Edward M. Feasel, PhD

Vice President for Academic Affairs, Chief Academic Officer, Professor of Economics

  • Aliso Viejo CA UNITED STATES

Professor Feasel is responsible for academic affairs at Soka University.

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Biography

Dr. Feasel is a founding faculty member of Soka University. Joining the team in 1998 as Dean of Students, he played an instrumental role in developing the outline for the undergraduate curriculum including general education courses and requirements, concentration requirements, and electives. Dr. Feasel served as Dean of Faculty at Soka from 2005 to 2017, where he oversaw an annual budget of $9 million and a staff of 46 full-time and 25 part-time faculty members. In 2015, Dr. Feasel became Chief Academic Officer and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Dr. Feasel has an academic background in Economics and has continued lecturing on the topic since 1991.

Areas of Expertise

Academic Administration
Economics
Orange County Economy
Foreign aid, international trade and foreign direct investment
Economic outcomes and societal values
Economic Growth
Foreign Aid

Accomplishments

American Council on Education (ACE) Institute for New Chief Academic Officers (CAOs)

Class of 2017-2018

Best Conference Paper

2011
Micro and Macro Economics GSTF Conference, Singapore

Soka Gakkai Award

2007
Daisaku Ikeda Medal

Education

University of California at Berkeley

Ph.D.

Yale University

B.A.

Affiliations

  • American Economic Review
  • Applied Economics
  • Contemporary Economic Policy
  • Economic Systems
  • Eastern Economic Journal
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Articles

Understanding Attitudes toward Globalization at the Individual and National Level

International Journal of Business, Humanities and Technology

Edward M. Feasel and Professor Diya Muzumder

2012
The paper utilizes surveys from the Pew Research Center to develop an extensive dataset consisting of 53 countries, for the years 2002, 2007 and 2008, with over 80,000 respondents to examine attitudes toward globalization at the individual and national level. Attitudes vary widely across countries with important determinants at the national level being FDI, trade, net migration and GDP per capita. The first two macro linkages, FDI and trade, are found to be positively associated with benefits from globalization. Net migration is found to have a negative association. The results help to explain why the US, with relatively lower FDI and trade and higher net migration, has the lowest perceived benefits to globalization in the sample. Results also show that wealthier individuals and nations have higher perceived benefits from globalization. There is evidence that less skilled individuals view greater benefits to globalization compared to skilled workers in very poor countries.

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Official Development Assistance (ODA) and Conflict: A Case Study on Japanese ODA to Vietnam

Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia

Edward M. Feasel

2013
Vietnam has become a model for achieving rapid economic development. In 2009, the country reached “middle income” status and joined a number of other Asian countries that have shown remarkable economic progress in a short period of time. An important element in this success has been the Official Development Assistance (ODA) that the country has received from around the world, including multilateral aid agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. It is Japan that has served as Vietnam’s largest single donor for over a decade and has provided steady economic support during both smooth and turbulent times. This steadfast support has aided the government of Vietnam in maintaining economic stability during two international financial crises.

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Understanding Subjective Well-Being across Countries: Economic, Cultural, and Institutional Factors

International Review of Social Sciences and Humanities

Edward M. Feasel

2013
The paper examines factors affecting subjective well-being across 58 countries. At the individual level, higher income and education, being female, married, and a housewife are all strongly associated with higher subjective well-being. Negative effects were observed for those who are unemployed and older. Macro variables in six categories were also examined: economic, freedom, religion, legal origin, fractionalization, and “other”. The results give evidence of the importance of cultural and institutional variables, in addition to economic ones, for understanding variation in subjective well-being. Significant differences in how the variables affect well-being across low and high income countries were also observed.

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