Masafumi Morisugi (p), Hyorim Lee, Gou Tomoda, Ryuta Mori, Eiji Ohno, Kazunori Nakajima, Naoki Sakamoto

Mortality risk due to water pollution (ex. diarrheal diseases and digestive organ diseases) is one of the serious problems, especially for Asian developing countries. The timing to carry out a policy or a project (implementation of sewage and water supply system are typical examples) against such a problem is the typical debate issue as ever.
In the precedent researches, we have conducted surveys in Vietnam and Laos asking citizens' willingness to pay (WTP) for such a hypothetical water service which is assumed to reduce one's mortality risk due to water quality, namely Option. We also found a relatively robust relationship between their age and WTP (=Option Price) in both of theoretical and econometric perspectives. Especially the level of income seems to affect WTP positively. It means that there should be a certain point of time on their way of economic developing those nations achieve such status to pay water and sewage bills sufficiently.
Subsequently in this study, with a new survey data set in Cambodia, we also derive Option Value that is namely a non-use value of the hypothetical water service. For a reason that there is a number of insolvent people to pay the fee of such water service and sanitation in developing countries, we propose an alternative benefit index which is combined with Option Price, Option Value, and also their annual income properly. Regarding this measurement and comparing the countries that have implemented sufficient level of water and sewage system with the ones that have not done any yet, we examine whether there is such a turning point on the depicted trajectory graph. Finally, we discussed the adequateness of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis about environmental load which likely makes water quality worsen off.

Sara Hidalgo (p)

Spain is one of the first countries in the world in having a natural area. In fact, the first national park was created in 1918. Nowadays, Spain has many natural areas, not only national parks. There are different categories, depending on the type of nature protection: national parks, natural parks, natural reserves, natural monuments, protected landscape, and Natura 2000 areas Network.
Natural areas concerned with Autonomous Communities. Thus, Castilla-La Mancha is the responsible for natural areas policy.
Albacete is one the five provinces in Castilla-La Mancha. Albacete has some natural areas declared: two natural parks, four natural reserves, once micro-reserves and two natural monuments.
Visitor services are quite important in the most of the natural areas. Natural parks are the natural areas more concerned about visitor issues. These are a type of natural areas that have in the same level sustainable development, tourism and natural resource protection.
We try to analyze visitor field. In fact, trails are really popular. Also, the number of visitors is essential to guarantee the future of natural areas and the importance of services in the area.
Albacete is a province with a great amount of natural ressources that will be essential to provide a good experience for visitors.

Insu Chang, HyunJi Lee (p), Brian H.S. Kim

A high concentration of particular matter (PM), which increases the risk of human health, is one of the major social issues in Korea. Because of possible causes and consequences from the PM, societal and political arguments and criticisms are rapidly developed and requested special attention to solve the problems. One of the main criticisms is the PM pollutants carried by the wind from China. Diplomatic conflicts arise due to different understanding of PM problems between Korea and China. Therefore, it is important to understand what are causes the PM emissions and its concentration. The objective of this study is to identify the socioeconomic factors that can relate to the possible contribution of PM2.5 concentration in Korea. Panel model is employed using the data of PM2.5 level for three years (2015 to 2017) for 17 provinces in Korea. The results indicated that the number of registered diesel engine vehicles, manufacturing production activity, and PM2.5 concentration of three provinces (Hebei, Shandong, and Jiangsu) in China are closely related to the PM2.5 concentration in Korea. Among these contributors, the number of registered diesel engine vehicles has the highest correlation with the PM2.5 concentration. It is important for the Korean government to consider a long-term multidimensional approach to solve this important issue and understand the possible societal welfare affect with innovative policies.

Agata Żółtaszek (p), Alicja Olejnik (p)

Health, as a well-recognised element of human capital, not only impacts the individuals’ quality of life but also strongly affects regional economies. Therefore, assessment of various aspects of population’s health as well as healthcare systems becomes an increasingly important issue in local policy making. One of the approaches which enables to combine the systemic aspects of healthcare with the health statistics is to measure the efficiency. This indirect method omits all qualitative particulars (e.g. administrative, informal, financing structure, types of medical facilities) that hinder the standardised regional comparisons.
A method often used for the purpose of assessing relative technical efficiency is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). In our work we investigate a novel approach to numerical quantification of the comparative efficiency of regional healthcare which explicitly, via spatial weight matrix (W), takes into account spatial interactions between regions. Namely, we use a spatial modification of the DEA - Spatial Data Envelopment Analysis (SDEA). In our paper we investigate the efficiency of EU NUTS 2 regions’ healthcare, calculated for inputs including the standardised number of doctors and number of beds as well as outputs defined as age-standardised mortality rates of main Western diseases e.g. circulatory and respiratory systems illnesses or neoplasms.
Finally, we conduct an analysis of the resulting spatial distribution of efficiency measures. Similarly to the classic approach, the results of our approach divide EU regions into two groups, that is the effective and ineffective units. Our findings show that the regions’ efficiency is driven by a spatial and a non-spatial, structural factor. Applying SDEA reveals that while healthcare systems are mostly homogenies within country borders, the efficiency varies across provinces and neighbouring regions.