This paper examines the impact of the widespread adoption of remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic on residential rents along commuter railway lines in metropolitan areas, employing both theoretical modeling and empirical analysis. The spread of remote work has influenced rents through two primary channels: (1) a reduction in commuting frequency, and (2) a decrease in congestion on commuter trains. Together, these effects have contributed to relatively higher rents in areas farther from city centers. However, the rent function model developed by Yamaga and Hatta (2000) (in Japanese), which has traditionally been used to capture the non-monetary costs of commuting, does not incorporate commuting frequency as a variable. This study extends the model by introducing a commuting rate variable, thereby enabling a full representation of rent changes attributable to remote work. The empirical analysis utilizes rental data from before and after the pandemic. By comparing observed rent changes with theoretical rents derived from the conventional model̶which considers only congestion̶we identify the additional impact of declining commuting rates on rent dynamics.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the case of “Taipei Angels Investment (TA)”, a pioneer of angel investment institutions in Taiwan, and to clarify the development status of the angel investment industry in Taiwan through this case study. TA was established in 2012 and has made significant contributions to Taiwan’s startup-related industry in the following three ways: (1) Investing in and supporting a large number of startups, (2) Sharing abundant practical experience and operational know-how with its peer companies in an open manner, and (3) Cooperating with startup-supporting institutions and related policies as an investor, mentor, and expert. Following TA, many angel investment institutions have emerged since the latter half of the 2010s, and some have surpassed TA in terms of the number of members and portfolio companies. Some of these institutions have increased aggressively their members in a short period of time, providing a variety of learning and networking opportunities for new angel investors. Based on the increasing activity of these institutions, Taiwan’s angel investment has increased rapidly since the end of the 2010s. Taiwan’s angel investment industry seems to have entered the growth period in the past several years.

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Promoting rural industrial revitalization is the foundation and key to all-around rural revitalization. In recent years, the rapid development of the digital economy has made digital technology an important driver of rural industrial development. Nevertheless, empirical evidence demonstrating whether digital economy development policies effectively foster rural industrial revitalization remains limited. Consequently, this paper treats National Pilot Zone for Digital Economy Innovation and Development Policy as a quasi-natural experiment and uses panel data from China's 31 provinces from 2011 to 2021 to analyze the impact of the digital economy on rural industrial revitalization. The results indicate that National Pilot Zone for Digital Economy Innovation and Development Policy improves the level of rural industrial revitalization. This conclusion remains valid even after a series of robustness checks. Therefore, accelerating the construction process of National Pilot Zone for Digital Economy Innovation and Development through expansion and strengthening of the pilot zone is desirable for rural industrial revitalization.

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[in Japanese]

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