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This paper ranks Asian universities in two related economics fields: international economics and development economics. A key finding is that new latecomers rank atop the two specialty areas of economics. The results of the university ranking also establish that Zipf's law applies to research-based school ranks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid population ageing and economic transformation in Asia underline the policy challenges associated with ensuring income security in old age. This article examines the potential role of social pensions in securing old-age income security in Asia. It assesses the main policy trade-offs associated with adopting alternative social pension designs, especially around two critical policy points: the comparative advantages of social assistance and social pensions; and the integration of non-contributory transfers within advanced contributory pension schemes. [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]

This study is informed by the theorizing prompted by recent work on state rescaling. I aim to examine the interaction between the top-down and bottom-up rescaling processes that took place in the South Korean developmental state during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I focus on a regionalism that both built a regional scale and influenced the hegemonic crisis of the ruling regime. Specifically, the study illustrates the features of state space that were shaped during the developmental era and the factors that allow state space to be stable and coherent. By dealing with these questions, I provide a possible interpretation of why and how regionalism was a crucial factor in the hegemonic crisis of the 1960s and generated a rescaling of state space. What makes this study significant is not merely the fact that this space is located in East Asia. It could also, more generally, open up an alternative perspective on state rescaling during the early stages of state-led industrialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the politics of urban growth in a transitional society. Korea, which is experiencing rapid industrialization, urbanization and democratic transition exemplifies a set of conditions that may seem to favor the emergence of an urban growth politics and business-led growth coalition much like that found in urban areas at the time of industrialization, and still prevalent in much of the US and other western democracies today. Yet our multilevel case analyses show that the transformations in Korea as a late industrializer, late democratizer and late adopter of urban policy have helped to consolidate more restricted policies toward urban growth than in the US or much of Europe. Multilevel analysis that highlights dynamics at global and national as well as local levels illuminates why the growth politics of a transitional society like Korea resembles as well as differs from that of older industrialized democracies. Résumé Cet article étudie la politique d'expansion urbaine dans une société en transition. La Corée, dont la période de transition actuelle connaît une évolution industrielle, urbaine et démocratique rapide, illustre un ensemble de conditions qui favorise apparemment l'émergence d'une coalition entre politique d'expansion urbaine et croissance par les entreprises—semblable à celle qui existait dans les zones urbaines à l'époque de l'industrialisation et subsiste encore dans la majorité des États-Unis et autres démocraties occidentales. Pourtant, nos analyses de cas à plusieurs niveaux montrent que, dans une Corée en phase tardive d'industrialisation, de démocratisation et d'adoption d'une politique publique urbaine, les transformations ont contribuéà combiner des politiques d'expansion urbaine plus limitées qu'aux États-Unis ou que dans une grande partie de l'Europe. Une analyse à plusieurs niveaux mettant en lumière une dynamique aux plans mondial et national, mais aussi local, explique pourquoi la politique d'expansion d'une société en transition comme la Corée présente à la fois ressemblances et différences par rapport aux anciennes démocraties industrialisées. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current crisis in Asia has seen the case for more open economic policy come under attack in the developing world. In this article Michael Chui, Paul Levine, Mansoob Murshed, and Joseph Pearlman argue that any reversal of the trend towards globalisation would be a great mistake for policymakers. The association of openness with higher growth is one of the most robust empirical results in economics. Here we explore the mechanisms that explain this result. We argue that current high growth rates in Asia are unsustainable and there is a long-term as well as a short-term problem of 'over-investment' in Asia. However, we report research findings that show how international knowledge spillovers and free trade can enable the world economy to grow, the developing countries to progress, and the developed countries to benefit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on communist China's economic growth. The purpose of this article is to throw light on communist China's asserted economic growth by comparing it with that of the Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Japan. This is not to minimize in any way the Indian development, which has been rapid during the Nineteen Fifties and which has given very encouraging evidence to Asia of what can be accomplished with free institutions. It is merely an attempt to put Communist China's claimed economic progress back into focus. It should be emphasized that this article does not intend to analyze how effective the Chinese communists have been in improving their military potential even though this appears to be a primary aim of their economic policy. Instead this report intends to outline an approach for analyzing the relative effectiveness of the Chinese communist system in promoting economic growth; it is this latter question that appears to be most hotly debated. It appears that many analysts are convinced that just because a regime can hold down consumption, theoretically it should, therefore, be promoting a large volume of sound investment and a huge growth potential.