Foctors that prevent children from gaining access to schooling : a study of Delhi Slum households

This paper examines the factors that prevent slum children aged 5 to 14 from gaining access to schooling in light of the worsening urban poverty and sizable increase in rural-to-urban migration. Bias against social disadvantage in terms of gender and caste is not clearly manifested in schooling, while migrated children are less likely to attend school. I argue that the lack of preparation for schooling in the pre-schooling ages and school admission procedures are the main obstacles for migrated children. The most important implication for universal elementary education in urban India is raising parental awareness and simplifying the admission procedures.

Migration, labor and business in the worlding cities of the Arabian Peninsula

This short essay, built on a foundation of more than a decade of fieldwork in the hydrocarbon-rich societies of the Arabian peninsula, distills a set of overarching threads woven through much of that time and work. Those threads include a discussion of the social heterogeneity of the Gulf State citizenries, the central role of development and urban development in these emergent economies, the multifaceted impact of migrants and migration upon these host societies, and the role of foreign 'imagineers' in the portrayal of Gulf societies, Gulf values, and Gulf social norms.

Authoritarianism and labor market : preference of labor policies in the Arab Gulf countries

Migrant and labor issues are a primary concern in the Arab Gulf countries. With focus on the economic and political conditions that influence actors' decisions when framing labor policies, this study analyzes how preferences of such policies are formed and explains why the governments of the Arab Gulf countries attempt to implement less economical policies. The findings suggest that governments avoid concessions for enterprises required to implement more economical policies and chose uneconomical ones to maintain authoritarian regimes.

Marriage, dowry, and women's status in rural Punjab, Pakistan

Dowry is a common custom observed in South Asian countries. It has been a target of an opposition movement because it is assumed to be a root cause of women's mistreatment, for example, in the form of sex-selective abortion, girls' malnutrition, female infanticide, and domestic homicide called "dowry murder." Despite its alleged evil consequences and the legal ban or restrictions on it, the custom has been extended, and recently, the dowry amount seems to be increasing. However, there is little empirical evidence of dowry's effects. This study empirically investigates the effects of dowry on women's status in rural Pakistan. We conducted a unique survey in rural Punjab, Pakistan, to explore the marriage practices there and to answer the research question. Results show that a higher dowry amount enhances women’s status in the marital household. This implies that an outright ban on dowries does not necessarily improve women's welfare at this time.

Better than nothing? : dowry in the absence of the legal protection of women's inheritance rights

The practice of dowry is often thought to be the root cause of the unequal treatment of women in India. For women without inheritance rights, however, dowry may function as their only source of protection. Using a nationwide dataset and exploiting a natural experimental situation, this study explores the effects of dowry on women's empowerment in India, a society where women do not have inheritance rights. In such a society, dowry seems to enhance women's status in the marital household. The effects reverse when women have equal inheritance rights as their brothers. Empirical analysis suggests that the outright ban on dowry that ignores the context may not necessarily benefit women.

Targeting membrane-bound viral RNA synthesis reveals potent inhibition of diverse coronaviruses including the middle East respiratory syndrome virus.

Coronaviruses raise serious concerns as emerging zoonotic viruses without specific antiviral drugs available. Here we screened a collection of 16671 diverse compounds for anti-human coronavirus 229E activity and identified an inhibitor, designated K22, that specifically targets membrane-bound coronaviral RNA synthesis. K22 exerts most potent antiviral activity after virus entry during an early step of the viral life cycle. Specifically, the formation of double membrane vesicles (DMVs), a hallmark of coronavirus replication, was greatly impaired upon K22 treatment accompanied by near-complete inhibition of viral RNA synthesis. K22-resistant viruses contained substitutions in non-structural protein 6 (nsp6), a membrane-spanning integral component of the viral replication complex implicated in DMV formation, corroborating that K22 targets membrane bound viral RNA synthesis. Besides K22 resistance, the nsp6 mutants induced a reduced number of DMVs, displayed decreased specific infectivity, while RNA synthesis was not affected. Importantly, K22 inhibits a broad range of coronaviruses, including Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and efficient inhibition was achieved in primary human epithelia cultures representing the entry port of human coronavirus infection. Collectively, this study proposes an evolutionary conserved step in the life cycle of positive-stranded RNA viruses, the recruitment of cellular membranes for viral replication, as vulnerable and, most importantly, druggable target for antiviral intervention. We expect this mode of action to serve as a paradigm for the development of potent antiviral drugs to combat many animal and human virus infections.

Financial Cooperation in East Asia

This paper addresses the rationale for financial cooperation in East Asia. It begins by giving a brief review of developments after the Asian currency crisis, and argues that enhancing regional financial cooperation both quantitatively and qualitatively will require: (1) upgrading surveillance capabilities in the region, and (2) creating a clear division of labor between regional institutions and the IMF. It also mentions the issue of membership and the background forces that have led to the duplication of similar forums in East Asia. Although the concern over crisis management is the central issue in East Asian financial cooperation, other issues such as exchange rate policy coordination and fostering regional capital markets are discussed as well.

The Choice of Transport Mode: Evidence from Japanese Exports to East Asia

This paper investigates Japanese trade by mode of transport, i.e., air transport versus maritime shipping. Some facts about Japanese machinery exports by mode of transport in the 1990s are examined first. Then it will be shown that products of the machinery sector where international fragmentation prevails are more likely to be exported by air.

The Effect of Exchange Rate Volatility on International Trade: The Implication for Production Networks in East Asia

This paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between exchange rate volatility and international trade, focusing on East Asia. It finds that intra-East Asian trade is discouraged by exchange rate volatility more seriously than trade in other regions because intermediate goods trade in production networks, which is quite sensitive to exchange rate volatility compared with other types of trade, occupies a significant fraction of trade. In addition, this negative effect of volatility is mainly induced by the unanticipated volatility and has an even greater impact than that of tariffs.

Agglomeration versus Fragmentation:A Comparison of East Asia and Europe

Inspired by the observed contrasting patterns of industrial distribution in East Asia and Europe, this paper conducts an empirical clarification of the difference in spatial relationships among countries within a region for the electric machinery industry by use of spatial econometric analysis. The results indicate that, while production in the electric machinery industry in a country is positively correlated with that of neighboring countries in East Asia, there is no significant spatial correlation in Europe. Such a difference in spatial interdependence has important implications for economic development in those regions.

Chapter 4 The Challenges in Developing Realistic NEG Simulation Models for East Asia

This chapter attempts to identify some important issues in developing realistic simulation models based on new economic geography, and it suggests a direction for solving the difficulties. Specifically, adopting the IDE Geographical Simulation Model (IDE-GSM) as an example, we discuss some problems in developing a realistic simulation model for East Asia. The first and largest problem in this region is the lack of reliable economic datasets at the sub-national level, and this issue needs to be resolved in the long term. However, to deal with the existing situation in the short term, we utilize some techniques to produce more realistic and reliable simulation models. One key compromise is to use a 'topology' representation of geography, rather than a 'mesh' or 'grid' representation or simple 'straight lines' connecting each city which are used in many other models. In addition to this, a modal choice model that takes into consideration both money and time costs seems to work well.

Descriptive analysis of the knowledge network formation in East Asia

This paper shows descriptively how the knowledge network in East Asia has been formed. In addition, the correlation between the knowledge network and economic growth is also examined. Evidence is provided to show that plugging into the knowledge network of developed countries could be a key for increasing innovativeness in a country.

The Iron and Steel Industry in Asia: Development and Restructuring

The paper examines the development and restructuring of the iron and steel industry in Asian countries. Studying countries that have integrated steelworks with large blast furnaces (South Korea, Taiwan, China and India) and countries without (Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia), the paper shows the difference in the development processes across the countries and across time, and points to the diversity of the development experience of these countries. The paper argues that significant differences in steel production technologies in terms of initial investment and minimum-efficient scale, the changing role of the state, and shifting demand structures in the domestic steel markets of each country have been the important factors that led to the differences in the development path of the steel industry in each country.