Books in the Eai Series On East Asia series

 South Korea's post-war economic success is a well-known story. However, its development in the past two decades is relatively less investigated. By reviewing key economic issues in South Korea's economy today, this book offers an input to the research of contemporary South Korea, in particular the country's economic development and its external economic relations.This book provides an analytical overview of key issues in contemporary South Korean economy. The timely and in-depth study presented in the book examines the main reasons behind South Korea's economic slowdown in recent years, the economic and social impact following chaebol's growing business expansion, free trade agreements with China and the United States, the development of income inequality, the ageing demography and the Korean government's policy response to overcome the current economic difficulties.

 China has made remarkable yet uneven progress in social development. This book analyses China's achievements and problems in social development from the perspective of social investment. Social investment has gained popularity in Europe as a new social policy paradigm. It seeks to use government budget more efficiently and effectively by investing in people rather than "social consumption".This book focuses on a few policy areas central to social investment and capacity building, including education, technical training, R&D, and the hukou reform. It also analyses challenges and limitations of China's social investment policies. It sheds light on the most notable feature of China's social investment regime, which is the concentration of resources, privileges, and policy support on sectors and institutions with more growth potential. This helps to explain why China's progress in social development is remarkable but unequal.

This book examines the recent development and prospect of the Chinese economy as the country adapts to changing domestic and external settings. After more than three decades of near double-digit annual expansion, the country's growth decelerated considerably to enter a new era of the so-called New Normal.At the macro level, considerable amount of overhaul is required to improve governance and enhance regulatory effectiveness. These include monetary policy adjustment, financial sector development and taxation reforms.As the Chinese government at both the central and local levels plays an important role in promoting growth, issues such as the role of local government and the reform of state-owned enterprises are examined in this book. Topics such as the development of private consumption and industrial upgrading are also assessed. The book discusses several matters considered important to China's social and economic cohesion including the management of agricultural product reserves, the development of a functioning social security system and regional development. To help project a long-term view of China's economic strength, the book also examines such factors as development in population and the labour market.This book provides a comprehensive analysis of China's economy and identifies the recent developments that matter to China's economic future.

This edited book reflects the "yin-yang" of East Asia - the analogy of co-existing "hot and cold" trends in that region. To concentrate only on geopolitical competition and regional "hot spots" will exaggerate, if not misrepresent East Asia as a Hobbesian world. Nevertheless, geopolitical competition cannot be ignored because a failure of the balance of power and deterrence between China and the United States (and its allies) will destabilise the region. There are four "vectors" in the geopolitics of East Asia: China rising, the United States "rebalancing" to this region, Japan "normalising" as a nation-state and ASEAN emerging as a regional community. The interplay of these four "vectors" will set the trajectory of geopolitics in East Asia. Another focus of this volume is on the politics of identity. The distinctiveness, character and flavour of a group, real or imagined, can be "cool". "Cool" as in being charming and appealing transcends national boundaries. Plurality and diversity of identities and cultures in East Asia can be a celebration of life and humanity. However, xenophobic identities, often based on exclusive race, language, religion and hegemony, and its subsequent politicisation can rend a nation apart. Indeed, the affirmation of one's identity may be at the expense or denial of the identity of "the other". Similarly, the assertion and the intricacy of identity and nationalism in East Asia can also be problematic. However, a person or group can have multiple and different scales of identities. Indeed, identities can be fluid and situational.

By reviewing regulatory initiatives in health financing, service provision, pharmaceutical sector and public health, this book attempts to connect recent research with policy developments in the Chinese health-care system. While there are a small number of studies on the regulations in the Chinese health-care system, this book contributes to the literature in three ways. First, a review of the recent developments in the Chinese health-care system illustrates that the capacity and incentives of the regulatory agencies matter in the implementation and enforcement of the regulations. Second, this book also shows that some institutional arrangements in the Chinese context are particularly important for configuring the capacity and incentives of the regulatory system. Third, this book lays out the mechanisms for the regulatory reform of the Chinese health-care system.

This book provides a timely update on the ongoing transformation of the Chinese economy. As the world's second largest economy, China marked the 40th anniversary of economic reform and opening-up in 2018. In this book, top scholars on Chinese economic studies review China's remarkable economic achievement in the past four decades and analyse the challenges facing economic development in the country.The book focusses on structural changes of China's economy, which are essential to steer the country towards sustainable development. It studies the long-term factors affecting the Chinese economy such as education and innovation, and emerging sources of economic growth, such as e-commerce. Other important aspects of the Chinese economy explored in this book include the economic role of the Chinese government, fiscal reforms, capital account liberalisation, housing policies, competition policy and anti-monopoly law, China's export, trends of regional development and reforms of state-owned enterprises.This rich collection of policy-oriented economic studies is also a tribute to Professor John Wong, former research director of the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore, who passed away in June 2018. For over three decades, Professor Wong had followed and provided insightful analyses on China's economic development.