Yasuyuki Sawada

Extant research suggests that disaster exposure may induce unhealthy behavior, such as smoking, drinking, and eating disorder symptoms in survivors; however, the underlying the mechanisms of such behavior remain unclear. Using two field experiments in two separate disaster-affected communities in Japan (N = 337) and the Philippines (N = 187), this study found that scarcity and reinforced present-bias were associated with disaster experiences and unhealthy behavior in both locations. These experiments were conducted twice (i.e., 2–3 years and 6 years post-disaster), allowing us to examine the enduring impact of these disasters. Disaster survivors became consistently present-biased, which in turn explains variance in individuals’ health-related decisions, such as body mass index, smoking, and drinking.

This study examines the effect of a typhoon on low-income urban neighborhoods in the Philippines during the coronavirus disease quarantine. Using household panel data, we assess welfare—as measured by psychological distress, food consumption, and human capital investment—exploiting cross-sectional variation in flood exposure and the unintended timing of interviews relative to the typhoon. The typhoon did not exacerbate food insecurity during the strict quarantine period; in fact, flooded households ate more than nonflooded households over the next 2 months, presumably due to flood relief. Parents in flooded households initially experienced less psychological distress immediately after the flooding but accumulated more distress than nonflooded parents over the next 2 months. The typhoon also reduced the home-study time of high school students. These findings highlight the need for flood risk reduction and targeted interventions to address the lingering mental health effects of extreme weather events in vulnerable populations.

Does consumption smoothing among older individuals over time and across households indicate the efficiency of overall insurance mechanisms against health shocks? And what is the extent of suboptimality in various market and non-market insurance arrangements? To address these questions, we utilize panel data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) spanning 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 to evaluate the effectiveness of both institutional and informal insurance mechanisms for older individuals in China. While conventional tests generally support consumption smoothing for essential items across time and individuals in response to adverse health shocks, our findings indicate that the welfare costs associated with these shocks are not insignificant, particularly in rural areas. These results underscore the need for strengthened long-term care, pension systems, and other social safety nets, which could enhance welfare even when consumption appears resilient to shocks.

In responding to the challenge of rapid population aging in Asia, promoting healthy and active aging has become a key policy priority in many countries. There is an opportunity to realize a “silver demographic dividend” by harnessing the potential of healthy and productive older people. This paper presents the findings of a regional comparative study that quantifies the health capacity to work of older persons in seven East Asian and Southeast Asian countries. Along with improvements in the health status of older Asians over time, the additional (or untapped) working capacity of older men aged 55–64 years is estimated to have increased by 0.74 years on average over the past 15 years, with substantial variation across countries, gender, and other individual characteristics. For example, additional work capacity increased by 0.24 years in Japan and Viet Nam during the review period and by 2.24 years in the People’s Republic of China. In contrast, additional work capacity declined by 0.17 years in Indonesia. The proportion of all men aged 60–64 who are not working but are able to do so ranges from 7.8% (Viet Nam) to 21.1% in Figure 8 (Malaysia), with the proportion even higher for men in their late 60s. Older adults with higher levels of education and those living in urban areas generally have greater untapped work capacity. The potential silver demographic dividend, measured by the aggregate untapped work capacity of older workers above retirement age, is significant and has the potential to boost the gross domestic product of many countries in the region.

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted businesses, economies, and societies worldwide. This study employs unique data from Indonesia to investigate whether and how digitalization of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) helped them weather the adverse shocks from the pandemic and resulting lockdowns. The main empirical result is that, in the pandemic’s early phases, digitalized MSMEs disproportionately encountered negative effects on their business outcomes. The seemingly harmful elements of digitalization disappeared during later stages. Moreover, COVID-19 restrictions initially had a “positive” impact on the business environment. This is counterintuitive. But when considering the panic buying at the onset of restrictions and large share held by the essential sector in our dataset, particularly the wholesale and retail sectors, the positive impact from the restrictions is not unreasonable. These findings suggest that the digital transformation had not yet been stably established among MSMEs by the start of the pandemic. Our findings provide critical implications for industrial and competition policies related to MSMEs during the COVID-19 recovery process.