informal sector so as to make UHC truly universal; a second is how to design a benefit package that is responsive and appropriate to current health challenges, yet fiscally sustainable; and a third is how to ensure “supply-side readiness”, i.e. the availability and quality of services, which is a necessary condition for translating coverage into improvements in health outcomes. Using examples from the Asia region, this paper discusses these three challenges and how they are being addressed. On the first challenge, two promising approaches emerge: using general revenues to fully cover the informal sector, or employing a combination of tax subsidies, non-financial incentives and contributory requirements. The former can produce fast results, but places pressure on government budgets and may induce informality, while the latter will require a strong administrative mandate and systems to track the ability-to-pay. With respect to benefit packages, we find considerable variation in the nature and rigor of processes underlying the selection and updating of the services included. Also, in general, packages do not yet focus sufficiently on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and related preventive outpatient care. Finally, there are large variations and inequities in the supply-side readiness, in terms of availability of infrastructure, equipment, essential drugs and staffing, to deliver on the promises of UHC. Health worker competencies are also a constraint. While the UHC challenges are common, experience in overcoming these challenges is varied and many of the successes appear to be highly context-specific. This implies that researchers and policymakers need to rigorously, and regularly, assess different approaches, and share these findings across countries in Asia – and across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While houses in Asian countries have attracted international attention for the active new housing construction and rapid demolition of existing houses, empirical evidence on the structure depreciation curve is scarce. Employing a unique dataset of nationwide housing transaction prices collected by the Japanese government, which is decomposed into structure and land values by market participants, this paper formally estimates the structure depreciation curve of Japanese detached houses. First, structure value is lost by as much as 50% during the initial 10 years following construction, and the depreciation gradually continues until the property is around 30 years old. This implies that "taste for newness" at an early stage of building life (or depreciation between new houses and relatively new resale houses) is significant, and structure value is lost much faster than measured by demolition during the latter stage of building life. Second, while this trend is robust across regions and over time, the depreciation from new houses to relatively new resale houses is becoming smaller in recent years, and it is smaller in urban areas than in rural areas. This implies a recent potential for utilizing existing housing stocks, especially in urban areas in a matured society, to which other developed Asian countries or developing countries may proceed in the future. • Estimate the structure depreciation curve of Japanese detached houses. • Structure value is lost by as much as 50% during the initial 10 years. • This cannot be measured by demolition during the latter stage of building life. • The taste for newness is becoming smaller in recent years. • Imply a recent potential for utilizing existing housing stocks in a matured society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper explores the mechanisms through which finance affects corporate investments and capital accumulation. We separate the effects of financial conditions from those of financial development. Based on a sample of firms from five Asian emerging economies, we find that (i) financial conditions affect firms’ growth opportunities and investment demand, while financial development primarily affects firms’ external financing constraints; (ii) large firms benefit more from improved financial conditions, while small firms benefit more from financial development; and (iii) these effects are asymmetric—in general, stronger when the global financial crisis was unfolding and weaker during the subsequent rebound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This special issue has presented some of the specific findings of the RE-Impact Project which was commissioned and funded by the EuropeAid Cooperation Office from 2007 until its conclusion in 2010. The project aimed to provide impact assessment frameworks and influence relevant policies through direct involvement in bioenergy projects and policy analysis in South Africa, Uganda, India and China. The papers summarised here have covered issues related to Jatropha curcas and forest-based bioenergy in these countries. Taking an overall look at the project findings we can identify a number of general conclusions relevant for the future of bioenergy and rural development in Africa and Asia. First, only local and context-specific sustainability assessment can identify the risk and responsibilities of the different groups and the exact impact on the environment. Second, many initiatives both in biofuels and forest-based bioenergy are marred by a lack of understanding of the life-cycle financial analysis. Third, careful consideration of local physical and social conditions and the economics of the production chain can identify real opportunities for rural development using bioenergy. The current global impasse in bioenergy policies could actually be advantageous to the development of bioenergy in developing countries. Without the pressure from America and Europe to develop bioenergy systems for climate change mitigation, countries in Africa and Asia may have the breathing room to shape bioenergy systems for their own internal energy supply in an orderly fashion. However, in order to avoid environmental and social impacts it will be necessary to articulate together elements of a number of measures including market-based certification, national policy formulation, national legislation, impact assessments, sustainability planning, land use planning, research, monitoring and evaluation taking into account country and project specific sustainability criteria. Unfortunately, many of the countries in Africa and Asia where bioenergy can play an important role still lack institutional structures able to articulate this sustainable development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from conventional solid waste management in developing Asian countries contribute significantly to global climate change. This paper argues that moving towards Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) offers a practical solution for mitigating these GHG emissions and for realising socio-economic as well as other environmental benefits. The study assesses the GHG emissions of an existing ISWM system in Muangklang Municipality, Thailand as compared to conventional treatment from a life cycle perspective. The integrated system which recovers nutrients, materials and energy from the waste stream, and reduces landfill disposal of organic and recyclable waste was found to have reduced GHG emissions very significantly compared to conventional landfill disposal, which is currently the most common waste treatment technology in Thailand. Among the individual technologies assessed, materials recycling was found to offer the largest reductions in GHG emissions from a life-cycle perspective. The calculations indicate that a properly designed integrated system with high but fully realistic recovery rates can drastically reduce the climate impact of waste management. Most municipalities in developing Asia are small-to-medium scale and share many characteristics with Muangklang. Therefore, the authors argue that most municipalities in the region could apply this type of low-cost locally adapted ISWM system. This would have numerous sustainability benefits, including drastically reduced GHG emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background & Aims: The World Health Organisation (WHO) Prevention & Control of Viral Hepatitis Infection: Framework for Global Action offers a global vision for the prevention and control of viral hepatitis. In October 2012, the Coalition to Eradicate Viral Hepatitis in Asia Pacific (CEVHAP) organised the North Asia Workshop on Viral Hepatitis in Taipei to discuss how to implement the WHO Framework in the North Asia region. This paper presents outcomes from this workshop. Methods: Twenty-eight representatives from local liver associations, patient organisations, and centres of excellence in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan participated in the workshop. Findings: Priority areas for action were described along the four axes of the WHO Framework: (1) awareness, advocacy and resources; (2) evidence and data; (3) prevention of transmission; and (4) screening and treatment. Priorities included: axis 1: greater public and professional awareness, particularly among primary care physicians and local advocacy networks. Axis 2: better economic data and identifying barriers to screening and treatment uptake. Axis 3: monitoring of vaccination outcomes and targeted harm reduction strategies. Axis 4: strengthening links between hospitals and primary care providers, and secure funding of screening and treatment, including for hepatocellular carcinoma. Conclusions: The WHO Framework provides an opportunity to develop comprehensive and cohesive policies in North Asia and the broader region. A partnership between clinical specialists, primary care physicians, policy makers, and people with or at risk of viral hepatitis is essential in shaping future policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper aims to advance two objectives: (1) identify and explore greenhouse gas emissions from urban areas in Asia at the regional level; and (2) explore covariates of urban greenhouse gas emissions. We use the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research estimates for carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and sulfur hexafluoride from 14 source activities for the year 2000, which are allocated on a 1/10° global grid. We extract emissions for 3535 urban extents all with populations over 50,000, accounting for approximately 91% of the region''s urban population. We use regression analysis to associate emissions with urban area and growth, economic, and biophysical characteristics. Our findings suggest that urban areas account for between 30 and 38% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions for the region and that emission per capita averages from urban areas are lower than those at the national level. Important covariates for total urban greenhouse gas emissions include population size, density and growth rate, income per capita, development status and elevation. This is a first and preliminary assessment of regional baseline trends using these data and this top-down analysis. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Prenatal and delivery care are critical both for maternal and newborn health. Using the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data for thirty-two low-income countries across Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, and employing a two-level random-intercept model, this paper empirically assesses the influence of prenatal attendance and a wide array of observed individual-, household- and community-level characteristics on a woman’s decision to give birth at a health facility or at home. The results show that prenatal attendance does appreciably influence the use of facility delivery in all three geographical regions, with women having four visits being 7.3 times more likely than those with no prenatal care to deliver at a health facility. These variations are more pronounced for Sub-Saharan Africa. The influence of the number of prenatal visits, maternal age and education, parity level, and economic status of the birthing women on the place of delivery is found to vary across the three geographical regions. The results also indicate that obstetrics care is geographically and economically more accessible to urban and rural women from the non-poor households than those from the poor households. The strong influence of number of visits, household wealth, education and regional poverty on the site of delivery setting suggests that policies aimed at increasing the use of obstetric care programs should be linked with the objectives of social development programs such as poverty reduction, enhancing the status of women, and increasing primary and secondary school enrollment rate among girls. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Passerine birds from two late Pliocene localities, Shaamar in northern Mongolia and Beregovaya in Transbaikalia (East Russia), represent the first known Neogene fossil assemblages of perching birds from Asia. A total of 11 families and 15 taxa are recognized, including a new genus and species of bunting, Pliocalcarius orkhonensis, apparently related to the Longspurs, and new species within the genera Hirundo and Rhodospiza, which are described. The avifauna is composed of open land and bush dwellers; it contains a few arid species, representing the oldest finds of the corresponding genera or lineages. This may indicate that the living Asian arid avian complex originated in Central Asia in the Neogene. Several genera (Rhodospiza, Paradoxornis) are documented in this paper for the first time in pre-Pleistocene deposits. Report of Calcarius is the first pre-Holocene evidence of the occurrence of this genus in Asia, which together with the remains of Synaptomys lemmings at Shaamar, illustrates faunal interchanges between North America and Asia in the Pliocene. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study proposes a novel approach, the Fuzzy Rasch model, which combines Item Response Theory (IRT) and fuzzy set theory. This paper applies the Fuzzy Rasch model in Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to analyse the Tourism Destination Competitiveness (TDC) of nine Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines. The study was conducted in 2009 using 6 criteria and 15 indices. The results demonstrate the feasibility of applying the Fuzzy Rasch model in TOPSIS to analyse TDC in Asian countries. In addition, the proposed model also provides an effective means of applying the MCDM method to study TDC. Furthermore, in 2009, the Asian countries were ranked from most to least competitive as follows: China, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and the Philippines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Recently, Asian and Latin American countries have engaged in a series of negotiations to liberalize trade and investment flows. This paper analyzes the potential impact of a free trade agreement (FTA) between countries of both regions, applying a world dynamic general equilibrium model (MIRAGE). An important feature of the model is that it includes a new way of modeling bilateral investment flows and bilateral investment agreements. This is especially important given that investment plays a major role in the economic relations of the two regions. Our results show that most countries will benefit from the agreement; nevertheless, the gains of Latin American countries will be higher, especially when all Asian countries participate. In addition, Latin America benefits from increased FDI inflows, mainly from developed Asian countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: India’s farm sector sustains livelihoods for hundreds of millions of rural people, but faces serious management challenges for land, water, and energy resources. Growing dependence on groundwater threatens water resources sustainability and power sector viability. Sustaining India’s rising prosperity rests on managing groundwater. This study shows that raising power tariffs in the farm sector to achieve efficiency and sustainability of groundwater use is both socially and economically viable. The question is about how to introduce this shift. This paper discusses five different options for power supply, metering and energy pricing in the farm sector and the expected outcomes of implementing each vis-a-vis efficiency of groundwater and energy use, equity in access and sustainability of groundwater. It concludes that establishing an energy quota for each farm-based on sustainability considerations, and metering and charging pro rata for power used are the best options to manage groundwater and the energy economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Effective state–business relations are a set of highly institutionalised, responsive and public interactions between the state and the business sector. This paper examines the impact of effective state–business relations on economic growth across Indian states over the period 1985–2006. We propose a measure that captures the various dimensions of effective state–business relations at the sub-national level, and estimate standard growth regressions using dynamic panel data methods. Our results show that effective state–business relations contribute significantly to economic growth and appear to be driven by the intensity of the interactions between the state and the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Dominant development policy approaches recommend women’s employment on the grounds that it facilitates their well-being. However, empirical work on the relationship between women’s employment status and well-being as measured by freedom from marital violence yields ambiguous results. Motivated by the ambiguity, this paper uses data from Uttar Pradesh, to examine the effect of women’s employment and asset status as measured by their participation in paid work and house ownership, respectively, on spousal violence. Unlike the existing literature, we treat women’s work status as endogenous and find that engagement in paid work and house ownership, are associated with reductions in violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The volume of international trade and freight transport in Asia has witnessed fast growth in recent decades. The resulting environmental impact of freight transport operations has become a major cause of concern. Intermodal transport has gained prominence recently due to its potential to offer door-to-door service through the integration of various modes of transport in the logistics chain, improved coordination and services, and the development of intermodal interfaces. However, few studies have focused on this development in Asia. The development of intermodal transport requires transport links, nodes, and services. The development of dry ports, an important component of intermodal transport, could play a major role in promoting intermodal transport in Asia, including its twelve landlocked countries. Dry ports located in deep inland areas, as opposed to near the sea, would incorporate customs and other related facilities and rail links, as well as provide for transfer, transshipment, and distribution functions for cargo. By encouraging a modal shift, such dry ports would help to ease road traffic congestion and reduce emissions. This study reviews the status of intermodal freight transport in Asia from an environmental perspective. It examines intermodal transport opportunities presented by the development of inland dry ports in hinterland locations. This paper also reviews selected case studies of dry port development in Asia. Finally, we present the lessons to be learned for the promotion of intermodal freight transport from selected Asian countries as well as the policy options available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines the effect of the financial crisis on off-farm employment of China’s rural labor force. Using a national representative dataset, we find that there was a large impact. By April 2009 off-farm employment reached 6.8% of the rural labor force. Monthly earnings also declined. However, while we estimate that 49 million were laid-off between October 2008 and April 2009, half of them were re-hired in off-farm work by April 2009. By August 2009, less than 2% of the rural labor force was unemployed due to the crisis. The robust recovery appears to have helped avoid instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper addresses the public concern of hollowing-out effects of FDI by analyzing firm-specific data on Taiwanese manufacturing multinationals. We estimate ordered probit models with the firms’ own assessment of domestic production and employment effects as dependent variables to investigate whether such effects depend on the size, location, and type of FDI. We find that the probability of negative effects increases slightly with the size of FDI. Furthermore, the effects of locating in China differ from those of locating in advanced countries. In contrast to vertical and export-platform FDI, employment effects of horizontal FDI tend to be positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper examines whether recently introduced “village funds,” one of the largest microfinance programs ever implemented, improve access to finance. Village funds are analyzed in a cross-sectional approach in comparison to competing financial institutions. We find, first, that they reach the target group of lower income households better than formal financial institutions. Second, village funds provide loans to those kinds of borrowers who tend to be customers of informal financial institutions. Third, village funds help to reduce credit constraints. Thus, village funds provide services in the intended direction, albeit to a seemingly limited degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]