Stanford University

International Development

FSI researchers consider international development from a variety of angles. They analyze ideas such as how public action and good governance are cornerstones of economic prosperity in Mexico and how investments in high school education will improve China’s economy.

They are looking at novel technological interventions to improve rural livelihoods, like the development implications of solar power-generated crop growing in Northern Benin.

FSI academics also assess which political processes yield better access to public services, particularly in developing countries. With a focus on health care, researchers have studied the political incentives to embrace UNICEF’s child survival efforts and how a well-run anti-alcohol policy in Russia affected mortality rates.

FSI’s work on international development also includes training the next generation of leaders through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program.

What Determines Success and Failure of Cluster-Based Industrial Development?

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Industrial clusters are ubiquitous in history and the contemporary developing world. While many of them grow dynamically, others stagnate. This study explores factors affecting the success and failure of cluster-based industrial development based primarily on own case studies conducted in East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa as well as historical studies in Japan and Europe. It is found that the key to the successful development is multi-faceted innovations, encompassing technical and managerial innovations or improvements. Since innovative ideas spill over, collective actions which attempt to internalize externalities often play a role in sustainable development of industrial clusters. An implication is that stagnant clusters can be vitalized if multi-faceted innovations can be stimulated by policy means.   

 

xian sheng xie zhen
Keijiro Otsuka is a Professor of Development Economics at the Graduate School of Economics at the Kobe University and a Chief Senior Researcher at the Institute of Developing Economies in Tokyo. He was a professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) from April 2001 to March 2016. He received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago in 1979.

He was a core member of World Development Report 2013: Jobs. He was also President of International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) from 2009 to 2012. He received Purple-Ribbon Medal from the Japanese Government in 2010.

He has been conducting comparative analyses on cluster-based industrial development, poverty and income distribution, land reform and land tenure, and Green Revolution between Asia and Africa. He published 123 articles in refereed international journals and 23 coauthored and coedited books. He is Fellows of International, American, and African Association of Agricultural Economists.

Kei Otsuka Professor, Kobe University
Seminars
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Dong Zhang

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Dong Zhang is a 2016-2017 Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellows in Contemporary Asia at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.  He is a political scientist whose research interests include political economy of development, with focus on the economic and political consequences of elite politics, and on the historical origins of long-run economic development. His dissertation examines the political logic of sustaining state capitalism model in the developing world with a primary focus on China. He received his doctorate in political science from Northwestern University in June 2016. Zhang holds bachelor’s degrees in public policy and economics, and a master’s degree in public policy from Peking University, Beijing.

Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellow in Contemporary Asia, 2016-17

Ke Wang

616 Serra StreetEncina Hall E301Stanford, CA94305-6055
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Dr. Ke Wang is visiting APARC for the fall semester in 2016-2017 school year during her sabbatical leave from her current post at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington D.C. where she serves as a Senior Economist in the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation.

At the Fed, Dr. Wang is responsible for policy analysis and regulation oversight of U.S. bank holding companies as well as conducting academic research in economics and finance fields. In her five-year tenure as a Fed staff economist, she participated in international Basel framework of capital regulation, quantitative credit model assessment for U.S. Stress Testing practice, and policy initiatives on liquidity regulation for Systemically Important Financial Institutions.

Dr. Wang’s research interests span from credit analysis to monetary policy. She has published in top academic journals such as Journal of Financial Economics and has wide citations for her previous works which covered topics such as corporate bond default prediction, impact of banking structure on monetary policy, and relationship banking in pre-war Japan.

Her current working papers focus on how liquidity in Over-The-Counter market is impacted by broker-dealers’ funding costs and information asymmetry. She provides empirical evidence using comprehensive bond transaction data that broker-dealers’ own financial health will quantitatively impact the liquidity and price discovery process of distressed assets. At Stanford, Dr. Wang will collaborate with other APARC research fellows on studies about both U.S. and Japan banking regulations, particularly the impact of regulation on systemic risk of financial institutions. 

Dr. Wang holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and a B.A. in International Economics from Peking University. She once worked as an Assistant Professor in Finance in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo, teaching graduate courses on Money and Banking as well as Corporate Finance. 

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Youngsik Oh

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Youngsik Oh joins Shorenstein APARC as a Visiting Scholar during 2016-2017 academic year.

Oh's research focus is on the issues of international politics, in particular, on the possibility of North Korea's internal changes; the practical approaches to North Korean nuclear issues; and South Korean and US strategies toward China in relation to North Korea.

Oh was a National Assembly Member from 2003 to 2008 and 2012 to 2016 in Korea, and has been active as a broadcasting panelist. He holds a BA in law and an MA in business management from Korea University.

Visiting Scholar

Entrepreneurship, Small Businesses and Economic Growth in Cities

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Does entrepreneurship cause local employment and wage growth, and if so, how large is the impact? Empirical analysis of such a question is difficult because of the joint determination of entrepreneurship and economic growth. This article uses two different sets of variables—the homestead exemption levels in state bankruptcy laws from 1975 and the share of metropolitan statistical area (MSA) overlaying aquifers—to instrument for entrepreneurship and examine urban employment and wage growth between 1993 and 2002. Despite using different sets of instrumental variables, the ranges of two-stage least squares estimates are surprisingly similar. A 10% increase in the birth of small businesses increases MSA employment by 1.3–2.2%, annual payroll by 2.4–4.0%, and wages by 1.2–2.0% after 10 years. Furthermore, an accounting exercise shows that the employment and payroll growth from entrepreneurship are not confined to the initially created businesses but spillover to the aggregate urban economy.

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Yong Suk Lee

Call for applications: Postdoctoral fellowship in contemporary Asia

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The Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford is now accepting applications for the Shorenstein Postdoctoral Fellowship in Contemporary Asia, an opportunity made available to two junior scholars for research and writing on Asia.

Fellows conduct research on contemporary political, economic or social change in the Asia-Pacific region, and contribute to Shorenstein APARC’s publications, conferences and related activities. To read about this year’s fellows, please click here.

The fellowship is a 10-mo. appointment during the 2017-18 academic year, and carries a salary rate of $52,000 plus $2,000 for research expenses.

For further information and to apply, please click here. The application deadline is Dec. 16, 2016.

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Call for papers: Koret Workshop on Korea's Migrants: From Homogeneity to Diversity

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The Korea Program at Stanford’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center is soliciting papers for the Koret Workshop entitled “Korea’s Migrants: From Homogeneity to Diversity” held at Stanford University on April 21, 2017.

This ninth annual conference seeks to examine major issues related to recent migrants in Korea. Korea has long promoted a sense of ethnic unity but in recent years has seen an influx of ethnic and non-ethnic Koreans, making the country more diverse. The government has promoted multiculturalism to deal with such diversity; however, migrants, either permanent or temporary, continue to face discrimination. New approaches are needed to create better social cohesion.

We are looking for empirical papers that address the following questions for one of the following groups of migrants: North Korean refugees, Chosonjok, foreign brides, migrant labor (skilled or unskilled), and Korean returnees.

  • What are the real and perceived contributions of this group to Korean society?
  • What are the remaining challenges and concerns associated with this group as a migrant living in Korea? Have these challenges worsened or improved over time?
  • How have Korean perceptions of your migrant group changed over time, if at all? Why or why not?
  • Do you think this particular group has been more or less discriminated against compared to other migrant groups? Is there any change over time?
  • Based on your study, do you think that boundaries between various migrant groups are blurring, remaining distinct, or becoming more salient?
  • Based on your study, what is the most important barrier to social integration in Korean society? Is it ethnicity, citizenship, class, or something else?
  • Has multiculturalism as a policy and social discourse adequately addressed the concerns of your migrant group?  If not, then do we need a new framework? What would you suggest?
  • Do you think the influx of your migrant group can lessen the looming demographic crisis that will reduce the working-age population?
  • In recent years, there has been growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and Europe. Do you think this will be an issue in Korea as well?
  • Based on your study of your migrant group, do you think Korea is ready for large-scale mass migration? Why or why not? If not, what would be an alternative to migration?

Submission for the conference
Upload papers in PDF (6,000-8,000 words) here. Inquiries can be made to Dr. Yong Suk Lee at yongslee@stanford.edu. The submission deadline is Dec. 31, 2016.

The authors of the accepted papers will be invited to and asked to present their studies at the conference. After the workshop, selected papers will be published as a special issue at a top Asian studies journal and/or as an edited volume. Travel (domestic or international economy class) and accommodation costs for the presenters will be reimbursed.

About the Koret Workshop
The Koret Workshop is organized by the Korea Program to bring together an international panel of experts in Korean affairs. The Korea Program established the Koret Fellowship in 2008 with generous funding from the Koret Foundation.

 
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Japan's Startup Ecosystem: From Brave New World to Part of Syncretic "New Japan"

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This paper asks the following: what does Japan's startup ecosystem look like now, how did it develop, and where it is headed? These are critical questions because high-growth startup firms are now recognized as potential drivers or growth, innovation, and productivity gains for advanced industrialized countries (Gornall and Strebulaev, 2015; Wiens and Jackson, 2015).

 

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Koret Foundation extends support for Korean studies at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center

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The Koret Foundation of San Francisco has extended its gift to Stanford’s Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) in support of contemporary Korean studies.

Two more years have been added to a three-year gift awarded to the Center in 2015, totaling to 12 years of lifetime support from the Foundation, whose mission is to endow scholarly solutions to community problems and to invest in leading institutions that serve as levers for achieving impact.

The gifts have allowed the Center to bring eminent professionals from Asia and the United States to Stanford for an annual fellowship and an annual international conference known as the Koret Workshop, all of which aims to promote greater understanding and closer ties between Korea and the United States.

“The Koret Foundation’s gift represents its commitment to strengthening research and finding solutions to challenges in Korea and the United States,” said Shorenstein APARC Director Gi-Wook Shin. “Their support over the past eight years has enabled our Korea Program to invite numerous visiting scholars, offer new courses to students, and foster important conversations in the Bay Area community and beyond. We greatly value our relationship with the Foundation and thank them for their enduring generosity.”

Since 2008, eight Koret fellows have conducted research at the Center, many public seminars have been held, and each workshop has yielded a book published by Shorenstein APARC and the Brookings Institution Press.

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Womenomics, the Workplace, and Women: Stanford Silicon Valley US-Japan Dialogue 2016

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As Japan faces a shrinking and aging population, it must pursue productivity growth to remain a wealthy nation. Women, long underrepresented Japan’s workforce, are receiving renewed attention with the Abe administration’s slogan of Womenomics as part of his Abenomics economic reform package. In the second World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (named WAW!) in late August 2015, Prime Minister Abe even went so far as to say “Abenomics is Womenomics.” At the same time as the WAW! meeting, the National Diet passed a law requiring large companies to analyze their current status of women and set numerical targets in one of several areas. Now that the issue of women in the workplace is being taken more seriously than ever before, it is time to mobilize serious research in the form of policy evaluation, create a new dialogue that can spark innovative ideas by injecting Silicon Valley ideas and people into U.S.-Japan policy discussions, and link entrepreneurs, policymakers, and researchers from both sides to cultivate sustained interpersonal networks. 

This conference takes on the issue of women leadership and women’s positions in the Japanese workforce and society, with the objective to bring issues to the table and explore concrete mechanisms by which government policy, business practices, and social factors can be influences to make concrete progress for women's leadership and participation in Japan.

Sponsored by the US-Japan Foundation (USJF), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (S-APARC) and Clayman Institute for Gender Research.

 

*The below program is subject to change.

Conference Program

8:55-9:25                  Registration and Breakfast

9:25-9:40                  Welcome & Opening Remarks

Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)

David Janes (US-Japan Foundation)

Toru Tamiya (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)

9:40-11:00                Panel Discussion I:

Women in the Silicon Valley Ecosystem- Progress and Challenges

                                  Chair:                     Shelley Correll (Stanford University)

                                  Panelists:             Ari Horie (Women's Startup Lab)

 Yoky Matsuoka

                                  Emily Murase (San Francisco Department on the Status of Women)

Mana Nakagawa (Facebook)

 

11:00-11:20              Coffee Break

11:20-12:40              Panel Discussion II:                                 

Women in the Japanese Economy- Progress and Challenges

                                  Chair:                    Mariko Yoshihara Yang (Stanford University)

                                  Panelists:             Mitsue Kurihara (Development Bank of Japan)

 Akiko Naka (Wantedly)

 Yuko Osaki (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japanese Government)

                                  Machiko Osawa (Japan Women's University)

                               

12:40-14:00              Lunchtime

14:00-15:20              Panel Discussion III:  

Women's Advancement in the Workplace

                                  Chair:                 Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)

 Panelists:             Keiko Honda (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the World Bank Group)

 Chiyo Kobayashi (Washington Core)

                                  Sachiko Kuno (S&R Foundation)

  Kazuo Tase (Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting)        

                                 

15:20-15:40             Coffee Break

15:40-17:00             Panel Discussion IV:  

Work-Life Balance and Womenomics

                                  Chair:                     Kenji Kushida (Stanford University)

                                  Panelists:            Diane Flynn (ReBoot Career Accelerator for Women)

Atsuko Horie (Sourire)

Nobuko Nagase (Ochanomizu Women's University)

                                 Myra Strober (Stanford University)

17:00-17:05            Closing Remarks

 

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