This book examines the causes and consequences of suicide from the perspective of economics. The approach here differs from those in medical, psychiatric, epidemiological, and sociological studies of suicide and is thus novel in a way that highlights the importance of economic and institutional settings in the problem of suicide. The authors argue that suicide imposes a tremendous economic cost on contemporary society in a variety of ways, requiring the government to develop an effective prevention strategy. An empirical analysis using data from Japan and other developed countries shows that natural disasters and economic crises increase suicide rates, while liberal government policies favorable to the poor can decrease them. Further, the types of effective prevention strategies in the context of railway/subway suicides, celebrity suicides, public awareness campaigns, and education using data primarily from Japan are revealed. This book ultimately contributes to an understanding of suicides and the development of evidence-based policy proposals. The Japanese version of this book won the 56th Nikkei Prize for Economics Books (Nikkei Keizai Tosho Bunka Award) in 2013. Yasuyuki Sawada is Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank and Professor of Economics at The University of Tokyo. Michiko Ueda is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University. Tetsuya Matsubayashi is Associate Professor of Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University.

This book establishes a new, holistic framework for disaster recovery and mitigation, providing a multidisciplinary perspective on the field of risk management strategies and societal and communal resilience. Going beyond narrow approaches that are all too prevalent in the field, this work builds on an optimum combination of community-level networks, private market mechanisms and state-based assistance strategies. Its chapters describe best practices in the field and elucidate cutting-edge research on recovery, highlighting the interaction between government, industry and civil society. The book uses new data from a number of recent disasters across southeast and east Asia to understand the interactions among residents, the state, and catastrophe, drawing on events in Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, China and Thailand. Grounded in theories of risk mitigation and empirical research, the book provides practical guidance for decision makers along with future research directions for scholars.

"The Asian region is highly prone to natural disasters which devastate large and mostly poor populations. This book deals with some of the root issues underlying the continued vulnerability of these societies to catastrophic shocks. The book is unusual in that it comprehensively covers resilience and fragilities from community levels to market mechanisms and governance and it analyses these issues in very different economic and structural settings. Recommended for development and disaster risk managers without question."

Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir

Director, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED); Professor, University of Louvain, Research Institute Health and Society."

This book discusses Bangladesh's economic and social development that may be called a "miracle" since the country has achieved remarkable development progress under several unfavorable situations: weak governance and political instabilities, inequality, risks entailed in rapid urbanization, and exposure to severe disaster risks. The authors examine what led to this successful economic development, and the potential challenges that it presents, aiming to elicit effective policy interventions that can be adapted by other developing countries.

Although there is much interest in poverty reduction, there are few agreed upon strategies to effectively reduce poverty. In this new book, the editors have gathered together various evidences on poverty dynamics, based on panel data from the last few decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu in India, compared with more recent data from sub-Saharan Africa. The major finding of this research project is that rural households in sub-Saharan African are beginning to experience the same pattern of structural change in income composition and poverty reduction that Asian households have experienced in the past 20-25 years. The chapters in the book explore how the spread of Green Revolution has triggered the subsequent transformation of rural economies. Many rural households in Asia have been able to move out of poverty in the presence of increasing scarcity of farmland initially by increasing rice income through the adoption of modern rice technology and gradually diversifying their income sources away from farm to non-farm activities. Increased participation in non-farm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the Green Revolution. This book identifies the importance of Green Revolution and non-farm employment for poverty reduction in Asia, which provides valuable lessons for sub-Saharan Africa.

Although there is much interest in poverty reduction, there are few agreed upon strategies to effectively reduce poverty. In this new book, the editors have gathered together various evidences on poverty dynamics, based on panel data from the last few decades in the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh and Tamil Nadu in India, compared with more recent data from sub-Saharan Africa. The major finding of this research project is that rural households in sub-Saharan African are beginning to experience the same pattern of structural change in income composition and poverty reduction that Asian households have experienced in the past 20-25 years.

The chapters in the book explore how the spread of Green Revolution has triggered the subsequent transformation of rural economies. Many rural households in Asia have been able to move out of poverty in the presence of increasing scarcity of farmland initially by increasing rice income through the adoption of modern rice technology and gradually diversifying their income sources away from farm to non-farm activities. Increased participation in non-farm employment has been more pronounced among the more educated children, whose education is facilitated by an increase in farm income brought about by the Green Revolution. This book identifies the importance of Green Revolution and non-farm employment for poverty reduction in Asia, which provides valuable lessons for sub-Saharan Africa.

This book discusses Bangladesh's economic and social development that may be called a "miracle" since the country has achieved remarkable development progress under several unfavorable situations: weak governance and political instabilities, inequality, risks entailed in rapid urbanization, and exposure to severe disaster risks. The authors examine what led to this successful economic development, and the potential challenges that it presents, aiming to elicit effective policy interventions that can be adapted by other developing countries.

This book establishes a new, holistic framework for disaster recovery and mitigation, providing a multidisciplinary perspective on the field of risk management strategies and societal and communal resilience. Going beyond narrow approaches that are all too prevalent in the field, this work builds on an optimum combination of community-level networks, private market mechanisms and state-based assistance strategies. Its chapters describe best practices in the field and elucidate cutting-edge research on recovery, highlighting the interaction between government, industry and civil society. The book uses new data from a number of recent disasters across southeast and east Asia to understand the interactions among residents, the state, and catastrophe, drawing on events in Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, China and Thailand. Grounded in theories of risk mitigation and empirical research, the book provides practical guidance for decision makers along with future research directions for scholars. The Asian region is highly prone to natural disasters which devastate large and mostly poor populations. This book deals with some of the root issues underlying the continued vulnerability of these societies to catastrophic shocks. The book is unusual in that it comprehensively covers resilience and fragilities from community levels to market mechanisms and governance and it analyses these issues in very different economic and structural settings. Recommended for development and disaster risk managers-without question. Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir Director, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED); Professor, University of Louvain, Research Institute Health and Society.

The Multihazard Risk Atlas of Maldives is composed of Geography-Volume I, Climate and Geophysical Hazards-Volume II, Economy and Demographics-Volume III, Biodiversity-Volume IV, and Summary-Volume V. This atlas provides spatial information about Maldives and thematic maps necessary for assessing future development investments in terms of climate risks and geophysical hazards. It is also intended to support the formulation of cobeneficial options for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management. The five-volume atlas is a major output of the project "Establishing a National Geospatial Database for Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation into Development Activities and Policies in Maldives" under the Asian Development Bank's regional knowledge and support (capacity development) technical assistance Action on Climate Change in South Asia (2013-2018).