When firms and people are located near each other in cities and in industrial clusters, they benefit in various ways, including by reducing the costs of exchanging goods and ideas. One might assume that these benefits would become less important as transportation and communication costs fall....

As Japan's decade-long economic stagnation continues, there has been much analysis of the immediate macroeconomic problems that confront the Japanese economy. This book looks past the short-run challenges to the future of Japan and highlights the intermediate and longer-term issues that country...

During the past decade, ASEAN has shifted its focus from political and military security to economic co-operation and development. Although this change may ease the integration of the four mainland Southeast Asian nations -- Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia – into ASEAN, there remain...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. The Half-Life of Policy Rationales: How New Technology Affects Old Policy Issues -- 1. Technology,Marine Conservation, and Fisheries Management -- 2. The Lighthouse as a Private-Sector Collective Good -- 3. Motorway Financing and...

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Contributors -- Introduction -- Part 1: Changing Places: The Local and the Global in Tourist Communities -- 1. 'If It Wasn't for the Tourists We Wouldn't Have an Audience': The Case of Tourism and Traditional Music in North Mayo -- 2. Defining the Local: The...