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.

Governors' Meeting in Silicon Valley

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GOVERNORS' MEETING IN SILICON VALLEY

U.S.-Japan Economic Collaboration at the State-Prefecture Level

 

July 28, 2014

MacCaw Hall at Arrillaga Alumni Center, Stanford University

 

This July, as part of the U.S.-Japan Council’s (USJC) Governors’ Circle Initiative, USJC and The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) will convene a Japan Governors’ Meeting in Silicon Valley. Governors from six prefectures, namely Fukuoka, Hiroshima, Oita, Okayama, Saga and Shizuoka, have confirmed their attendance, and each plans to bring a delegation of business leaders and government officials involved in bilateral economic collaboration. These governors are interested in the state of California, particularly Silicon Valley, as a leader in the fields of IT, biomedical/healthcare, automobile technology, clean energy and consumer goods. This event will serve as a catalyst for select Japanese prefectures to connect with the Silicon Valley’s innovative companies, pilot projects, and state-of-the-art technologies across a number of sectors, including technology licensing, market development, manufacturing agreements, investments, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships.

For registration, please visit http://bit.ly/GovCircle    

 

Date: July 28:  Plenary Session and Networking Reception/Sake Tasting (Open to Public)  

2:00 - 2:15 pm:    Opening Remarks

2:15- 2:45 pm:     Presentation by the Director of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI)

2:45 – 4:00 pm:   Governors’ Panel Discussion on Prefectures’ Economic Collaboration Targets and Collaboration with Silicon Valley

4:00 - 4:15 pm:    Break

4:15 - 5:15 pm:    Presentations:  “How Stanford Played a Significant Role in Creating New Businesses Collaborations in Silicon Valley”

5:15 - 5:30 pm:    Closing Remarks

5:30 – 7:30 pm:  Networking Reception

Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center

Conferences

Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Assistance to North Korea: What are the needs today after almost 20 years of aid projects and programs?

Engaging North Korea

Rapidly changing circumstances continue to shape relations on the Korean peninsula and in East Asia. North Korea has repeatedly engaged in provocative behavior, and the constant flux of political, social, and economic affairs in the region has also created challenges for long-standing alliances.

This research project seeks to examine the interests and policy environments of South Korea, North Korea, and their neighbors. Issues addressed will include the role of North Korea, nuclear proliferation, Japan’s economic future, the rise of China, and Korean reunification.

Global Talent and Innovation

A central focus of the research efforts at Shorenstein APARC is to analyze the bridges linking Asia and the United States. As the Asian diaspora continues to grow in America and across the world, new possibilities have emerged for migrants who become integrated into their host societies while remaining engaged with their home societies. Such trans-migration creates new innovation and trade opportunities for both Asia and the United States, as a positive-sum game where both sides benefit.

Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Assistance to North Korea: What are the needs today after almost 20 years of aid projects and programs?

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Due to the interest generated by this seminar, we have reached our maximum seating capacity and are not able to accommodate any more guests. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

This event is co-sponsored by The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.

About the Topic: Following several visits to North Korea in recent months, the most recent one in April 2014, Kathi Zellweger will focus her remarks on humanitarian aid, rehabilitation projects, and development cooperation in North Korea. The presenter’s findings will be supported by a number of facts and figures about the country and background information about the health sector. The speaker will identify the participants in the area of assistance along with the issues they face when providing aid. The talk will also provide insights into positive examples of projects, what is needed for projects to succeed, and how the type of aid required is changing. Based on nearly 20 years of work experience involving North Korea, Zellweger concludes that isolation and sanctions hinder development potential and that engagement is more likely to be a constructive and peaceful way forward. 

About the Speaker: Kathi Zellweger is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Prior to that she was the Pantech Fellow in Korean Studies at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, in residence at Stanford University from November 2011 to August 2013. Most recently at Stanford she gave a course entitled “An Insight into North Korea Society” for  graduate  and undergraduate students. She is a frequent presenter on the topic of the situation of the North Korean people, to audiences in the U.S. and abroad. Zellweger has also made significant contributions in this field through her participation in workshops, seminars and conferences about humanitarian, as well as security, issues on the Korean peninsula, more specifically  regarding North Korea.  

Zellweger is a senior aid manager with over 30 years of field experience in Hong Kong, China and North Korea. She was based in Pyongyang for five years (2006-2011) as North Korea country director for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), an office of the Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The focus of her work was on sustainable agricultural production in order to address food security issues, income generation to improve people’s livelihoods, and capacity development contributing to individual and institutional learning.

Before joining SDC, Zellweger worked from 1978 to 2006 for the Catholic agency Caritas in Hong Kong in a senior post; she played a key role in pioneering Caritas involvement initiatives in China and in North Korea.

Zellweger received the Bishop Tji Hak-soon Justice and Peace Award in 2005 from a South Korean foundation established to promote social justice, and in 2006 the Dame of St. Gregory the Great from the Vatican for her work in North Korea.

CISAC Conference Room

Visiting Fellow, CISAC, Former Pantech Fellow in Korean Studies, APARC Speaker
Seminars

CHALLENGES IN THE PROCESS OF URBANIZATION: CHINA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

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Keynote Speakers

WANG YIMING, Deputy Secretary General, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)

The Institutional Problems in China’s Urbanization Process

CAI FANG, Director, Institute of Population Studies, China Academy of Social Sciences

Urbanization and Labor Markets in China

LI SHUZHUO, Director, Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University

Fertility, Sex Ratio, and Family Planning Policies in China

Stanford Center at Peking University

Conferences

Air Pollution and Short-Term Mortality in Beijing

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Little empirical evidence exists on the health costs of air pollution in China, one of the most polluted countries in the world. Unsurprisingly, the lack of reliable data on pollution levels and health outcomes impede research. Because the pollution-health relationship is likely non-linear, it is difficult to extrapolate from existing high quality studies in developed countries to ascertain health costs. We address this deficiency by obtaining new data on Beijing’s daily mortality April 2008-April 2013 from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. We combine these data with daily pollution measures from the US Embassy in Beijing, which records particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in width (PM 2.5). We find that after controlling for weather conditions, year, month, and day of week fixed effects, daily PM2.5 indeed predicts daily mortality, particularly deaths from cardiovaslular disease. A 100 μg/m3 increase in daily PM2.5 is associated with 7 deaths daily, among them 4 cardiovascular deaths, and 0.8 respiratory deaths. Furthermore, deaths among less-educated and outdoor workers show a stronger relationship to PM2.5 levels. Notably, the relationship is robust to controlling for the official measure of Beijing’s air pollution, the average daily air pollution index (API), despite the fact that PM2.5 is measured by 1 monitor at the US embassy whereas API (and mortality) combine data from across the Beijing metropolitan area. Indeed, Beijing’s API does not have a significant relationship to mortality once AQI at the Embassy is accounted for. Our finding supports previous research arguing for measuring PM 2.5 and reporting it promptly to the public. 
 
Shuang Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at University of Colorado Boulder. She works on various topics in development, including health, education, environment, political economy, etc,. with a focus on China. She holds a PhD in Economics from Cornell University and was a postdoctoral fellow in SIEPR of Stanford University in 2012-13.

Philippines Conference Room

Shuang Zhang assistant professor in the Department of Economics Speaker University of Colorado Boulder
Seminars

China Drives into the Future: Automotive Upgrading in East Asia Today

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China’s giant automobile market continues to grow robustly, but its once thriving domestic producers have lost ground recently to global auto giants such as Volkswagen and GM. The excessive optimism of the past, however, has given birth to unwarranted pessimism about the future. The tangled legacy of China’s automotive policy has created numerous dilemmas, but it has also helped to create significant capabilities. A comparison of developments in China with those of other developing economies in East Asia suggests that institutions for promoting industrial upgrading have played a significant role in enabling some countries, such as China and South Korea, to deepen their industrial bases, while others either remain limited to assembling foreign models (as in Thailand and now Indonesia) or have failed to develop a sustainable automobile industry at all (as in the Philippines and even Malaysia). China faces tough policy choices, but it is likely to move, however reluctantly, in a more liberal and competitive direction.

Gregory W. Noble’s specialty is the comparative political economy of East Asia. His many publications include “The Chinese Auto Industry as Challenge, Opportunity, and Partner” in The Third Globalization (2013); “Japanese and American Perspectives on Regionalism in East Asia,” International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (2008); “Executioner or Disciplinarian: WTO Accession and the Chinese Auto Industry,” Business and Politics (co-authored, 2005); The Asian Financial Crisis and the Architecture of Global Finance (co-edited, 2000); and Collective Action in East Asia: How Ruling Parties Shape Industrial Policy (1999). After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University’s Department of Government, he taught at the University of California and the Australian National University before moving to Tokyo.

China Drives into the Future: Automotive Upgrading in East Asia Today
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Daniel and Nancy Okimoto Conference Room

Gregory W. Noble Professor, Institute of Social Science Speaker University of Tokyo
Seminars
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