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This book addresses two general questions that have arisen as a result of the uneven rise of the various Asian economies in contemporary times. First, to lift people out of poverty and to improve the quality of their lives, how do we institute policies that will ensure economic growth in the different regions of Asia? Second, what can we do to ensure that the economic growth we seek is sustainable so that the regional economic development that emerges is broad-based, inclusive, and environmentally conscious? Specifically, this edited book will provide a unified perspective on regional growth and sustainable development in Asia by focusing on the above two broad questions. The book will emphasize dynamic modeling and it will illustrate the role that sound theoretical and empirical modeling of an intertemporal nature can play in shedding light on salient public policy questions concerning regional growth and sustainable development. The specific topics to be addressed in this book include growth accounting, natural resource use and management, the regulation of environmental externalities, geographic information systems, and regional climate change. The individual chapters in this book will be written by international experts who are also active researchers in their respective fields. Therefore, this book is highly recommended to all readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date perspective on some of the most salient issues at the interface of regional growth and sustainable development in Asia.

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Dr. Batabyal has broad research interests and he has worked on problems as diverse as the design of international environmental agreements, the conduct of trade policy by developing nations when their export goods are polluting, the properties of alternate decision making rules in arranged marriages, the management of invasive species, and economic growth in innovative regions.
He has published over 500 papers, books, book chapters, and book reviews in a variety of refereed scholarly outlets in ecology, economics, mathematics, operations research, and political science. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Geoffrey J. D. Hewings Award from the North American Regional Science Council in 2003, the Moss Madden Memorial Medal from the British and Irish Section of the Regional Science Association International in 2004, the Outstanding Achievement in Research Award from the Society for Range Management in 2006, and the Trustees Scholarship Award from the RIT Board of Trustees in 2007.

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