This study addresses three questions that arise in Asia when formulating, financing, implementing, and maintaining transnational linkages versus purely domestic connections. Firstly, how is optimal economic space to be defined as a useful starting point? Secondly, how can relevant criteria be...

We investigate how differential exposures by German banks to the US real estate market during the recent financial crisis affect their corporate lending in Germany. Using unique bank-level exposure data, we distinguish between three different types of bank exposures, i.e. direct exposure to the...

This paper offers both a conceptual and an operationalmodel that aims to map out the causes and implicationsof ICT perceptions and views of urban policy makersand/or administrative officials (denoted as urban frontliners). This is followed by the presentation of an opera-tional path model, viz....

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become important tools topromote and realize a variety of public goals and policies. The growing importance of ICT indaily life, business activities and govemance prompts the need to consider the role of ICTmore explicitIy in urban...

In Portugal we have yet problems with disadvantaged groups, in some cases because the social conditions, in other cases because the economic conditions and in another situations from the familiar and physical circumstances. This context sometimes is worse in the rural areas, because has other...

This paper surveys recent research on decentralization and natural disasters. The first part discusses results from theoretical models that have been used to study the issues that arise when natural disasters occur in a country with more than one level of government. The next section discusses...

India is the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Asia. Previous research indicates that the majority of HIV-positive women in India were infected by their husbands, their only sexual partner, which makes them difficult identify as a high-risk population. This paper seeks to assess social...

Experiences reveal that the monitoring costs of the foreclosure crisis may be nontrivial, and smaller governments may have more success at addressing potential negative externalities. One highly localized form of government is a homeowners association (HOA). HOAs could be well-suited for...

The impacts of climate change are expected to create numerous challenges for cities. This report synthesizes key points raised in a series of discussions among “adaptation leaders” from fourteen cities around the world. Critical issues for urban adaptation that emerged from the discussions...