Yasu Sawada

Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, 

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

<sawada at e dot u-tokyo dot ac dot jp>  

Past Positions:

• Chief Economist and Director General, Economic Research and Regional Cooperation  Department (ERCD), Asian Development Bank, March 2017-August 2021

• Adjunct Professor, University of South Pacific, Fiji

• AJRC Research Associate, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

• Visiting Researcher, JICA Research Institute 

• Faculty of Fellow, Research Institute of Economy, Trade, and Industry (RIETI)

Associate Professor, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, University of Tokyo, 1999-02 Associate Professor, Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo, 2002-2012

• Visiting Fellow, Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) 

• Visiting Scholar, Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies (BIDS)

• Member, Joint Research Project on a New Era of Japan-ROK Relations

• Visiting Research Fellow, BRAC-RED (Research and Evaluation Division), Bangladesh.

• Visiting Professor, SCID, Stanford University 

• Adjunct Professor, Department of Economics, Korea University 

• Part-time research positions:  World Bank, ERIA, CRED for UNISDR, IDE, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), IFPRI

• Part-time research and committee positions in Japan: Cabinet Office, FASID, IDE, JBIC, JICA, METI, MOF, MOFA, MIC, JCER, IPSS

• Part-time teaching positions: (English) GRIPS-FASID (PhD program), ICU, YNU for World Bank MA program, and Korea U; (Japanese) Osaka U, Kobe U, Hitotsubashi U, and U Tsukuba

Research fields: Development Economics; Field Studies, Empirical Microeconomics, Economics of Disasters, Asian Economy

• Socio-economic impact assessments of COVID-19  China, Philippines 

• Impact evaluation of large scale infrastructure projects using remote-sensing data China, Greater Mekong Subregion, Philippines

• Economic analysis of digital platformers using administrative data China, Indonesia

• Empirical micro investigations of individual, household, and firm behavior under risk: China, India, Lao PDR, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan

• Impacts of disasters triggered by natural hazards on households and firms: Sichuan, Kobe, Chuetsu, & Tohoku earthquakes, Asian Tsunami disaster, Typhoon Milenyo in the Philippines, flood in Thailand, and Avian Influenza in Vietnam.  

• Impacts of manmade disasters on households and firms: Financial crises in Japan and Korea. 

• Impact evaluation of development policies: Education decentralization in Burkina Faso and distribution of mosquito nets (LLIN) in Madagascar

• Field experiments: Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka

• Development macroeconomics: Economics of Official Development Assistance and numerical analysis of multi-sector GE

• Suicide prevention policies in Japan. 

Current and past teaching fields: 

Development Economics; International Economics; International Finance; Macroeconomics; Microeconomics; Applied Micro-Econometrics; Human Development; Risks and Disasters in Asia; Asian economy

Background: 

After getting BA from Keio University and two MA degrees in Japan (one in Economics from Osaka U; and the other in International Relations from U Tokyo), I obtained MA in International Development Policy (Food Research Institute) and PhD in Economics from Stanford University in 1996 and 1999, respectively.  I received 2013 Nikkei Book Prize; 2011 Ishikawa Prize of Japanese Economic Association; 2010 Kiyoshi Kojima Prize of the Japanese International Economic Association; 2009 Enjoji Jiro Prize of Nikkei Center (JCER); and 2007 Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize.  I served as a co-editor of Asian Development Review. and Japanese Economic Review previously.