Stanford University

International Relations

FSI researchers strive to understand how countries relate to one another, and what policies are needed to achieve global stability and prosperity. International relations experts focus on the challenging U.S.-Russian relationship, the alliance between the U.S. and Japan and the limitations of America’s counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.

Foreign aid is also examined by scholars trying to understand whether money earmarked for health improvements reaches those who need it most. And FSI’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center has published on the need for strong South Korean leadership in dealing with its northern neighbor.

FSI researchers also look at the citizens who drive international relations, studying the effects of migration and how borders shape people’s lives. Meanwhile FSI students are very much involved in this area, working with the United Nations in Ethiopia to rethink refugee communities.

Trade is also a key component of international relations, with FSI approaching the topic from a slew of angles and states. The economy of trade is rife for study, with an APARC event on the implications of more open trade policies in Japan, and FSI researchers making sense of who would benefit from a free trade zone between the European Union and the United States.

The Economics of Tobacco Control and Healthcare Reforms in China

-
Teh-wei Hu is a Professor Emeritus of health economics at the University of California, Berkeley.  At Berkeley, he served as associate dean (1999-2002) and department chair (1990-1993) in the School of Public Health.  He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Wisconsin.  

During the past 40 years, Professor Hu has been teaching and conducting research in health economics, particularly in healthcare financing and the economics of tobacco control.  Hu was a Fulbright scholar in China. He has served as consultant or advisor to the World Bank, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Medicine, the Rand Corporation, the Ministry of Health in the People's Republic of China, Department of Health and Welfare in Hong Kong, Department of Health in the Republic of China (Taiwan), and many private research institutions and foundations. 

Professor Hu will speak to us immediately after an April trip to China, sharing his research and perspectives on the economics of tobacco control and the debate about healthcare system reforms in China (including a possible link between the two through financing expansions in coverage through increased tobacco taxation).

Philippines Conference Room

Teh-wei Hu Professor Emeritus Speaker University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health
Seminars

Announcing the Asia-Pacific Health Policy Forum

Authors
Karen Eggleston
News Type
News
Date
Paragraphs

The Asia Health Policy Program of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center invites scholars from multiple disciplines to join the Asia-Pacific Health Policy Forum (APHPF) by creating your own account on our website.  Your information will be saved in our online database, searchable by name, country or region of focus, discipline, and topic.  

The mission of the Asia-Pacific Health Policy Forum (APHPF) is to serve as a resource for social science research, teaching, and evidence-based policymaking about health and healthcare in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Specifically, APHPF aims to

  • encourage collaboration among social scientists doing research on health policy in the Asia-Pacific region;
  • serve as a resource for teaching about health and healthcare in specific countries and regions within the Asia-Pacific;
  • provide analysis to inform policy, by offering a forum for rapid dissemination of policy-relevant research results, as well as by linking organizations, programs, conferences and white papers about specific health policy issues; and
  • raise awareness and foster dialogue among researchers, policymakers, and business about cross-cutting themes and global challenges of health and healthcare access, quality, and cost, within the specific historical and cultural contexts of the diverse nations of the Asia-Pacific. 

We encourage all researchers with an interest in health and healthcare in the Asia-Pacific to create an account and to submit information about upcoming conferences and sessions within larger disciplinary conferences that focus on any aspect of health policy in the Asia-Pacific to the Forum coordinator, Karen Eggleston. 

There are no membership dues, as the Forum is currently supported by the Asian Health Policy Program of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.

The Asia-Pacific Health Policy Forum represents a multidisciplinary effort to build organizational linkages and work toward developing an Asia-Pacific parallel to the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policy.

With your help, the APHPF can develop into a vibrant resource and networking support for all of us seeking to understand and improve health and healthcare systems in the region.

All News button
1

Healthcare Reforms in Central and Eastern Europe: Overview and Possible Implications for China

Paragraphs

This article focuses on the healthcare system reforms in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) over the past decade. The first section provides an overview of healthcare financing, social insurance frameworks, and the public/private mix in service delivery. The second section discusses four reform challenges in CEE that are perhaps also relevant for China:

  1. subsidizing the supply side or demand side (that is, a national health service Beveridge model vs. Bismarckian social insurance);
  2. establishing a single payer or insurance competition;
  3. confronting the legacy of soft budget constraints; and
  4. provider payment reforms.

A brief conclusion uses the lens of current health policy controversies in Hungary to highlight some of the trade-offs implicit in the complex political economy of health system reforms.

All Publications button
1
Publication Type
Journal Articles
Publication Date
Journal Publisher
Bijiao (Comparative Studies)
Authors
Karen Eggleston
External URL

The Link between Migration and Health: A Longitudinal Analysis in Indonesia, and A New National Survey on Migration and Health in China

-

Migration and health are two areas that have each received significant amounts of attention in sociology. However, only recently have researchers begun to examine the links between these two population processes. There is growing yet incomplete evidence that migration and the health are intertwined in complex ways. Health itself can impact the decision to move, and migration may affect the health of those who move, those who stay, and those who host migrants. Using high quality longitudinal data from Indonesia, Lu's research makes a serious attempt to tackle important questions about the association between migration and health in the Indonesian context. In particular, she examines both how health may affect migration decisions, and how changing socioeconomic conditions associated with migration may have implications for the health of various populations involved, including not only migrants but also people left behind in sending communities. Lu will also discuss research underway on migration and health in China, including a new national survey with data to study that topic in the Chinese context.

Yao Lu is a Ph.D. candidate of Sociology, M.S. candidate of Public Health, and student affiliate at the California Center for Population Research at UCLA. She has a BS from Fudan University in China. Her research focuses on studying the causes and consequences of internal migration in developing countries, and modeling socioeconomic and behavioral factors as determinants of health. Her papers include studies based on data from China, Indonesia, and South Africa. She has a paper forthcoming in the American Sociological Review, and has received dissertation fellowships from the AAUW foundation and the Asia Institute at UCLA. She is currently completing her dissertation on the relationship between labor migration and health in Indonesia, while working on a national survey project on internal migration and health in China.

Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Yao Lu PhD candidate in Sociology Speaker University of California-Los Angeles
Seminars
Subscribe to International Relations