Overview

This book addresses three main issues in regional income inequality and development: meaning of regional inequality, measurement of regional inequality and the relationship between national economic development and regional income inequality. It provides analytical methods useful in exploring the determinants of regional inequality in income and productivity.  Some software commands in Stata (statistical software package) available for the measurement and analysis of income inequality are also introduced. Some researchers have argued that spatial concentration of population in and around major cities and the concurrent increase in regional inequality do not hinder national economic development, and may stimulate it. Nevertheless, many national governments seek to promote balanced regional economic development and reduce regional income inequality, because unbalanced development and higher levels of regional inequality may cause political or ethnic conflicts between different regions of the country. As the applications of the analytical methods introduced in the first part of the book, the second part presents four independent empirical studies on regional inequality and development in Indonesia. They offer very interesting case studies for the formulation of policies and programs to reduce regional inequalities, because as the world’s largest archipelagic country with more than 13 thousand islands and 300 ethnic groups, Indonesia is spatially diverse in terms of its ecology, natural resource endowments, economy, ethnicity and culture.This book can be used as a textbook for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in national economic development and regional income inequality. It is also beneficial for practitioners and policy makers who are in charge of the formulation, implementation and evaluation of development policies and programs.

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9789811929670

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Reviews

“The book Akita and Kataoka (2022) is a very informative research compendium of some the main methods, results, and arguments that the authors have published over the last 30 years. … This book provides an excellent overview and application of inequality decompositions in the context of regional disparities and structural change. These features make the book a ‘must’ read for anyone who intends to teach and/or conduct research on issues related to regional inequality and development.” (Carlos Mendez, Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Vol. 7 (2), 2023)

Author Information

Takahiro Akita is a Professor Emeritus of International University of Japan (IUJ). He holds Ph.D. in regional science from the University of Pennsylvania and Master of Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology. He taught at IUJ and Rikkyo University. Prior to joining IUJ, he worked for United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat). His research interests center around regional and urban economic development, Asian economic development, income inequality, poverty, interindustry analysis and international trade. His research has appeared in Social Indicators Research, Asian Economic Journal, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Environment and Planning A, Annals of Regional Science, International Regional Science Review, among others.  Mitsuhiko Kataoka has been a Professor at the Graduate School of Business, Rikkyo University, Japan since 2016. He received his Ph.D. from Nagoya University in 2004. He worked as a professor at Chiba Keizai University, Japan, and a visiting professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business at Padjadjaran University, Indonesia, prior to joining Rikkyo University. His research interests are in the field of regional economics and development economics, especially regional inequality, regional productivity growth, and regional convergence. The empirical focus of most of his work has been on postwar Japan and Indonesia. 

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