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Asia's food systems have undergone rapid economic and socio‐cultural transformations in the past 60 years. During the period, almost all the countries in the region eradicated famines and achieved food self‐sufficiency and heterogeneous levels of poverty reduction. Food system transformation in Asian countries has had similarities and differences and has been closely tied to structural transformation, political processes, and integration with the global economy. This article conducts a historical assessment of food systems transformations in seven Asian countries between 1960 and 2020 and their main economic, social, and demographic drivers. Food systems transformations are presented in terms of four phases. In the first phase, between 1960 and 1980, when most Asian countries were low‐income and low‐middle‐income, the central focus was on hunger reduction. We explore the policies and the politics of the green revolution as various Asian countries tried to achieve self‐sufficiency in food grains. In the second phase (1980–2000), agricultural productivity growth led to structural transformation, income growth, and the divergence of lower‐middle‐income and middle‐income economies, directly impacting demand for food quantity, quality, and diversity in various countries. The third phase (2000 onwards) marked a quantum change in food systems as globalization, trade integration, and changes in consumer tastes were significant drivers of food systems. We assess the changing trends in organized retail expansion, increased consumption of processed foods, and rising incidence of obesity in lower and upper‐middle‐income countries. In the final phase (beyond 2020), we highlight how the digital revolution has changed consumer behavior, and is further transforming food systems. Future food systems challenges of hunger, malnutrition, rising non‐communicable diseases, and climate change are discussed and multisectoral and multicountry policy interventions for addressing them are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small-scale aquaculture ( SSA) sector is recognized as making an important contribution to food security, poverty alleviation, and socioeconomic development. A value chain analysis can uncover insights into the linkages and trust within a value chain and constraints and challenges that face the sector. This paper examines the linkages and trust between SSA producers and traders in Asia in order to better understand the constraints and opportunities faced by small-scale producers. The perspective revealed by the value chain analysis provides response strategies that can enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of the entire value chain and the actors that comprise it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional wisdom suggests that improving water governance is the key to solving water insecurity in developing countries but there are also many disagreements on operational and methodological issues. In this paper, we build on the work of Saleth and Dinar and surveyed 100 water experts from 17 countries in Asia to compare 19 indicators of water laws, policies, and administration among and within countries from 2001 to 2010. We present the results of our study in a comparative dashboard and report how water governance indicators vary with a country's level of economic development, which ones do not and how and why some indicators change overtime in some countries. We have two main results. First, our initial findings suggest the possibility of water Kuznet's curve, i.e., certain water governance indicators vary with a country's level of economic development. However, more studies are needed given the caveats and limitations of our study. Second, the results have practical value for policy makers and researchers for benchmarking with other countries and tracking changes within their countries overtime. We conclude with implications for a second-generation research agenda on water governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural disasters inflict tremendous social, economic and human costs. They have the potential to affect the economic development not only of a domestic economy, but also the rest of the world, given the extent of interconnected production networks in this globalized era. The main objective of this special issue is to highlight the real issues of natural disaster management. This special issue focuses on key policy issues and case studies of recent events such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE). We believe the lessons learned from past natural disasters should help to alleviate both the direct and indirect impacts of future disasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asia is an increasingly significant player in the global economy, and Asia's unprecedented growth and multifaceted disparities have generated many fascinating issues for scholarly research. This paper summarizes the diverse regional policy and practices of Asia in the context of globalization and transition. We argue that research on Asia is embedded in the complex economic-geographical processes and multiple trajectories of development. This paper highlights the important role of institutions and global-local interactions in regional development and public policy. Resumen. Asia es un actor cada vez más importante en la economía mundial y su crecimiento sin precedentes y las múltiples facetas de sus disparidades han generado un buen número de tópicos fascinantes para la investigación académica. Este artículo resume las diversas políticas y prácticas regionales de Asia en el contexto de la globalización y la transición. Sostenemos que la investigación sobre Asia está inmersa en los complejos procesos económico-geográficos y múltiples líneas de desarrollo. El artículo pone de relieve el importante papel de las instituciones y las interacciones globales-locales en materia de desarrollo regional y políticas públicas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demographic structure of Asia is expected to change rapidly from around 2020 up to around 2050. Following Japan, which is already at an advanced stage of aging and birthrate decline, China, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore will also witness a further decline in their birthrates and an aging of their populations. Next in line will be the remaining countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations as well as India. Such changes, accompanied by a decline in the labor force, will not only adversely affect economic growth, but also have a major impact on voting structures, savings rates, and social security systems. Moreover, the process of demographic aging in Asia will be faster than in Japan, and its extent will be substantial, both of which exacerbates the negative effects. On positive side, these trends will give rise to the emergence of new markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Asia and Pacific region is characterised by vast diversity, the region as a whole warrants attention. There have been great achievements in recent years in promoting economic growth, building social security and reducing poverty, but giant challenges remain, nine of which are identified. Five resemble problems prevalent in Europe 60 years ago: want; squalor; underemployment; poor education; and bad health. The four others, inequitable growth, discrimination, corruption, and ageing populations lessen the effectiveness of policies targeted on the other five. A fourfold responsive strategy is sketched that includes mechanisms to extend formal sector employment, expand coverage of social security within the formal sector and to the informal sector, and to establish and sustain social safety nets for those otherwise excluded from social protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing body of evidence suggests that China's emergence is having differential effects on Asia's advanced and developing countries. The region's advanced countries are benefiting from the existence of a large and rapidly growing Chinese market for their capital goods, components and technology, whereas its developing countries compete head to head with China in third markets. These facts create additional challenges for late-industrializing Asian countries seeking to catch up with the region's industrial leaders. In turn, the emergence of an Asian core and periphery will not encourage the development of a cohesive Asian economic and political bloc. Asian regionalism will be open regionalism in order to prevent regional initiatives from giving rise to costly trade diversion. Efforts to promote Asian financial development and integration are unlikely to come at the expense of the region's financial links with the rest of the world. An early move toward a common exchange rate regime with the associated common monetary stance will be problematic. And, in the absence of these common policies, pressure for the development of powerful regional institutions to formulate the common monetary stance will be at best modest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies a game-theoretical analysis of institutions to the international institutional architecture, of which the G20 is treated as a central element. The article argues that international institutions such as the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund are best understood as mechanisms for coordinating and supporting equilibria in repeated games played among policy-makers in the world's largest economies. The growth of the emerging economies, particularly in Asia, has altered these games, and there is no guarantee, with these new entrants and new issues that have emerged, that the old equilibrium strategies are still viable. The G20, it is argued, is best understood as an attempt to respond to this change and coordinate play on a new set of globally welfare-enhancing equilibria in these games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the recent literature on finance, growth and hunger, we have examined the experience of Asian countries over the period 1960-2010 by dynamic and static panel data models. We have found evidence favouring a positive role of finance-defined as private credit by banks-on growth of GDP and agricultural value added. Private credit as well as loans from the World Bank significantly reduces undernourishment, whereas remittances and loans from microfinance institutions appear to have a negative impact on poverty. Our empirical evidence shows that growth performance was significantly lower during the recent global financial crisis than non-crisis periods, although the severity is much smaller during the recent financial crisis than Asian financial crisis. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture is equated with the reduction of poverty by intergovernmental agencies such as the FAO, which advocate the promotion of small-scale aquaculture through project-based interventions. There is a lack of convincing empirical evidence to support the efficacy of this type of intervention, however. Meanwhile, commercial cultured freshwater fish production has increased hugely throughout Asia, despite limited direct donor or government support. Its impact with respect to poverty also remains ambiguous, however. This article critically evaluates the developmental impacts of both immanent and interventionist forms of aquaculture and advances finely nuanced interpretations of both. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides insight into the importance of national culture, investment in operations, and performance in the context of emerging Asian economies with a collectivist orientation, which are compared to industrialized Western nations with an individualist orientation. Hypotheses are developed and tested based on the cultural concept of individualism/collectivism, the theory of performance frontiers, and the extent of economic development. More specifically, data collected from 639 manufacturing plants in nine countries are used to first assess the influence of the cultural trait of individualism/collectivism on the extent of investment in structural assets (specifically: physical and capital-based) and infrastructural assets (specifically: team-based methods and improvement programs). Second, the influence of the extent of economic development on these investment factors is measured. Third, evidence is provided supportive of the theory of performance frontiers, and the nature of resource investments in the context of the cultural construct of individualism/collectivism. And fourth, support is provided for the efficacy of this theory, as well as for its compatibility and association with the resource-based view of the firm. Overall, this study makes important contributions to both theory and practice, and provides evidence for the role played by the cultural characteristic of individualism/collectivism in determining plant level investment outcomes in emerging Asian economies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the role of the state in the development and operation of global care chains (GCC). It discusses the role of global nursing care chains (GNCCs) in bridging between the state and the GCC. It also argues the states strategies in developing an export industry in healthcare labour which constitute a major input into the formation of GNCCs. It also explores the key aspects of state's emphasis on nurse labour exports as an economic development strategy and displays the importance of the state in three ways, including the promotion of female migration, through the development of nursing education and the product quality of nursing labour export.