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Despite its invaluable contribution to the field of comparative economics, the socialist calculation debate has focused on the narrow topic of the impossibility of the rational economic calculation under socialism. The literature on new institutional economics suggests that economic development is determined by economic and political institutions which are far more complex than the issue of economic calculation. To bridge the gap between the calculation debate and new institutional economics, this paper utilizes the historical case studies of Perestroika and Deng's China to demonstrate relationship between state capacity and economic calculation. We argue that rational economic calculation requires the state's institutional ability to make a credible commitment to constraints inhibiting public predation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China‐Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) increased trade between China and Pakistan, however, it also swelled Pakistan trade deficit with China. The empirical findings of this paper suggest that CPFTA positively contribute to Pakistan exports to China and her imports from China but the increase in Pakistan imports was far greater than Pakistan exports after CPFTA. Resultantly, Pakistan's trade deficit with China increased and Pakistan's growth hampered. Constant market share analysis suggests that a better understanding of the Chinese market, efficient utilization of tariff lines and focus on products of the comparative edge are important for Pakistan to benefit from CPFTA. Otherwise, CPFTA is counterproductive for Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China joined the Paris Agreement, and the global 2°C and 1.5°C warming targets will be supported by China. In order to achieve these targets, China's CO2 emissions need to be cut deeply by 2050. The present paper presents studies from the integrated policy assessment model for China (IPAC) team about the impact on China's economic development of deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in order to realize the Paris climate change targets. With the requirement of deep cuts in GHG emissions in China, China's economic development will also be impacted in moving toward a low‐carbon or zero‐carbon emission‐based economy by 2050. This means the Chinese economy needs a strong transition over the next three decades, a relatively short time. All sectors in the economy need to seek ways to reduce GHG emissions, and this could change activities, industry processes and technologies in order to make the deep cuts in GHG emissions happen. This is the meaning of the economic transition toward to a low‐carbon economy. The findings of the present paper include: a significant transition in the energy supply sector; a high rate of electrification in all end‐use sectors; and a technology transition in the transport sector. Transitions will also occur in the traditional industrial sectors, including steel making, cement manufacture, and the chemical sector. The availability of low‐cost renewable energy could change the allocation of industries, which could potentially have a strong impact on regional economic development. Deep cuts in CO2 emissions in China need not be a burden for economic development, as the IPAC results show there will be a more than 1.5% increase of gross domestic product by 2050 in the deep cut scenario compared with the baseline scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has recently experienced a series of policies seeking economic development and intensive methods of social coercion. A unique leader, Chen Quanguo, brought these changes to the XUAR in 2016. This paper seeks to examine the effects of Chen's regime. We specifically examine three outcomes: GDP per capita, arrest rates, and spending on public security. Using the synthetic control method, we find that Chen's regime had no significant effect on the development. However, his policies led to much higher rates of arrest and larger spending on public security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient allocation of resources and transition towards cleaner sources of energy are among the key factors in minimizing the negative externalities arising from the growing dependency on fossil fuels. Moreover, environmentally benign trade policies are crucial due to the rapid expansion in global trade and comparative advantage. To explore the relationship between global trade and Consumption‐Based Carbon Emissions (CBCE) in China in the context of renewable energy consumption and energy efficiency from 1990 Q1 to 2020 Q4, this paper employs the dynamic Autoregressive Distributed Lags (Dynamic ARDL) model to evaluate the connection between international trade, renewable energy usage, energy efficiency, and CBCE, with the Kernel‐Based Regularized Least Squares analysis being used to determine the causal association. The findings reveal that GDP and imports are directly linked with CBCE in the long run, while exports, energy efficiency, and renewable energy consumption have a negative significant long‐run and short‐run influence on CBCE. In addition, exports help in the reduction of CBCE by sharing and adapting environmentally friendly technologies adopted in, for example, renewable energy and ecological advancements. Renewable energy promotes the quality of the environment, which is attributable to the performance of renewable energy and environmentally friendly technologies that directly stimulate the reduction of CBCE emissions. By cutting CBCE, energy efficiency tends to boost environmental quality. The research findings have noteworthy policy implications; trade enhances the quality of environment by introducing lower energy intensive production methods and technology that support sustainable development. As a result, this study advocated quite stringent policies in terms of aligning international trade orientation with environmental quality policy in China. Furthermore, energy efficiency policies are required to lower CBCE by focusing on high‐energy‐using industries and providing alternative clean energy sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local governments and enterprises are two important actors in China's environmental governance system. A better understanding of the interaction between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and governmental environmental responsibility (GER) will help to enhance the collaboration between corporations and the government, craft a good environmental governance system, and achieve coordinated development of economic development and environmental protection. This paper divides GER into three types: policymaking responsibility, implementation responsibility, and supervisory responsibility. Based on panel data on Chinese manufacturing companies listed during the period 2012–2017, this paper analyzes the relationship between GER and CER and explores the impact of the collaboration between the two on regional environmental pollution. The research results show the following: (1) in China, policymaking responsibility significantly promotes CER, whereas implementation responsibility has a significant negative impact on CER, and supervisory responsibility has no significant influence. (2) The collaboration between GER and CER effectively reduces solid waste discharge in a region but does not significantly reduce SO2 emissions or wastewater discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the path to carbon neutrality, the journey to net‐zero emissions in the industry is achievable, and the green development of industrial parks is crucial for a smooth transition. We examined a sample of 171 green industrial parks certified by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Using the Tapio decoupling model, we conducted decoupling analyses at both the national and regional scales of their economic growth and environmental conservation for three consecutive years. Spatial heterogeneity is found in carbon‐economy decoupling states and carbon‐pollutant synergy effects. Industrial parks in the east of China present better carbon‐economy decoupling states and carbon‐pollutant synergy effects than the other regions. The CO2 emissions determinants were explored by using the STIRPAT model. The variable industrial value‐added per capita, which is representative of economic growth, presents a positive and significant effect on emissions; the energy output and the proportion of high‐tech industries present a negative effect. However, after dividing the parks into groups by their leading industries, the influence of the variables started to show a power discrepancy. The heterogeneity analysis of this study can provide a basis for developing diversified strategies for Chinese industrial parks under the net‐zero emission goal. Plain Language Summary: This paper evaluated the economic development and environmental impacts of the 171 green industrial parks certified by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China, using data and materials that were inventoried and summarized for the first time. The relationship of economic growth and CO2 emissions and other major pollutants was examined using the Tapio decoupling model, and the results suggest strong decoupling states for most of the cases, and a significant carbon‐pollution synergy effect. Further regression analysis indicated that industrial output and green and high‐tech industries are significant drivers of decoupling. The discoveries will guide future actions and policies toward sustainable development for the industrial parks of China. Key Points: Economic growth and environmental impacts are strongly decoupled for most of the studied green industrial parksA significant carbon‐pollution synergy effect is found in the green industrial parksIndustrial output and green and high‐tech industries are significant drivers of CO2 emissions but show discrepancy in different industries [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interest group theory of financial development predicts that the incumbents' opposition to financial development will be weaker when an economy is open to both trade and capital flows. Based on regressions of financial development on trade and financial openness, existing studies only provide indirect tests of the hypothesis and deliver mixed findings. This paper proposes models for direct tests of interest group theory for China. Using Chinese cross‐province data, we define and measure interest groups based on the close tie between state‐owned enterprises and local government in China. The empirical results show that the opposition from interest groups to financial development cannot be weakened in provinces with high trade or financial openness alone. However, the opposition is indeed weakened in provinces with high levels of both trade and financial openness. These results provide robust support for interest group theory in accounting for cross‐province differences and time‐series variation in financial development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to estimate China's net foreign aid from 2001 to 2013 as compared with net official development assistance (ODA) figures, which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Assistance Committee (DAC) customarily uses. First, a practical definition to capture China's foreign aid activities as a proxy for China's ODA was proposed. Second, both net and gross disbursements of China's foreign aid were estimated. Third, the results were compared with DAC members' ODA; China's donor ranking has moved up from 16th in 2001 to 6th in 2012 and 2013. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the aid allocation behaviours of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors and their response to the emergence of China in the aid landscape. Our analysis presents evidences of donors' competition in Africa. We investigate whether African countries with the Chinese influence expanding receive favourable aid modalities from G7 donors over the period 2000-2011. We find a robust positive relationship between the level of aid and the number of China projects a country receives and the level of bilateral aid from G7 donors, even after accounting for standard economic and political factors. Results indicate that DAC donors use bilateral aid to tackle the increasing influence of China in Africa, by delivering more aid to countries with natural resources or strategic political interest. The paper also assesses empirically whether strategic interests and economic competition between DAC donors and China have influenced the composition of aid flows received by African countries. Our empirical strategy is sharpened by the use of a spatial-X model and a difference-in-difference estimation that leverages a 'natural' experiment in DAC aid flows in the aftermath of the financial crisis, with China increasing his sphere of influence in Africa. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several years, the creative reuse of brownfields has played a major role in Chinese cities to give their urban landscape a so-called second development. This paper analyses the governance of the brownfield restructuring in Guangzhou (Canton). The research is based on a study of the T.I.T Creative Industry Zone, a highly successful creative space currently in danger of demolition. This paper follows DiGaetano and Strom's () analytical governance framework. This approach allows for deciphering the complexities of decision-making through a well-structured set of interdependent categories. In Guangzhou, new policies and institutions have been promoting the restructuring and have contributed to the formalisation of public-private interactions. In general, this indicates a shift towards a more corporatist governance. However, the study of T.I.T reveals a rather intricate picture: the policymaking remains influenced by a top-down authoritative style - sometimes in an arbitrary manner - and to some extent also by particularistic exchanges. This indicates a complex mode of urban governance consisting of increasingly corporatist elements but still with managerial, and to a lesser extent, clientelistic elements. Finally, the coexistence of different governance modes seems to be a typical outcome of China's transition while still remaining more adaptive, experimental and flexible in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares the economic progress of two countries, South Africa and China, in relation to the Lewis model. These economies are chosen because they have interesting similarities and also interesting differences. At the start of economic reform in China and with the advent of democracy in South Africa, both countries had surplus labour: they were at the first, labour‐surplus, stage of the Lewis model. It is shown that, since then, South Africa has continued to experience surplus labour: the unemployment rate has risen. By contrast, China's labour market is shown to have tightened, and there is evidence that China has entered the second, labour‐scarce, stage of the Lewis model. The difference lies in their growth rates. There are sections explaining why the South African economy has grown slowly and why the Chinese economy has grown rapidly, in relation to the growth of their labour forces. The Lewis model provides an enlightening framework for explaining how widely the fruits of economic development can be shared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on urban household survey data, the authors find that skill premia increased significantly across all regions of China between 1995 and 2002, but only in coastal regions between 2002 and 2007. By then, these regions also displayed much wider wage inequality and thus contributed more to overall urban wage inequality than non-coastal regions. While privatization was the main driver of skill premia in 1995-2002, China's (regionally uneven) integration into the global economy became the dominant influence in 2002-07. Reducing skill premia and inequality, the authors argue, calls for reform of the Hukou registration system which impedes skilled labour mobility and possibly also growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resumen A partir de datos de encuestas de hogares, los autores observan que las primas por calificación aumentaron en toda China entre 1995 y 2002, pero solo en las provincias costeras entre 2002 y 2007, año en que estas también registraron mayor desigualdad salarial y contribuyeron más a la desigualdad salarial urbana total. Según un modelo de efectos fijos estimado, la privatización explica la evolución del primer periodo, y la integración de China en la economía mundial, la del segundo. Reducir la desigualdad exige, según los autores, la reforma del Registro de Población Hukou, que obstaculiza la movilidad de los trabajadores calificados y posiblemente también el crecimiento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many questions regarding local economic phenomena involve issues of spatial and temporal dependence and heterogeneity. One of the main ideas of the socialist market economic system which was set up in 1978 in China is 'those becoming rich earlier bring along other people, all achieving the common richer eventually'. However, after several decades, having performed a series of balanced development strategies and policies, is this purpose true or not? How about the outcome of regional level of planning strategies under the socialist-market system? This paper focus on the intra provincial development, and uses per capita GDP of Guangdong, one of the most developed provinces in China to analyse the economic development of prefecture-level cities from 1978 to 2013 with a new exploratory space-time method. Three conclusions can be drawn as follows: first, the degree of regional economic development is gradually deepening along with rapid economic development in Guangdong province and the per capita GDP difference is gradually widening between the Pearl River Delta region and the non-Pearl River Delta region. The core-periphery relation is clear within the provincial level's development. Second, the trend and position of space-time paths are different across regions. Third, the space-time paths have not intersected across poor and rich regions during the last 33 years. Widening uneven development is concealed by the 'fast growth' economic phenomenon. The macro-economic environment has had some effects on different regions, with the effect on fast growing areas, such as the core region of the Pearl River Delta the most obvious. There is a lag effect on other undeveloped areas. At the same time, under the socialist market economic system, the market is the main motivation behind regional discrepancies, and some policies and strategies aimed at narrowing the gap have had limited success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that the rotation and promotion system of local political chiefs plays an important role in China's economic miracle. In this paper, however, we focus on the potential cost of the inherent frequent turnover of local chiefs. Based on a new manually collected dataset on prefectural‐level local chiefs between 1983 and 2012, our empirical results suggest that the turnover of the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chief would lead to a 0.48 percentage point decrease in the local GDP growth rate in the current year. This effect is especially concentrated on more government‐affected fields, such as domestic investments, consumption and government expenditures. We also provide evidence that organization friction, especially the successor CCP chiefs' unfamiliarity with the city, his/her new colleagues and/or the working conditions, is one of the major potential reasons for such a negative turnover effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When exploring the logic why some economies grow faster than others, previous studies commonly assume that all economies follow a universal growth path. This paper explores the heterogeneity of growth regimes across economies and then investigates the decomposition bias of growth sources in traditional methods. Using a panel data of China's provinces, the empirical results show that a finite mixture model with three classes is best to describe the data, revealing that there are multiple growth regimes across provinces. Also, some provinces switch regimes over time while the others remain stable. Further, neglecting heterogeneous regimes overestimates the importance of factor endowment and underestimates the importance of sector productivity, while it does not greatly influence the importance of of factor market efficiency. In particular, the decomposition bias embodies in physical capital and energy input rather than labor. Our findings indicate that the existing literature may underestimate the contribution of sector productivity. Thus, it is critical to account for heterogeneous regimes when exploring the sources of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of economic and development zones (EDZs) on the productivity of incumbent firms in China. To deal with the selection issue, I first take into account potentially different selection mechanisms across two popular types of EDZs—economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) and high‐tech development zones (HTDZs)—by relying on multiple treatment propensity scores matching techniques. Next, I apply the difference‐in‐differences estimator to the matched sample and conduct an event study analysis. The results show that the respective effects of ETDZs and HTDZs on firm productivity are positive, but subject to a nonlinear trend over time. The size of the productivity gains depends critically on the type of EDZ, however. A new HTDZ (ETDZ) leads to an average productivity gain of up to 30.2% (18.4%) for incumbent firms in the 5 years after the zone was created. These findings suggest that the size of productivity spillovers for spatially targeted firms differ quite significantly depending on the strategic development and policy goals of the EDZ: HTDZs that focus on promoting indigenous‐based factors of learning lead to higher productivity spillovers compared with ETDZs that focus on promoting extra‐local linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authoritarianism is regarded as being unaccountable for people's needs, but few studies have documented how authoritarian countries balance their policy goals. China is known to use a promotion system to incentivize local leaders to develop the economy, while neglecting social spending. This paper documents that more leaders having a liberal arts background have been promoted as top provincial leaders. After carefully ruling out other channels, we provide evidence that the shift of top provincial leaders' college educational backgrounds from science/technology to liberal arts/social science has increased fiscal expenditure shares on science, education, culture and public health and cut economic construction expenditures accordingly. The finding is mainly driven by the post‐1994 period, when local leaders had stronger incentives for economic growth. This indicates that Chinese top authorities are promoting more pro‐social local leaders when providing pro‐growth incentives in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the transition of rural industry in China, particularly changes in the recent decade following the privatization of collective enterprises. Based on fieldwork in a Jiangsu county and drawing on national data, the author shows that rapid urbanization has fundamentally altered the nature of rural industry, with previous village-based rural enterprises replaced by large industrial corporations and urban real estate. While urbanization seems to many an inevitable outcome of economic development, this paper argues and shows that the current form of urbanization in China has been driven by an unsustainable accumulation regime that prioritizes the needs of local revenue, real estate development and large capital at the expense of the previous broad-based rural industry. This is thrown into sharp relief by comparing with the accumulation regime based on local state corporatism during the early reform period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of income inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has attracted world-wide attention, leading to a sizable literature. This paper attempts to provide a nonexhaustive literature review of the PRC's inequality trends and determinants, and suggested government interventions. It discusses profiles of income inequality along three dimensions: interhousehold disparity, regional divides, and urban-rural gaps. This is followed by an exploration of the driving forces behind rising inequality, including the notorious hukou system, policy biases, location or geographic factors, globalization, and education. Finally, the paper summarizes and proposes government interventions for containing or reducing income inequality in the PRC. Important areas for future research are also suggested in the final section of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Has the Chinese economy approached the ‘Lewisian turning point’ that marks the ending of the initial phase of industrial transformation fuelled by surplus labour? In this paper we undertake an interpretative survey of the literature on this issue, in the context of China's labour market conditions prior to the reforms and structural change of the past three decades. The available evidence is mixed, and our assessment makes a strong case for probing institutional constraints to labour mobility from an economy‐wide perspective, going beyond the confines of the rural economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The service industry in China has been undergoing rapid growth, especially since the early 1990s. However, little research has been conducted regarding its characteristics, spatial patterns and dynamics. Based on the theories of economic growth, economic transition and urban hierarchy, this paper develops an analytical framework for elucidating the growth of the service industry in China. We find that cities with a high increment in the service industry tend to be located in coastal areas, and mainly constitute megacities and large, highly developed cities. Cities with higher administrative rank, such as centrally administrated municipalities, cities designated in the State Plan and provincial capitals, maintain relatively high growth in the service industry. It is concluded that China's economic transition and urban hierarchy play significant roles in the growth of the service industry, suggesting that service industry growth in China does not strictly adhere to growth patterns observed in Western countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Given the rapid development within China, the inequality of available water resources has been increasingly of interest. Current methods for assessing water stress are inadequate for province-scale rapid monitoring. A more responsive indicator at a finer scale is needed to understand the distribution of water stress in China. This paper selected Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Line-scan System night-time stable lights as a proxy for water stress at the province level in China from 2004 to 2012, as night-time lights are closely linked with population density, electricity consumption and other social, economic and environmental indicators associated with water stress. The linear regression results showed the intensity of night-time lights can serve as a predictive tool to assess water stress across provinces with an R2 from 0.797 to 0.854. The model worked especially well in some regions, such as East China, North China and South West China. Nonetheless, confounding factors interfered with the predictive relationship, including population density, level of economic development, natural resource endowment and industrial structures, etc. The model was not greatly improved by building a multi-variable linear regression including agricultural and industrial indicators. A straightforward predictor of water stress using remotely sensed data was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of Economic Zones in post-reform China and the recent export of zoning practices as a part of the country's 'going global' strategy. I propose 'worlding developmentalism' to conceptualise the synergy between a polymorphous yet capable state in directing the path of domestic growth and overseas ventures, and a population who actively captures emerging economic opportunities in transnational contexts. The concept is then substantiated by the promotion of Economic Zones under the Belt and Road Initiative and China-Africa Cooperation. The contested spaces produced in the Global South under these new development paradigms necessitate keen scholarly investigation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's total floating population exceeded 245 million at the end of 2013 and is the largest mobile population in the world. This paper explores the spatial distribution pattern and change characteristics of the net floating population at county scale from 2000 to 2010 using census data. The results show the following: (1) the net floating population increased by 120 million over 10 years, and the mobility of the population had enhanced in this period; (2) the floating population migrated to the three economic zones and provincial capital cities, while the traditional agricultural regions with dense populations experienced continuous outflow of population (which altered spatial agglomeration patterns); (3) eastern China has a high level of natural environment suitability and was a major destination area, but more pressures were placed on the carrying capacity of big cities; and (4) western China, with a relatively weak carrying capacity for resources and environment, was a net outflow region in 2010 - although five provinces had small-scale net inflow because of western-style development strategies. This study is offered as a contribution to understanding the features of China's floating population and will be useful for those shaping policies that guide population migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been heavily investing in transportation infrastructure since the 1990s. Consequently, connectivity has been significantly improved, both within China and between China and other countries. Such large-scale investments have been made possible by various financing mechanisms from the central government, local governments, and the private sector. Research findings generally indicate that these infrastructure investments bring economic prosperity to the country, affect the distribution of economic activities, reduce poverty to a certain extent, and promote economic integration. The future trends of connectivity changes in China and relevant policy recommendations are also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a political ecology framework that explores livelihood vulnerability, this paper analyzes commodification of grapes as an economic development strategy in Southwest China. Ethnographic research found that during the past decade, a majority of households within a village have converted fields to a monocrop of grapes, introduced by the government as part of a program to promote red wine from the region for tourism purposes. Villagers have been motivated to take part due to high economic returns but have found themselves living with less diversified sources of income and increasing use of agricultural chemicals. Villagers display concern for food security as they have moved away from growing subsistence crops and rely heavily on funds produced by grapes for subsistence. Questions are raised regarding long-term sustainability and the outlook of development programs targeting rural farmers as producers of high-value commodities being consumed by China’s growing middle and upper classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the performance of China's service trade over recent decades by summarizing and presenting data on its size, growth rate, sectoral composition, comparative advantage, and degree of openness. The evidence based on comparative analysis suggests that despite China's high growth rate, the development of China's service trade lags behind its merchandise trade. With a policy environment adjusted in China's 12th 5-Year Plan, a growing significance of China's service trade to both China and the global economy is likely under the prospective development strategy. China's service trade has already had large impacts on China's economic growth, employment, and technology diffusion. We suggest that even more major impacts will follow in the years to come and that there are implications for global trade, FDI, and labor migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation has been increasingly recognized as a critical force in national economic growth not only in developed countries, but also in emerging countries such as China and India. This paper provides a critical review of the literature related to China's innovation capability. First, I evaluate the current status of China's innovation capability as measured not only by the level of human capital and output of academic research but also by patents, products, and services that directly benefit economic growth. I then review the development pathway of China's national innovation system since the economic reforms, including policies, the role of the government, and the engagement of different actors in the national innovation system. Following that, I examine theories and empirical evidence that help to explain the evolution of China's innovation capability. Finally, using China's experience, I analyze the relationship between innovation capability and economic development and highlight how the uneven spatial distribution of innovation capability may affect China's regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal power is the main source of China's electricity supply. Improving total‐factor generation performance (TFGP) is essential for the development of this industry in the current deteriorating operating environment. This study adopts the meta‐frontier nonradial direction distance function approach to measure the static and dynamic TFGPs of the thermal power industry in China's 30 provinces in 2011–2019, and then discusses the regional distribution characteristics and the impact factors using spatial econometric model and Tobit regression method, respectively. Empirical results show that: (I) The TFGPs in central and west China are relatively close, but both are remarkably lower than that in east China. (II) The TFGPs in central and west China have generally remained stable since 2011, whereas that in west China has declined mainly because this region is more susceptible to the situation of electricity supply‐demand. (III) A significant spatial positive correlation exists among provincial TFGPs. High TFGP provinces are mostly in the eastern seaboard region and low TFGP provinces are in southwest China. (IV) Economic development, power structure, fuel prices, and environmental regulation have positive impacts on China's TFGP, while the impacts of technological innovation and energy endowment are not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cross-country panel data, this study identifies and discusses major factors contributing to China's strong growth in the past four decades. China's low initial per capita income relative to its own long-run potential, combined with sound policy factors including a high investment rate, strong human capital, high trade openness and improved institutions, enabled the economy to converge with advanced economies in terms of income level. The shift-share analysis with industry-level data shows that strong labour productivity growth in the manufacturing sector largely contributed to China's overall labour productivity growth. Although labour reallocation from agriculture to the services sector made a positive contribution to aggregate labour productivity growth, labour productivity growth in the services sector itself was negative over the 1980-2010 period. China's average potential GDP growth is predicted to decline significantly in the coming decade, to 5%-6% and fall further to 3%-4%-due to the convergence effect and structural problems-unless China substantially upgrades its institutions and policy factors and improves productivity, particularly in its services sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of China's foreign direct investment ( FDI) and export promotion policies has intrinsic elements not helpful with the original policy intent to generate spillovers to the wide Chinese economy. Applying panel estimation models to Chinese provincial-level data for 1993-2008, we examine the impacts of China's coastal FDI and exports on its inland regions. We find that the coastal FDI has overall positive inter-regional impacts, while the coastal exports do not. Cooperative joint ventures generate positive impacts, but little for wholly foreign-funded enterprises and even negative for equity joint ventures. The inter-regional impacts do not exhibit any significance and robustness across exporters' ownership status. We attribute these counter-intuitive findings to the protectionist behaviours of state-owned enterprises in equity joint ventures and the prevalence of processing exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bioeconomy drives the development of life science and biotechnology as a blueprint for the future development of human society, and offers a cross‐cutting perspective on the societal transformation towards long‐term sustainability and the transition away from the non‐renewable economy. Moreover, the sustainable bioeconomy strategies are consistent with the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and are becoming the centre of the achievement for SDG. The Chinese '14th Five‐Year Plan for Bioeconomy Development' (2021–2025), including the development goals of China's bioeconomy containing biomedicine, agriculture, bio‐manufacturing and bio‐security as a strategic priority, is discussed. The plan offers three pathways to improve bioeconomy, including technological innovation, industrialisation and policy supports. Finally, it concludes China's first bioeconomy development plan as a success, suggesting the key role of industrial biotechnology in bioeconomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linkage between political turnover and policy change has attracted considerable attention, but little empirical evidence and its impacts on regional development have been provided directly. In this study, we develop a set of indicators to directly quantify the within‐city place‐based policy changes in China between 2007 and 2017, based on the spatial distribution of city governments' industrial land supply. The results show city‐chief turnovers lead to significant changes in place‐based policies. A successor city chief typically gives up some previous place‐based policies immediately after taking office and implements new policies about 1 year later. In particular, successor chiefs with stronger promotion incentives make larger policy changes, to win more points in the competition with their predecessors. We also provide evidence that the place‐based policy discontinuity caused by political turnovers generates negative economic‐development impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a unique firm‐level dataset from 2007 to 2015, we investigated the characteristics and trends of China's economic development from the perspective of firm performance. We found that China's economic development in the recent decade has made the following achievements: less reliance on investment for growth, enterprises' deleveraging, a more competitive market environment and improvement in labour income distribution. Yet, it still faced severe challenges, such as increasing tax and fee burdens, high employment pressure, low total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate, and how to realize the coordinated development of the economy and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the existence of a rich literature on Chinese partial household division, there is still limited evidence of its effect on land and capital accumulation and well‐being. In this study, contrary to the dominant view, we find that household property size peaked around 1800s–1830s, suggesting that equal‐share system did not necessarily lead to land fragmentation. We find evidence that this rise in farm sizes is related to the opposing forces of increased well‐being and increased inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political trajectory of agribusiness firms called 'dragon head enterprises' in China's ongoing agri-food transformations. It starts from the premise that state and private elites in China are working together to consolidate a robust domestic agribusiness sector, as both an arena for national-level rural and economic development, and a new frontier for access to resources and markets abroad. Through analyses of policy documents, market share data and ethnographic materials, I explore the organization and operation of dragon heads in the pork sector. My findings reveal that agribusiness development in China's pork sector is largely domestic, has a mixed state-private form and tends to marginalize the foreign-based TNCs that have been the most powerful actors in the global agri-food system to date. I argue that China is not only a destination for 'external' transnational capital, but also a site of agribusiness development in its own right. This has important implications for analysing capitalist transformations and for engaging global agri-food politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The North Korean government has tried to promote export and attract foreign direct investment (FDI) since the 1990s. Sino‐North Korea trade values jumped during the 2000s, and China became North Korea's largest trade partner. China's FDI in North Korea began to increase abruptly since the late 2000s. The mining sector led China's investment in and import from North Korea. Although China has dominated any other country in FDI inflows and international trade with North Korea, the former's contribution to the economic development of the latter has not been so substantial in the light of the composition of international trade and FDI inflows. To materialise the potential of Sino‐North Korea trade and Chinese firms' investment in North Korea further, it is essential to improve North Korea's diplomatic relationship with China. In addition, the North Korean government needs to pay attention to upgrading the structure and composition of bilateral trade and FDI inflows from China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation may lead to undesired economic consequences. China has tightened its environmental policies to deal with severe environmental pollution in recent years, but existing studies pay little attention to the economic consequences of China's environmental policies. Using the panel data of 211 prefecture‐level and above cities in China from 2003 to 2016, we for the first time estimate the economic impact of the environmental protection admonishing talk (EPAT) policy, a newly implemented environmental regulation policy in China. We use the difference‐in‐differences strategy to identify the economic effects of the EPAT policy combined with the propensity score matching method to control a potential selection problem. The results show that a relative decline occurs in gross domestic product per capita in target cities after the implementation of the EPAT, and the negative impact is exerted on the secondary industry rather than the tertiary industry. Furthermore, we find that target cities respond to the environmental protection requirements of higher authorities through a one‐size‐fits‐all approach of limiting the production activities of industrial enterprises. Meanwhile, the EPAT policy does not improve environmental efficiency. Such findings are instructive for policymakers who need to trade off economic welfare and environmental quality when formulating and implementing new environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth has brought improvements in many areas of child health, but its effects on anaemia among school‐aged children remain unknown. However, this is important because iron deficiency anaemia is common and is the main cause of disability‐adjusted life years for school‐aged children. In this study, we included 429,222 Chinese children aged 7–17 years from five consecutive national cross‐sectional surveys during 1995–2014. Using altitude‐adjusted haemoglobin concentration measured from capillary blood samples, we defined anaemia status according to World Health Organization's recommendation. We used logistic regressions weighted by provincial population to examine the association between provincial gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and anaemia, adjusting for sex, age, urban–rural location, regional socio‐economic status (SES), fixed effect of province, and clustering of schools. We used generalised additive mixed models to evaluate a potentially non‐linear relationship. For each 100% growth in GDP per capita, there was a 40% (odds ratio [OR] = 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI; 0.56, 0.65]) reduction in anaemia. However, the association was weaker for girls and in cities with a lower SES. The association was weaker across 2005–2014 (OR = 0.75, 95% CI [0.62, 0.90]) compared with 1995–2005 (OR = 0.52; 95% CI [0.44, 0.61]), reflecting a weaker association when GDP per capita reaches around $2,000. The results were similar for moderate‐to‐severe anaemia. We concluded that economic growth has been associated with reductions in anaemia among school‐aged children in China but with fewer benefits for girls and those in poorer settings. Further economic development in China is unlikely to bring similar reductions in anaemia, suggesting that additional population level and targeted interventions will be needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The relationship between unequal fiscal resources among regions and China's economic growth remains unclear due to its possibly different short‐ and long‐run directions. This study considers the role of unequal fiscal resources among regions in China's economic growth. Purpose: The article develops an empirical model to investigate the effect of unequal regional distribution of fiscal resources on China's economic growth in the short and long run in the post‐reform period. Approach and Methods: A time‐series data during the 1979–2010 period is used, adopting the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach plus co‐integration with two indicators of inequality, the GINI coefficient (GINI) and coefficient of variance (CV), calculated from different components of provincial fiscal revenue. Six model specifications of the ARDL plus co‐integration equation are estimated. Findings: The primary finding is that, in the short run, China's regional fiscal distribution inequality has a negative one‐year lagged effect on its economic growth as the fiscal subsidy from central government is considered. However, the long‐run equilibrium relationship between fiscal inequality and economic growth in China is positive during the research period. Policy Implications: As China is pursuing sustainable economic growth and trying ultimately to achieve equal regional development, this study thus suggests that China should continue to support the principle of 'let some people grow rich first', perhaps implying that some regions should have more fiscal resources to develop successfully first. This will eventually benefit the country's overall economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to fight against the climate change, China has set a series of emission reduction policies for super‐emitting sectors. The cement industry is the major source of process‐related emissions, and more attention should be paid to this industry. This study calculates the process‐related, direct fossil fuel–related, and indirect electricity‐related emissions from China's cement industry. The study finds that China's cement‐related emissions peaked in 2014. The emissions are, for the first time, divided into seven parts based on the cement used in different new building types. The provincial emission analysis finds that developed provinces outsourced their cement capacities to less developed regions. This study then employs index decomposition analysis to explore the drivers of changes in China's cement‐related emissions. The results show that economic growth was the primary driver of emission growth, while emission intensity and efficiency were two offsetting factors. The changes in the construction industry's structure and improvement in efficiency were the two major drivers that contributed to the decreased emissions since 2014. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies report the growth effects from labor reallocation in China to be in the order of 1–2 percentage points per year, which would appear to be a significant fraction of China's per capita income growth. We show that the total factor productivity gains are an order of magnitude smaller, at only 0.25 percentage points per year. There are two reasons for this difference. First, the majority of studies have used a decomposition method that effectively assumes linear production functions. This results in values that are much larger than the more appropriate Denison–Kuznets method. Second, we also allow for sectoral differences in human capital. We conclude that the gains from labor reallocation may have been a far less important source of China's growth than is conventionally thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is simultaneously the world's biggest polluter, largest victim of pollution, and most ferocious fighter against pollution. So the question is: How can pollution be reduced to pave the way for the ecological civilisation of the future moderately affluent Chinese society? For China to play a leading role in escaping the global environmental crisis, for the benefit of its own population and the rest of the world, technological improvements and the greening of the economy, important as they are, will not suffice. More is needed in terms of limiting resource consumption, namely a reorientation from economic growth towards sustainable consumption and sufficiency. Improving efficiencies on all levels by technological and social innovations is a condition for this, as is a change of consumer aspirations from more to better, towards sufficiency and a good life. Chinese philosophical traditions and values offer anchoring points for such a green enlightenment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid economic growth and urbanization have contributed to increasing concerns around sustainable development in China. Although urban sustainable development is often comprised of environmental, economic, social and governance aspects, most empirical studies on the public perception of sustainability have exclusively focused on the environmental aspect. Using extensive survey data from three representative cities in Henan Province, China, this study is a first endeavor to examine how perceptions of urban sustainability performance and concerns vary by demographic and socio‐economic status of local residents. This study documents that familiarity with sustainable development concepts is positively associated with education, income, party affiliation and personal health of individuals, while negatively correlated with age. In addition, this study has shown that the most severe threats to sustainability as perceived by citizens are air pollution, corruption, income and education inequality, and excessive industrial production. At the same time, economic indicators such as unemployment, poverty and consumerism are considered lesser threats than social inequality or environmental pollution. Furthermore, residents generally view the sustainable development performance of their cities as mediocre. While generally younger residents and residents with higher levels of education tend to be more critical and long‐term residents tend to be more forgiving, results frequently show that concerns and attitudes towards sustainable development by various socio‐demographic groups differ from city to city. This is strong evidence to support independent local policies tailored to the socio‐demographics of each individual city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the links between commodity price bubbles and macroeconomic factors, with an application to the agricultural commodity markets in China from 2006 to 2014. Price bubbles are identified using a newly developed, recursive right-tailed unit root test. A Zero-inflated Poisson model is used to analyze the factors contributing to bubbles. Results show that (a) there were speculative bubbles in most Chinese agricultural commodity futures markets during the sample period, though their presence was infrequent; (b) economic growth, money supply, and inflation have positive effects on bubble occurrences, while interest rates have a negative effect; and (c) among all macroeconomic factors considered, economic growth and money supply have the greatest impact in triggering bubbles. Our findings shed new light on the nature and formation of bubbles in the Chinese agricultural commodity markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal mergers have become a worldwide phenomenon in the past few decades, primarily advanced to exploit economies of scale. While most evaluations of municipal mergers have focused on the efficiency of local public goods provision, it is rare in the literature to explore how such mergers promote economic growth in a developing country context. This research investigates the economic consequences of a policy experiment of city-county mergers ( che xian she qu) in China during the period 2000-2004. Using comprehensive datasets at city, county and firm levels, we present evidence that the merger significantly increases local economic development, and the magnitude of the effect depends on local endowments related to agglomeration forces. The results are robust to a number of different model specifications. We further verify that improved transport infrastructure and urban agglomeration economies after merger are potential contributors to the positive merger effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study estimates how highways affected industrial development in China's peripheral regions between 1998 and 2007, a period during which China experienced rapid growth in highway mileage. Highways between major cities pass through some counties but not others. Based on this difference in counties' access to highways, we conduct a difference-in-difference propensity score matching estimation, with the treatment variables being counties' highway connection status and their industrial performance before and after being connected to a highway. We find that highways promote industrial development in counties with higher output and greater investment levels. Moreover, highways have differential impacts across industries and regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]