Following this introductory chapter which comprises Part I of the book, there are eleven chapters and each of these chapters—written by an expert or by a team of experts — discusses a particular research question or questions about rural-urban dichotomies and spatial development in Asia. For...

We study whether pessimism and optimism about the future by forward looking agents provides a rationale for social security. We first distinguish between an agent's true and pessimistic preferences and then analyze whether this agent's level of saving depends on the pessimism parameter (π) and...