Despite intergovernmental calls for greater policy coherence to tackle rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs), there has been a striking lack of coherence internationally and nationally between trade and health sectors. In this commentary, I explore the arguments by Lenucha and Thow in relation to barriers for greater coherence for NCDs, apply them to regional trade ag...

This paper adopts the two-sector overlapping generation (OLG) model to capture the impact of population ageing on the regional economy and compares the effectiveness of government policy in an endogenous growth perspective. Comparing the computational results of a one-sector OLG model, where agent’s productivity is given exogenously, this paper confirms that endogenously determined investment i...

Austerity and fiscal crisis make the search for cost saving reforms in local government more critical. While cost savings from privatization have frequently proven ephemeral, inter-municipal cooperation has been a relatively understudied reform. We analyze the literature on cost savings under cooperation and find savings are dependent on (1) the cost structure of public services, particularly t...

In a common market with costless mobility of all factors, regional governments can attract mobile rms by granting subsidies which must be nanced out of wage taxes on mobile labour. Since rms locate where subsidies are highest and workers settle where taxes are lowest, government are forced "in the splits" (double Bertrand-type tax competition). We assume that without government intervention the...

BACKGROUND Although the number of high-risk neonates has increased in Korea, hospitals were reluctant to open or maintain neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) due to the low medical cost. Consequently, there were regional disparities in facilities, equipment, and neonatal health outcomes. For these reasons, the Korean government began to invest in neonatal care during the last decade. We identif...

Regional inequality is one of the major subjects of research on China, and is a major concern to the Chinese government. This article reviews the copious research on regional inequality in China. It is proposed that recent research has significantly improved our understanding of regional inequality but that problems still exist. It is also argued that multiscale studies and investigations of th...

This paper will discuss recent initiatives to encourage the development of broadband networks in New Zealand. It is widely believed that the availability of good quality broadband will lead to improved economic development at the regional level. This paper considers the role played by both national and regional government in improving access to broadband. At a national level the government has ...