This event is part of Shorenstein APARC's winter webinar series "Asian Politics and Policy in a Time of Uncertainty."
Is demographics destiny as societies search for sustainable, innovation-led growth? Many analysts worry that population aging slows the socioeconomic engine of innovation. What can the older societies of East Asia do to remain innovative? Will younger South Asia inevitably eclipse East Asia as the South Asian population surges into the working ages, just as surely as India will soon overtake China as the most populous country in the world? In this webinar celebrating the publication of Demographics and Innovation in the Asia-Pacific, social scientists from across the region probe multiple aspects of these critical questions. Chinese economist and entrepreneur James Liang will offer insights regarding demography and innovation in China; economist James Feyrer probes the economics of demography and comparative productivity effects across the Asia-Pacific; sociologist Joon-Shik Park will discuss “Population Cliffs, Crisis of Local Society, and the Politics of Innovation Cities in South Korea”; and political scientist Kenji Kushida will focus on “How Japan’s Aging Demographics Have Affected Pathways of Technological Development.” Karen Eggleston, co-editor and author, will moderate the discussion.
Speakers:
James Liang is one of the Co-founders and Executive Chairman of the Board of Trip.com Group Ltd. He was the Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2016. Trip.com Group has grown to become one of the world’s largest online travel agencies. Currently, James serves as Co-Chairman of Tongcheng-eLong (HKSE:7080) and on the boards of a number of other Internet companies, including Sina (NASDAQ: SINA), and MakeMyTrip (NASDAQ: MMYT). He is also Research Professor of Economics at Peking University.
In addition to his expertise in the travel industry, James is also a leading scholar of demographics and social studies. He has played an important role in shaping China’s population policies in recent years and in generating public interest in issues such as education and urban planning. As a co-author of the book Too Many People in China?, James analyzed the impact of the one-child policy and the adverse effects of demographic changes on China’s economy. He is also the author of multiple other publications, including The Rise of the Network Society, and his latest book published in 2018, The Demographics of Innovation.
James received his Ph.D. degree from Stanford University and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology.
James Feyrer is an Associate Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. from Brown University and his B.S. from Stanford University. His work is primarily in applied macroeconomics. His work on the impacts of demographics and trade on growth have been influential in policy circles. In particular his work on the impact of globalization on output has informed the Brexit debate. He has published articles in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the American Economic Review, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of the European Economic Association, among other journals.
Joon-Shik Park is Professor in the Department of Sociology at Hallym University, Chuncheon, Korea. He got his Ph.D. degree at Yonsei University in Korea. His research focuses on employment and regional studies. Prof. Park began his academic career as a researcher on labor and employment issues in Korean society. Recently, Prof. Park has been interested in comparing social economy and local regeneration in the context of global social and economic crisis. He recently published several books, articles, and project reports on such issues as the impact of globalization on employment regimes and local societies; social dialogue and integration; creative innovations for sustainable local development. Prof. Park has served as President of the Korean Regional Sociological Association, Dean of the Social Science School at Hallym University. He is now a member of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning of the Korean Government. He is leading the Inclusive Society Division in the Presidential Commission as the chair person. He is also serving as Vice President of Vision and Cooperation of Hallym University.
Kenji E. Kushida is a Research Scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Japan Program at Stanford University. Kushida’s research streams include 1) Information Technology innovation, 2) Silicon Valley’s economic ecosystem, 3) Japan’s political economic transformation since the 1990s, and 4) the Fukushima nuclear disaster. He has published several books and numerous articles in each of these streams, including “The Politics of Commoditization in Global ICT Industries,” “Japan’s Startup Ecosystem,” “Diffusing the cloud: Cloud computing and implications for public policy,” “Leading without followers: how politics and market dynamics trapped innovations in Japan's domestic ‘Galapagos’ telecommunications sector” and others. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.
Moderator:
Karen Eggleston is Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University, and Director of the Stanford Asia Health Policy Program and Deputy Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at FSI. She is also a Fellow with the Center for Innovation in Global Health at Stanford University School of Medicine, and a Faculty Research Fellow of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Eggleston earned her PhD in public policy from Harvard University and has MA degrees in economics and Asian studies from the University of Hawaii and a BA in Asian studies summa cum laude (valedictorian) from Dartmouth College. Eggleston studied in China for two years and was a Fulbright scholar in Korea. Her research focuses on government and market roles in the health sector and Asia health policy, especially in China, India, Japan, and Korea; healthcare productivity; and the economics of the demographic transition. She served on the Strategic Technical Advisory Committee for the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the WHO regarding health system reforms in the PRC.
