Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science最新文献

The purpose of this study was to clarify the role of creative classes in sustainable agriculture development through creating shared value in rural Japan by applying latent class analysis (LCA), structural equation modeling (SEM) and cognitive map analysis to the results of a questionnaire survey of farmers. Two hypotheses were set for verification: “There are a certain number of Japanese farmers who belong to the creative class” (H1) and "The creative class is highly entrepreneurial, appreciates the attractiveness of agriculture, prefers sustainability policies and seeks to create shared value in agriculture" (H2). We obtained analytical results as follows. First, from the results of the latent class analysis (LCA), farmers were classified into four classes (class 1: Majority, class 2: Early adopter, class 3: Laggard, class 4: Innovator). In addition, Class 4 (innovator) was interpreted as the creative class because most respondents answered positively about creative thinking, job satisfaction, life satisfaction, innovation orientation, social capital and cognitive changes due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Second, the analysis of the structural equation modeling (SEM) revealed the factors affected the entrepreneurship, namely preference for agricultural policy and impact on creating shared value in agriculture in the creative class. In other words, we found that the evaluation of the multi-functionality of agriculture influences each element for entrepreneurship of the creative class, and also influences the preference for agricultural policy and creation of shared value. Thirdly, analysis of cognitive maps revealed that creative classes contribute to sustainable agricultural and rural development through the creation of shared value. However, in current Japan, the creative classes are concentrated in urban areas and farmers highly value the risk of failure, so there is no virtuous cycle for the entrepreneurial environment to shape entrepreneurial attitudes. Therefore, it is important for policies to develop creative classes in flatland agricultural areas and mountainous areas, and build networks for the creative classes among different regions.

The Vietnamese government encourages organic farming (OF) as a move toward safer and more eco-friendly agricultural practices. To achieve the goal of popularizing OF, besides encouraging the participation of newcomers, the government should also focus on farmers already involved because their production decisions are the most effective means for communication. By blending quantitative and qualitative approaches, this study investigated smallholder farmer intentions to scale up organic rice farming (ORF). Data were obtained through direct interviews with 325 farmers in the Phu Vang, Phong Dien and Huong Thuy Districts of Thua Thien Hue Province, Central Vietnam. The results revealed the ineffectiveness in demographic characteristics, including gender, age, education, number of laborers, OF experience, percentage of organic rice area, non-farm jobs and involvement in community-based organizations to predict farmer intentions to expand ORF. The findings highlighted the more significant influence of factors related to economic outcomes, farmer awareness of OF, and their confidence in the market outlook. We recommend policies and interventions associated with promoting the advantages of organic agriculture, intensifying technical training, linking production with the market following the value chain model, equipping the market with information, diversifying support and timely undertaking of issued policies.

Hometown tax is a unique system in Japan that allows people to donate to any municipality of their choice, and donors in turn receive tax benefits and reciprocal gifts under specific conditions. This system was initially introduced in 2008 for the revitalization and sustainable development of rural municipalities by reducing the tax revenue gaps with urban areas. To attract more donations, the competition over reciprocal gifts among municipalities has intensified in recent years. In 2019, the government issued strict regulations on the gifts to prevent municipalities from giving excessively high-value goods. Hence, most municipalities face pressures to review and adjust the gift lineup to maintain competitiveness and acquire stable independent tax revenue under the new regulations. This study selected municipality K as an example and utilized the metafrontier data envelopment analysis to obtain insights into the performance of various groups of reciprocal gifts and gift providers with different production frontiers. The cross-analysis of the metafrontier efficiencies, the group frontier efficiencies, and metatechnology ratios showed that: (1) the gift lineups of drinks, vegetables, fruits, rice, and tickets with relatively lower metafrontier efficiencies and metatechnology ratios need to be investigated and adjusted with higher priority; (2) providers of drinks & alcohol, vegetables & fruits, daily necessities & ornaments, and tickets performed poorer than other providers. Based on our analysis, we presented a comprehensive gift lineup adjustment proposal for municipality K that can also be taken as a reference analysis model for other municipalities.

Urban growth modeling is a helpful tool to implement more informed decisions based on environmental standards and capabilities. This study aimed to develop a new multi-criteria decision approach for zoning of urban development land use in Zanjan Township, Iran. Effective criteria for urban development were identified from the literature. Then, the hybrid multi-criteria decision model of weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) was applied for criteria weighting. Finally, these criteria were combined in a geographical information system (GIS) environment and urban development zones were determined. The results indicated that the central and eastern parts of the target area with an area of 232,127 hectares had the most suitable zones for urban development. Areas identified based on the results were consistent with field visits and the findings of experts. The above approach can provide more opportunities for urban planners and decision-makers to make decisions in the top levels of urban management requirements for all aspects.

Quality of life is said to be intimately interlinked with the process of urbanization and development because urbanization is regarded as a manifestation of economic development. ‘Quality of life’ refers to an individual’s or society’s overall well-being, whereas ‘basic amenities’ are things required for each person and have an evident relationship to QoL. City centers are regarded as the engines of society, so the current paper examines the quality of life with regard to levels of selected essential amenities in West Bengal’s urban centers for the year 2011. Seven key basic amenities are considered. Data were obtained from secondary sources such as the Houselisting and Housing Census, Census of West Bengal 2011, and the Primary Census Abstract, Census of West Bengal, 2011 (both in electronic formats). Coefficient of Variation, Correlation Coefficient, and One-way ANOVA techniques were used to analyze the data. According to the results of the study, there are differences in civic facilities across the whole range of urban hierarchy (size class and civic status category-wise). Additionally, a noticeable difference is found between Census Towns (CTs) and Statutory Towns (STs). The availability and persistent scarcity of fundamental services in urban areas largely depends on rapid urbanization, rapid immigration from rural areas, economic foundation, competence and development of the urban centers where the city or town is located. Additionally, more than 500 new towns incorporated in the most recent census, majority of which are small towns and considered Census Towns, report decreased accessibility to essential facilities. Therefore, instead of implementing different strategies throughout time, a considerable disparity in the provision of amenities in the state’s urban centers is a key barrier to urban holistic development. This circumstance encourages the use of the concept of co-production in the planning process.

Global climate change caused by Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, poses incomparable threats to the environment, development and sustainability. Vietnam is experiencing continuous economic growth and agricultural advancement, which causes higher energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. Understanding Vietnam’s sensitivity to climate change is becoming more crucial for governments trying to reconcile climate change mitigation and sustainable development. Analyzing pollution-development trade-offs can help minimize environmental degradation in Vietnam. Therefore, the present study empirically investigated the nexus between economic growth, energy use, agricultural added value and CO₂ emissions in Vietnam. To investigate the short-run and long-run relationships between the variables, this study employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) technique and the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) using the time series data from 1984 to 2020 for Vietnam. The empirical findings indicated that economic growth and energy use trigger environmental degradation by increasing CO₂ emissions, whereas enhancing agricultural added value improves Vietnam’s environmental quality by reducing CO₂ emissions in both the long-run and short-run. The estimated results are robust compared with alternative estimators such as dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), fully modified least squares (FMOLS), and canonical cointegrating regression (CCR). This research contributes to the existing literature by shedding light on the potential of agricultural added value to reduce emissions in Vietnam and provides policy recommendations in areas of low-carbon economy, promoting renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture that can reduce CO₂ emissions in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, it is commonly believed that gender norms, sex labour segregation, and structural organization of social institutions often favour male dominance while restricting women’s roles in domestic spheres. However, there is a scant literature of Vietnamese scholarship on the determinants of gender role attitudes, especially geographical disparities. This paper aims to fill this void by using a nationally representative survey with 8288 respondents. Our findings suggested that age, marital status, religion, education, living area, region, ethnicity, and personal monthly income are the factors that predicted gender attitudes. In terms of regional disparities, we found that Northerners were more permissive in their gender attitudes than Southerners, which may be explained by distinct historical and political trajectories in Northern and Southern Vietnam during the last century. There were, however, inconsistent patterns among different age cohorts whereby region significantly impacted the attitudes of women born before the end of the French War in 1954, men born after the Reunification in 1975, as well as both men and women born between 1954 and 1975.

The Philippines is an insular geography stretching nearly 2000 km from north to south, and has been beset with serious spatial poverty imbalances since its independence. This study comprehensively examined the provincial-level spatial poverty distribution for the years 2000–2018 by applying various spatial distribution analysis methods. Our conventional inequality measures showed an average significant poverty reduction and substantial inter-provincial poverty reduction gaps for the study period. The growth incidence curve revealed that the poverty gap increase was mainly attributable to the provinces with less (more) serious poverty, experiencing more (less) poverty reduction. Considering the island-province hierarchical regional structure, the one-stage Theil decomposition analysis indicated a substantial increase in inter-island components playing a major role in influencing the overall inter-provincial poverty gaps. This result differs from the findings of many existing regional income inequality studies that show the inter-group component plays a minor role. Our club convergence analysis identified six clubs and showed the provinces with higher poverty incidences are in the Mindanao Island, especially in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Whereas the lower poverty incidences are in the Luzon Island, especially Manila and its neighboring cities and provinces. This core–periphery structure infers capital city bias, referred to as the “Imperial Manila Syndrome” (IMS). We verified that the IMS structure became more serious during the study period. Therefore, region-specific government interventions and inter-governmental coordination are needed for balanced poverty reduction.

In India, there is a need for field survey-based vulnerability studies to overcome the uncertainties that exist in regional model-based climate vulnerability assessments. Therefore, the present study explored the regional patterns and their associated determinant factors of climate change vulnerability in the Himalayan Foothills of West Bengal to determine which regions are more vulnerable in the same geographical space. The research was conducted in the 13 Community Development Blocks (CD Blocks) of the Himalayan Foothills of West Bengal, India. The Socio-Economic Vulnerability Index (SEVI) was proposed to fulfill the above objectives. The present SEVI was comprised of seven subdimensions of climate change vulnerability: namely, climate variability, natural disaster risk, socio-demographic profile, livelihood strategy, environment profile, livelihood security, and accessibility of basic infrastructure covering three major vulnerability components, exposure, adaptive capacity, and sensitivity. The primary field survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire for data collection comprised of 22 indicators covering seven significant dimensions. The results suggest that Alipurduar-II, Jalpaiguri, and Mal, which are highly exposed to climate variability and natural disaster risk at the same time, have low adaptive capacities. The livelihood strategy, socio-demographic, and environmental profile were the determining factors of regional vulnerability in the study area. The CD blocks Falakata, Dhupguri, and Rajganj showed a higher adaptive capacity and were less sensitive to climate change vulnerability, even though exposure to climate change was the same in the entire area. The survey findings indicate that adaptive capacity is high in Falakata and Rajganj and these areas are less susceptible to climate change vulnerability. Finally, the appropriate recommendation is to develop a basic physical infrastructure, including bridges over the rivers and concrete village roads in all the flood-prone villages in the entire Himalayan Foothills of West Bengal for better connectivity. Also, household food availability should be secured through public distribution systems that develop the coping capacity of the region as a whole.

Crop suitability analyses produce optimal utilisation of existing land resources for sustainable agricultural productivity. This study identified suitable locations for the main crops of West Bengal, India; rice, maize, oilseeds, pulses, wheat, barley, potatoes and vegetables using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Geographical Information Systems (GIS). AHP is a multi-decision-criteria approach that requires parameters regarding the crop suitability analysis. Ideal parameters such as slope, elevation, rainfall, soil, land use and land cover (LULC), net sown area, river and road networks, have been selected for the specific study areas. We determined that approximately 55% of lands are under very high to moderate crop suitable zones and some districts in the north and central areas have the maximum amount of highly suitable land as compared to the other districts. The western area showed low suitability due to undulating terrain, rainfall deficiency and infertile soil. The resultant suitability data justified with secondary datasets using the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) method showed an 11% error. Our results also correlated the socio-economic factors, agricultural productivity and agricultural labourer, with the crop suitability zones showing a positive relationship of approximately 82% and 72%, respectively. Suitability maps of the study area and their correlations with allied agricultural factors can help decision makers and planners find appropriate zones for crop production.