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The Mitsui & Co. Environment Fund

Introduction to Grant Projects

Okayama University Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Ryohei Nakamura

Research into the establishment of an independent regional economic system that can utilize regional resources sustainably

Research grant

Project Description

Based on the belief that the establishment of new and different input-output frameworks are essential for achieving regional economic independence and sustainability, this project explores such frameworks related to the utilization of regional environmental resources such as woody biomass. The project proposes novel ways of building regional input-output tables and demonstrating new defiinitions and descriptions of regional economic results from the utilization of environmental resources. It selects multiple regions for on-site analysis and makes policy recommendations, combining the original ideas of academia and the practicalities of policy.

Grant year
FY2013 Research Grants
Grant term
3 years
April 2014 - March 2017
Grant amount
8,983,000 yen
Activity region
Maniwa, Okayama Prefecture; Hidakagawa, Wakayama Prefecture; Yasuhara, Kochi Prefecture; others, Japan
Supplying woody fuel to a hostel in Hidakagawa, Wakayama Prefecture

Overview of the Organization

Professor Ryohei Nakamura
Representative
Professor Ryohei Nakamura
Profile
Specialist field
Regional public policy, regional economics, urban economics, environmental economics
Affiliated academic societies
Applied Regional Science Conference (Chairman), Japanese Economic Association, Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Pan Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies
Background
Earned doctorate in 1984, and became lecturer and associate professor at the Faculty of Economics, Kinki University. After this, took a post as Associate professor at the Faculty of Economics in Okayama University. Between 1992 and 1993 was a visiting researcher at University of California, Berkeley, and from 1994 was a Professor at the Faculty of Economics at Okayama University. In 2006 took the position of Professor in the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Okayama University, as well as official visiting researcher at the Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow. Became a visiting professor, Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo in 2007, and also a faculty fellow at Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry. 2012 became Vice dean, Faculty of Economics, Okayama University and since 2012 has been Chairman of The Japan Economic Research Institute
Collaborating researchers
Junji Nakazawa (Kochi University), Hiroki Shibata (Chugoku Regional Research Center), Akira Matsumoto (EX Research Institute)
Research record
  • Ryohei Nakamura. "City Development Reform: Designing Regional Economic Frameworks." Nihon Kajo, 2014.
  • "Regional Economic Effects of CO2 Reduction Activities with Wood Biomass" Studies in Regional Science Vol.42, No.4, pp799-817, 2013.
  • "Contributions to Regional Economies by Wooden Biomass Resource Usage." Okayama Economic Review Vol.45, No.1, pp19-32, 2013.
  • "Endogenous Correction of Regional Economic Disparities by making use of Regional Environmental Resources (Wooden Biomass): Extension of Inter-Regional Input-Output Model." Business journal of PAPAIOS Vol.20, No.3, pp228-242, 2012.
  • "Simulation Analysis Employment Distribution and Regional Potential in Japan." Studies in Regional Science, Vol. 42, No.2, pp255-270, 2012
  • Contributions of Local Agglomeration to Productivity: Stochastic Frontier Estimations from Japanese Manufacturing Firm Data, Papers in Regional Science, Vo.91, No.3, 569-597, 2012.
  • "Price Formation and Regional Economic Effects of Wooden Biomass Energy." Studies in Regional Science Vol.43, No.4 (in press)