Drawing upon experts in Asian economics, public management, law, and the physical and political sciences from leading universities around the world, the editors of this unusual volume examine the critical challenges now facing this important sector of the world: growth, income security, and fiscal reform; governance and public management; and technological innovation and the environment. The contributors address these policy questions from a variety of perspectives, recognizing their complexity and multidisciplinary implications. The result is a balanced mix of theory, applications, and case studies, providing depth and substance in a readable manner. Specialists in public policy and international commerce in fields of government and business will find this wide-ranging book, with its many challenging conclusions, to have broad, useful relevance to their studies and applications to their work.

For thirty years, Asia has been experiencing rapid economic growth and transformation. Higher standards of living, social and demographic transitions, and rising expectations have had a profound impact on many aspects of public policies in the region. Policy makers have found some issues, such as government finance and poverty reduction, easier to address, while issues such as the need for social safety nets, economic competition, and corporate governance have been relatively neglected. The 1997 economic crisis, the causes and implications of which are still being debated, complicated matters significantly and raised the stakes in the task of solving public problems. It is in this context that comparative public policy with an Asian focus has emerged as a subject of study in its own right. And it is that which the volume editors and their contributors explore now. In doing so they help to set an agenda for the worldwide policy debate already looming.