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This introductory chapter provides the framework of the book in discussing the financial development of China, Japan, and Korea. It begins by comparing and contrasting the domestic dimensions of China, Japan, and Korea, as well as their responses to the changing international economic and financial environment. The next section introduces the context of the study of these countries, particularly the 2007–2009 global financial crisis. The subsequent sections describe in detail these countries' financial repression and liberalization, financial globalization, and the fiscal development. The chapter concludes with an extensive evaluation of the role of finance in these three countries, particularly on their catch-up growth and overall economic performance.

Recent studies have documented catch-up growth in children, defining catch-up as a positive change in height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ). HAZ is inappropriate to measure changes in linear growth as populations age, because it is based on cross-sectional normative data, not longitudinal data. The chapter proposes the use of absolute height-for-age differences (HAD). Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from select developing countries, it compares changes in HAD and HAZ in children between 2 and 5 years old. Using HAD, the chapter finds not only an absence of catch-up growth, but a continued deterioration reflected in a decrease in HAD between these ages. This finding does not challenge the critical importance of investing in nutrition during the first 1,000 days (i.e. from pregnancy to 2 years of age), but raises a number of research questions including how to prevent continued growth faltering and what is the potential to benefit from nutrition interventions after 2 years of age.

This chapter focuses on determinants of type 2 diabetes in women and girls from conception through the life course. Topics covered include genetic determinants of diabetes risk, parent of origin effects on diabetes risk, the effect of intrauterine environment on diabetes risk in women, the catch-up growth hypothesis, and effect of parity on subsequent risk of diabetes.

One of the enduring assumptions about economic growth is that developing countries will be able to ‘catch up’ with rich countries through the process of technology transfer as capital moves from developed to developing ones. Through foreign direct investment (FDI), the more advanced technology embodied in capital from developed countries induces faster growth in developing ones. This chapter analyses an original, national Chinese enterprise survey designed to provide such evidence. The survey investigates a key trait of Chinese–foreign joint ventures (JVs), which is the signing of a technology transfer agreement at the time of establishing the JV. This provides a rare instance of a direct measure of technology transfer. It thus goes to the core of the question of whether or not such transfers occur. In China’s case, they do and generate significant improvements in productivity. Innovation generated through patents is also explored in the chapter, showing that there is also evidence of indigenous push for technological progress.

Recent data shows that 30 million low-birth-weight (LBW) infants are born annually worldwide (23.8% of all births). Although the global prevalence of such births is gradually decreasing, rates are still as high as 30% in many developing countries (World Health Organization 2008). Low birth weight is due to intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR), rather than or in addition to prematurity, in approximately one-third of these cases. This staggering number of affected children underscores the importance of understanding the short- and long-term cognitive and behavioral complications of IUGR. Intrauterine growth restriction conveys short- and long-term neurodevelopmental risks and thus requires costly long-term investment of medical, cognitive emotional, educational, and economical resources. Nevertheless, if treated aggressively, IUGR more often than not bears a fairly optimistic outlook, once the infant overcomes the initial life-threatening issues (Geva et al. 2006a). Intrauterine growth restriction is frequently detected in a pregnancy with a less-than-expected third trimester weight gain (100–200 g [3.5–7 oz] per week) or as an incidental finding on ultrasound examination when fetal measurements are less than expected for gestational age (GA; Geva et al. 2005). An estimated fetal weight under the 10th percentile, as determined by serial ultrasound examination, strongly correlates with growth restriction (Bernstein and Gabbe 1996; McCormick 1985). The etiologies of IUGR are typically thought of according to three interdependent categories: fetal factors, placental factors, and maternal factors (Kay 2008). Fetal factors include chromosomal events, such as trisomy 18 and 13 and sex chromosome abnormalities, which account for 5%–15% of all IUGR cases. Further exploration of genetic factors is currently under way, with mixed results (Kotzot et al. 2001). Other fetal factors linked to IUGR include congenital anomalies, mostly cardiovascular malformations, gastroschisis and omphalocele; infection, often related to rubella, cytomegalovirus, and toxoplasmosis (see Chapter 25); and multiple gestations, in which uteroplacental blood flow variations and/or twin–twin transfusion develops (Miller et al. 2008). Fetal villus circulation abnormalities are placental factors related to IUGR (Roberts and Post 2008).