Air pollution in East Asia and its regional and socioeconomic impacts: an introduction.

This article offers an introduction to the special issue of the Annals of Regional Science, titled "Impacts of Air Pollution on Regional Economies in East Asia: Methodology and Empirical Evidence." Pollution impact studies have played a critical role in raising public awareness of socioeconomic damage from pollution and are well within the realm of regional science from an academic perspective. Focusing on East Asia, all five papers contained in this special issue demonstrate how broadly air pollution may affect regional, national, and local economies and how conventional scientific methods can be extended for such impact assessment. The coverage of this special issue on the topic, however, is far from complete, in terms of impact area, method, and spatial focus, and we hope that this small collection can encourage various follow-up and complementary studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]