One of the key issues the world grappled with during Covid-19 was the distributional implications of lockdowns globally. The shadow of lockdown policies continues when nations still try to emerge out of the pandemic. Heterogeneity herein over time, country and even within nations in policy making resulted in unintended consequences and debates between citizens, scientists, policy makers and civil society. Responses to Covid-19 meanwhile tried to balance a long run approach which involved the health sector, built on an innovation-oriented mindset and kept in mind the broader economic implications of policy decisions for the future.Flattening the Curve is an effort to summarize these learnings from Covid-19, especially for future pandemics in this age of zoonotic diseases and the Anthropocene. Assembling scholars, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs from across a variety of fields, this edited volume brings an interdisciplinary understanding to how the world can better respond socially to pandemics. It should be of immense value for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers in public policy, global health, economics, science and innovation policy, as well as regulation and business.

Governance is central to mass prosperity since it affects both the prospects for enhanced and sustained income growth as well as non-income indicators of human development. This volume, edited by Anil Deolalikar, Shikha Jha and Pilipinas Quising, puts together cogent and well-rounded analyses by leading scholars on this topic and hence provides an in-depth and prescient perspective on governance in the Asia-Pacific countries. As such, this is an invaluable contribution and will be welcomed by academics and students as well as policymakers.' - Raghbendra Jha, Australian National University'This is an outstanding set of essays on the state of, and changes in, public services in developing Asia, paying particular attention to evidence and lessons and examining the role that governance and citizen empowerment can play in improving public service delivery. The themes cover the complex relationship between governance and economic development; the delivery of public services as the face of governance; and the role of empowerment in improving the delivery of public services. Each chapter, written by an acknowledged expert, offers an insightful review of the debates and evidence, and a meticulous distillation of policy implications. A tour de force that will be indispensable for both policymakers and scholars in this field.' - Raghav Gaiha, University of Delhi, India Governance in Developing Asia is one of the first books of its kind to provide an overview of the role that better governance and citizen empowerment can play in improving public service delivery in developing Asia. The World Development Report 2004 set a framework for public service delivery in terms of the short and long roads to accountability of service providers to citizens. More than a decade on, this important book revisits the issue and departs from the WDR framework, highlighting its shortcomings and offering alternative solutions. The contributors present fresh evidence on the relationship between governance and development outcomes, including growth and indicators of living standards. They argue that the Asia-Pacific region must do better in delivering essential public services if it wishes to continue improving the quality of life for millions of its people. They show how the quantity and quality of public services in a country can be improved if the government actively solicits citizen involvement in service delivery. Researchers and students of public policy and Asian studies will find this to be a useful read. Public policymakers and practitioners in government and non-government agencies will draw important lessons from the issues raised and solutions proposed in this book. Contributors: Y. Aiyar, B. Babajanian, S. Bhatnagar, G. Brosio, J.J. Capuno, J. de Ree, A.B. Deolalikar, X. Han, S. Jha, H.A. Khan, M. Pradhan, M.G Quibria, P.F. Quising, K. Sen, M. Walton, Z. Zhuang

The theme of this book is that economic growth is key, but institutions and other national and subnational attributes matter as well. They are critical to explaining differences in social development and poverty reduction across countries and subnational areas that cannot be accounted for by growth alone. The book concludes that a more complete strategy needs to consider various institutional factors at the national and subnational levels to achieve rapid and sustained poverty reduction. Indeed, paying attention to these factors will benefit both growth and poverty reduction.

This volume is a welcome and timely contribution to a topic of enduring importance. The global consequences of recent food price crises underscore the need to examine food security issues from diverse perspectives. This volume meets that need, featuring accessible yet cutting-edge analyses of food security by leading experts in fields as diverse as trade, nutrition, public health, production, political economy, and behavioral economics. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and practitioners.' - Steven Block, Tufts University, US'This excellent volume offers a compact but wide-ranging survey of recent research on important changes in global food markets. Its 20 chapters accurately capture important areas of scholarly agreement as well as on-going debates among economists studying agriculture and nutrition, with several provocative original contributions from other fields. The book draws particularly on the authors' long experience in Asia, offering widely-applicable insights for scholars and policy analysts seeking to understand the past, present and future of food around the world.' - William A. Masters, Tufts University, US The global population is forecasted to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, with much of this increase concentrated in developing regions and cities. Ensuring adequate food and nourishment to this large population is a pressing economic, moral and even security challenge and requires research (and action) from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This book provides the first such integrated approach to tackling this problem by addressing the multiplicity of challenges posed by rising global population, diet diversification and urbanization in developing countries and climate change. It examines key topics such as: - the impact of prosperity on food demand - the role of international trade in addressing food insecurity - the challenge posed by greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land degradation - the implication on labor markets of severe under-nutrition - viability of small scale farms - strategies to augment food availability. The Handbook on Food would be a welcome supplementary text for courses on development economics, particularly those concentrating on agricultural development, climate change and food availability, as well as nutrition. Contributors include: Anshuman Adheleya, Alok Adheleya, M. Das, D. Dawe, O. Ecker, C.L. Gilbert, D. Goswami, J.E. Gready, D. Headey, K.S. Imai, S. Jha, N. Kaicker, S. Kaur, V.S. Kulkarni, A. Mahal, K. Mathur, K. Otsuka, S. Pfuderer, A. Sarris, C. Sathyamala, J. Schmidhuber, P.V. Srinivasan, L. Sutton, G. Thapa, P. Timmer, J.-F. Trinh Tan, F.N. Tubiello, P. Warr, J. You

Governance is central to mass prosperity since it affects both the prospects for enhanced and sustained income growth as well as non-income indicators of human development. This volume, edited by Anil Deolalikar, Shikha Jha and Pilipinas Quising, puts together cogent and well-rounded analyses by leading scholars on this topic and hence provides an in-depth and prescient perspective on governance in the Asia-Pacific countries. As such, this is an invaluable contribution and will be welcomed by academics and students as well as policymakers.' - Raghbendra Jha, Australian National University'This is an outstanding set of essays on the state of, and changes in, public services in developing Asia, paying particular attention to evidence and lessons and examining the role that governance and citizen empowerment can play in improving public service delivery. The themes cover the complex relationship between governance and economic development; the delivery of public services as the face of governance; and the role of empowerment in improving the delivery of public services. Each chapter, written by an acknowledged expert, offers an insightful review of the debates and evidence, and a meticulous distillation of policy implications. A tour de force that will be indispensable for both policymakers and scholars in this field.' - Raghav Gaiha, University of Delhi, India Governance in Developing Asia is one of the first books of its kind to provide an overview of the role that better governance and citizen empowerment can play in improving public service delivery in developing Asia. The World Development Report 2004 set a framework for public service delivery in terms of the short and long roads to accountability of service providers to citizens. More than a decade on, this important book revisits the issue and departs from the WDR framework, highlighting its shortcomings and offering alternative solutions. The contributors present fresh evidence on the relationship between governance and development outcomes, including growth and indicators of living standards. They argue that the Asia-Pacific region must do better in delivering essential public services if it wishes to continue improving the quality of life for millions of its people. They show how the quantity and quality of public services in a country can be improved if the government actively solicits citizen involvement in service delivery. Researchers and students of public policy and Asian studies will find this to be a useful read. Public policymakers and practitioners in government and non-government agencies will draw important lessons from the issues raised and solutions proposed in this book. Contributors: Y. Aiyar, B. Babajanian, S. Bhatnagar, G. Brosio, J.J. Capuno, J. de Ree, A.B. Deolalikar, X. Han, S. Jha, H.A. Khan, M. Pradhan, M.G Quibria, P.F. Quising, K. Sen, M. Walton, Z. Zhuang

This volume is a welcome and timely contribution to a topic of enduring importance. The global consequences of recent food price crises underscore the need to examine food security issues from diverse perspectives. This volume meets that need, featuring accessible yet cutting-edge analyses of food security by leading experts in fields as diverse as trade, nutrition, public health, production, political economy, and behavioral economics. It will be of interest to a wide range of scholars and practitioners.' - Steven Block, Tufts University, US'This excellent volume offers a compact but wide-ranging survey of recent research on important changes in global food markets. Its 20 chapters accurately capture important areas of scholarly agreement as well as on-going debates among economists studying agriculture and nutrition, with several provocative original contributions from other fields. The book draws particularly on the authors' long experience in Asia, offering widely-applicable insights for scholars and policy analysts seeking to understand the past, present and future of food around the world.' - William A. Masters, Tufts University, US The global population is forecasted to reach 9.4 billion by 2050, with much of this increase concentrated in developing regions and cities. Ensuring adequate food and nourishment to this large population is a pressing economic, moral and even security challenge and requires research (and action) from a multi-disciplinary perspective. This book provides the first such integrated approach to tackling this problem by addressing the multiplicity of challenges posed by rising global population, diet diversification and urbanization in developing countries and climate change. It examines key topics such as: - the impact of prosperity on food demand - the role of international trade in addressing food insecurity - the challenge posed by greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land degradation - the implication on labor markets of severe under-nutrition - viability of small scale farms - strategies to augment food availability. The Handbook on Food would be a welcome supplementary text for courses on development economics, particularly those concentrating on agricultural development, climate change and food availability, as well as nutrition. Contributors include: Anshuman Adheleya, Alok Adheleya, M. Das, D. Dawe, O. Ecker, C.L. Gilbert, D. Goswami, J.E. Gready, D. Headey, K.S. Imai, S. Jha, N. Kaicker, S. Kaur, V.S. Kulkarni, A. Mahal, K. Mathur, K. Otsuka, S. Pfuderer, A. Sarris, C. Sathyamala, J. Schmidhuber, P.V. Srinivasan, L. Sutton, G. Thapa, P. Timmer, J.-F. Trinh Tan, F.N. Tubiello, P. Warr, J. You