HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.12

Effects of Automated Monitoring on Achieving Air Pollution Control Targets: Evidence from China

Lin YANG, Yatang LIN, Jin WANG, Fangyuan PENG

Air pollution is a critical issue affecting public health and the environment worldwide. In major countries around the world, local governments are responsible for the enforcement of national environmental regulations. However, inadequate monitoring and misaligned incentives often lead to strategic responses at the local level, resulting in localized cleanup rather than citywide reductions.

Advanced monitoring technology has been considered as a solution to this problem. In 2014, in response to increasing public concerns about air quality, the central government of China commenced an unprecedented “war on pollution”...

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.11

Leveraging Emerging Technologies to Overcome Mobility Challenges Caused by Population Ageing: A Case Study of Japan

Gregory Trencher, Masaru Yarime, Jeongsoo Yu

In today’s era, population ageing is an accelerating trend affecting all countries, especially in the global north and eastern Asia. The ageing and shrinking population can cause negative impacts on economic growth, medical and fiscal systems, and the socio-economic vitality of communities and cities. Overcoming these challenges is now an important task for technology. With the development of autonomous (self-driving) vehicles and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), mobility becomes a particularly important area where technological innovations are expected to address problems.

Japan, home to the world’s most rapidly ageing population, has been testing novel mobility technologies and services in response to population ageing and shrinkage. This provides an ideal opportunity to observe how emerging technologies can tackle mobility challenges. This policy bulletin introduces a study by G. Trencher et al. (2024) that examines Japan’s experiences...

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.10

Factors Influencing Shared Parking Use in Time and Space: A Case Study in Guangzhou

Juan Wang, Pengyu Zhu

In big cities, parking difficulties have caused great distress to citizens and transport authorities. To reduce these problems, parking management initiatives aimed at increasing the utilization rate of public parking spaces have been applied, while the utilization rate of privately owned parking spaces remains low during their idle time. Thus, shared parking, which enables private owners to share their parking spaces during their idle time, would possibly contribute to alleviating the urban parking shortage. In recent years, with the rise of the sharing economy and the maturity of information communication technology (ICT), the concept of shared parking re-emerged, emphasizing shared parking users can reserve parking spaces and pay online through intelligent platforms.

Despite researchers’ attention to such an innovative and sustainable way to relieve parking pressure, the implementation of shared parking in the real world remains at the planning stage in a lot of cities for reasons like legalization disputes, which also explains why there is little research on the use features of shared parking. Compared with the conservative attitude towards sharing parking in some countries, China pioneers in shared parking legislation and implementation, particularly in big cities in the most need of utilization rate enhancement. This policy bulletin summarizes a study by Wang, J., & Zhu, P. (2024) that uses data from 121 shared parking lots in Guangzhou, China to analyze the influence of a set of explanatory factors on shared parking use.

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.9

Promoting Mental Health Equity: Enhancing Ethnic Minority Mental Health Literacy and Help-Seeking in Hong Kong

Naubahar Sharif, Chen Wenjin

The growing population of ethnic minorities (EMs) in Hong Kong faces significant mental health risks. Recent data from the Hong Kong Christian Service (2024) reveal that approximately 3 of 10 EM Hong Kong residents are highly vulnerable to mental health problems. Additionally, the population of elderly EM individuals (excluding foreign domestic helpers) has experienced a remarkable 166% increase over the past decade. It is therefore crucial to investigate mental health literacy (MHL) and helpseeking behaviors among EMs in Hong Kong. MHL and help-seeking play a pivotal role in determining whether individuals can recognize mental health issues, seek appropriate help, and utilize available healthcare resources—actions that should greatly improve their mental health outcomes. While the HKSAR government has attempted to address this issue, there remains a significant knowledge gap regarding MHL and helpseeking behaviors among EMs in Hong Kong. This policy bulletin summarizes a paper by Naubahar et al. (2024) that investigates MHL and help-seeking patterns among certain EMs in Hong Kong.

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.8

Influence of Telecommuting on Homeownership and Housing Choice: A Study Based on Pre-pandemic Data

Pengyu Zhu, Yuqing Guo

Telecommuting is defined as a flexible work-from-home arrangement for several times per week, while a regular workplace is maintained. Its popularity has been steadily growing even before the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Global Workplace Analytics in 2020, the practice of telecommuting increased by 1.73 times from 2005 to 2018. The onset of the pandemic in early 2020, led to a sudden surge in telecommuting as an emergency measure. The barriers to telecommuting, such as technology adoption and work practice adjustments, were overcome by the necessity of working from home.The advantages of telecommuting, including time saved on commuting, reduced office costs, and improved long-distance connectivity, became more pronounced during the pandemic. Statistics indicate that telecommuting has continued into the post-pandemic era. This shift from traditional office work to telecommuting is expected to have a significant socioeconomic impact, particularly on the housing market. This Bulletin examines how telecommuting influences the housing market based on a study of the US housing market by Zhu et al. (2023)...

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.7

Private Long-Term Care Insurance in a Super-Aging Society: A Purchasing Motivation Study in Hong Kong

Alex Jingwei HE

Hong Kong, a rapidly aging society, has been grappling with daunting challenges associated with long-term care (LTC) financing. This problem reflects Hong Kong's very long average life expectancy (as of 2019, 82.2 years for men and 88.1 years for women) and very low fertility rate (1,051 births per 1,000 females in the population). The population of citizens aged 65 and above reached 1.31 million (i.e., 17.6% of the total population) in 2019, with the percentage projected to rise as high as 35.9% by 2069. The elderly population (i.e., those aged 85 years and above) is expected to grow faster than the remaining age cohorts (from 153,000 in 2014 to 724,000 in 2064). The HKSAR government has been...

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.6

Social Influence and Economic Intervention Policies that Reduce Energy Consumption: Evidence from Air-conditioning Use

Constantine Spandagos, Erik Baark and Masaru Yarime

In 2020, air conditioners consumed 31% of total electricity use in Hong Kong (EMSD, 2022) and electricity generation accounted for 60.4 percent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions (EPD, 2022). Therefore, policies that encourage energy savings in air-conditioner use are critical if the city wishes to achieve carbon neutrality. Nevertheless, successful policy interventions must be cost-effective and socially acceptable to incentivize energy-saving behaviors...

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.5

The Role Science Plays in Reducing Policy Uncertainties: Collaborative Governance for Shipping Emissions Control in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area

Jeffrey Chow, Xun Wu and Coco Du

Before the implementation of shipping emissions control, Hong Kong produced the second-highest shipping pollutant emissions levels among cities worldwide. Exhaust emissions from ocean-going vessels (OGVs) near ground level within a few kilometers of densely populated residential areas were devastating to ambient air quality and public health (Lau et al., 2005). Effective policy tackling shipping emissions requires...

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.4

Strengthening Climate Risk Governance in China: Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Adaptation

Xiaofan ZHAO and Ye QI

China is among the countries most susceptible to climate risks. Climate risks emerge from interactions involving climate-related hazards, e.g., extreme weather events and gradually escalating environmental changes, with exposure and susceptibility of human and natural systems. Climate risks are systematic and influence all facets of the socio-economic system, requiring an integrated framework encompassing two policy areas. The first is......

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.3

Impacts of the Built Environment on Job Accessibility: A Case Study of Hong Kong

Pengyu ZHU and Xinying TAN

The built environment can significantly influence job accessibility. Nevertheless, the relationship between the built environment and job accessibility varies across cities in light of local charateristics. Previous studies of the relationship between the built environment and job accessibility have centered on low-to-medium-density Western cities. These studies’ empirical results may not apply entirely to Hong Kong, which is highly dense. For instance, higher employment density may......

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HKUST Public Policy Bulletin Issue No.2

Strengthening Community Resilience via Data Governance: Lessons from COVID-19 Dashboards

Veronica Qin Ting Li and Masaru Yarime

During the COVID-19 pandemic, interactive dashboards were used widely as effective data tools to track the spread of the virus and help citizens make informed decisions. Data tools could also be utilized to promote public trust and enhance community resilience if they are regulated by carefully designed data policies......

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