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This article introduces a special issue on technological development and policy making in China, highlighting their importance for China's economic growth. It discusses the shift in China's economy from reliance on property sector investment and low-value manufacturing to a new paradigm based on technological innovation and internal market expansion. The article emphasizes the need for adaptive policy making and financing support for science and technology development to enhance productivity growth. It also explores the Augmented National Innovation System (ANIS) in China, the growth of the semiconductor industry, and the limitations of the fiscal system. The research papers in this collection provide insights into China's economic transformation and propose reforms to support its development. [Extracted from the article]

Chinese mammoth investment projects abroad, and especially those under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) umbrella, are receiving heavy scrutiny in academic and policy circles. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence to evaluate their impact. This paper employs a difference- in-differences approach and a pair of new datasets on government spending and economic activity compiled by the World Bank to examine the local impacts of the Chinese-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistan. It finds that the 2013 announcement of CPEC was accompanied by a disproportionate increase in government spending in CPEC districts. However, in the six years after it was first announced, CPEC has not directly contributed a significant increase in economic activity in the districts along its path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sino-Latin American trade have increased substantially for decades. However, the increasing trade imbalances between China and several Latin American countries have yielded growing trade frictions. In this paper, we re-calculate the bilateral trade balance using the value-added content in trade and measure the contribution of Sino-Latin American trade to economic growth. The results show that gross trade statistics seriously overestimate the real bilateral trade imbalance, and China's trade surplus with Mexico decreased by over 50%. The composition of Sino-Latin American trade suggests that most Latin American economies are complementary with Chinese economy. The South-South trade has been increasingly important for both China's and Latin America's economic development. We foresee an optimistic future of relations and continuously increasing trade between China and Latin America. Meanwhile, more efforts should be made to settle trade frictions and intensify Sino-Latin American relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study which reviewed research on marketing in China by examining publications in leading English language academic journals from 1978 to 1998. Transformation of China into a market oriented economy; Methodology; Results of the study.

This paper adopts five dimensions and 15 indexes of green development, people's life, innovation ability, economic vitality and coordinated development to establish an evaluation system of high-quality economic development. It uses principal component analysis to measure the economic high-quality development of 233 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2016, and empirically studies the impact of import sophistication on China's high-quality economic development. The results show that the increase in the sophistication of imported technology can significantly promote the high-quality development of the regional economy, and this effect is applicable to both imported intermediate and final products. In regions with higher and lower levels of economic development, eastern areas, and regions with high-quality development above 90% quantiles, the increase in imported technology content can significantly drive the high-quality development of the local economy. However, it has a great negative impact on the areas with a high-quality development index below 10% quantile. The robustness and endogeneity check support the above viewpoint. Further mechanism analysis shows that the final product import competition and intermediate product import spillover play a mediating role in the process of import sophistication affecting the high-quality economic development. The conclusion of this paper has important theoretical value and practical significance for the use of import trade to achieve high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies and demonstrates the change and continuity in China's science and technology (S&T) policy over 30 years. Firstly, we analyse and compare the two top-level S&T policies in 1985 and 2015 by applying institutional grammar (IG) in Chinese. To situate the policy analysis in the dynamic history, this paper then reviews the development of S&T-related policies from the late 1970s until now. By analysing the policy content and history, we find that policy-making with strong pragmatism continually sets S&T as the role of the engine of economic development. Meanwhile, the paradigm of how China governs S&T changed from decentralization and direct order to top-level design and indirect guide. In terms of the S&T policy framework, China grows into a holistic innovation policy (HIP) concentrating on demand-side and environment-side and soliciting more public sectors, from the linear model. These changes between the two eras do not happen suddenly but proceed gradually. During these, a significant shift that views innovation as a culture of comprehensive reforming forms HIP with Chinese characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade there has been renewed interest in the role of industrial strategy in enhancing innovation, productivity, and competitiveness within and across firms, sectors and regions with an eye to fostering more balanced regional economic growth. This special issue explores how policymakers could adopt place-based industrial policy measures to foster regional catch up and a more balanced and cohesive regional growth. In doing so, the papers are a mix of contributions that develop theory, provide evidence and highlight 'state of the art' or good practice that can inform a level playing field fostering regional industrial strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By decomposing the changes of carbon emissions into effects of economic growth, industrial structural change, technological change and energy structure change, the paper firstly discusses the contribution of each effect to China's carbon emission changes between 2020 and 2030, and forecasts China's total carbon emissions in 2030. In particular, the paper strengthens that a decrease in population and a significant slowdown in urbanization will significantly reduce the construction demand, the main driver for high growth of carbon emissions in China, and provide a relatively favorable economic environment for China to achieve carbon peaking by 2030. The paper then discusses on how to achieve the "dual carbon" goals with the lowest possible economic cost by relying on market and price mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of technological finance on high-quality economic growth. Based on data of 30 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) collected between 2004 and 2018, this paper adopts the method of factor analysis to construct comprehensive indexes of technological finance, before calculating green total factor productivity as the index of high-quality development, using the CRS Multiplicative Model. Then it constructs the spatial SAC model, for analyses of the just-mentioned relationship based on the total sample of the nation as well as regional samples in eastern, middle and western China respectively. The results reveal that all samples, whether it be the total national samples or regional samples of eastern, middle and western China, demonstrate the positive influence of technological finance on high-quality economic development, with an obvious spatial spillover effect. The impact factor is the highest in the eastern region, while the western region holds the lowest factor among the three. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since its industrialization, China has been continuously promoting environmental governance, and it is worth studying whether this measure has been effective. In this paper, we use industrial pollution control to represent China's environmental governance. Further, we use growth drag caused by energy consumption to describe a win-win situation for energy conservation and economic development. This paper theoretically analyzes the impact of environmental governance on growth drag by incorporating the former into the growth drag model. Thereafter, using data from 283 cities for the period between 2003 and 2017, this paper applies the dynamic panel data model to investigate whether China's industrial pollution control can achieve a win-win situation and its transmission mechanism. The results show that industrial pollution control can alleviate growth drag, implying that China's environmental governance can achieve a win-win situation. However, the effect is more significant in Eastern China and areas with high industrial pollution control intensity. The transmission mechanism analysis shows that industrial pollution control achieves a win-win situation by improving technological innovation, promoting human capital accumulation, and optimizing manufacturing development, of which improving technological innovation is the most significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance development is a comprehensive system with three aspects interacted: economic, environmental, and financial activities. Based on its internal mechanism, this paper constructs an evaluation system of green finance development, which fills the absence of existing studies on green finance development. The internal development of green finance is transformed into three subsystems by PSR (Pressure-State-Response) model, and the evaluation scores are calculated by the entropy weight method. As the applications of the evaluation system, the horizontal comparison and vertical trend of green finance development in different regions of China from 2004 to 2017 are analyzed, and the relationship between green finance and sustainable energy development can also be quantitatively analyzed. The results show that sustainable energy development can be promoted through the development of green finance, using various measures in dimensions of economic development, financial development, and environmental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the special issue on finance and economic development in China which will be published in June 2011 is presented.

Sci-tech and finance plays an increasingly important role and have become an important driving force in economic development. In China, the problem of insufficient financial support for sci-tech innovation is important to enterprises. According to the internal relationship between different stages of Sci-tech and the finance system, this paper is aimed at exploring the efficiency measurement method between sci-tech and finance systems. Firstly the multi-stage collaborative structure of sci-tech finance is built, where the system of sci-tech is divided into three stages including the R&D stage, transformation stage of sci-tech achievements and industrialization stage, and the financing channel is the input of the finance system into the sci-tech system at different stages. The measurement method of the multi-stage collaborative efficiency between sci-tech and finance systems is put forward by the framework of network DEA. Then, taking China as an example, we collect the information of 30 provinces and cities from 2009 to 2016 and measure the efficiency of each system and the collaborative efficiency of the both. The efficiency's spatial correlation is tested by means of Moran index. Finally, the influencing factors of the collaborative efficiency are analyzed based on the spatial econometric regression model, which considers the financing channels and human capital. To sum up, there are significant differences in the sci-tech finance collaborative efficiency among regions in China. Among them, the collaborative efficiency of Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu ranks in the top three. Comparing the different stages of the sci-tech system, the commercialization stage is a weak link in many regions of China. Human capital and financing channels of sci-tech finance have different degrees of positive impact on the sci-tech finance collaborative efficiency. Among them, human capital plays a greater role in promoting the sci-tech finance collaborative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's increasingly developed high-speed railways (HSR) network has been found to have important influences on economic development, but analysis of its effect on individual income is inadequate. Based on the data of Chinese Household Income Project Survey (CHIP07 and CHIP13) and China's HSR data, this paper examines HSR's influence on residents' income and the underlying mechanism. Using the difference-in-differences (DID) approach, we document that the connection of HSR network increases both urban and rural residents' income. Besides, to address the potential endogeneity, we construct the least cost path spanning tree network to be served as an instrumental variable (IV) of HSR and the results confirm the reliability of the conclusion. What's more, a HSR-induced industrial restructuring mechanism is revealed by further study, and those who received the higher education is proved to benefit most from HSR. Therefore, education turns out to be an effective way to enhance HSR's income effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been able to deploy electric vehicles at an unprecedented speed and scale. This paper explores the underlying policies during six years of sector formation, and it identifies a change in policy-regime after three years. The analysis of evolution of the policy-regimes indicates that creating, transferring, and sharing knowledge among the principal actors was key to catching up. The changing policy-regime enabled a minimum threshold of technology development required for deployment. Nevertheless, it was insufficient for pushing the sector to the global technology frontier. Key to the sector's relative success was the government's responsiveness to sectoral development and its ability to address production, demand, and knowledge issues simultaneously. In addition, it created synergies between policies designed to address environmental concerns and foster economic development concurrently. However, fast deployment required heavy subsidies and important policy initiatives came with potential pitfalls that may hamper international competitiveness of the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patriotic campaigns and mass mobilization draw on existing xenophobic attitudes of the public, reinforcing the 'us vs. them' dualism between China and 'the West'. However, patriotic campaigns are not always top-down, state-led, nor are they always primarily driven by political ideology. Patriotic content appeals to a growing nationalist audience who consumes a mixed feeling of perceived victimization at the hand of foreign aggression and the pride arising from being a Chinese citizen. This paper argues that the profitability of patriotic content circulating on social media exacerbated the tension between market-driven grassroots patriotism and state-led patriotic campaigns. The tension grows out of, and is manifested in, the online popular debate around economically driven, grassroots 'patriotic' content that can challenge the state state-led patriotic rhetoric. While the state sometimes strategically co-opts some patriotic contents into its own patriotic narratives, it also delegitimises other undesired ones through labels such as 'high-level black' (gaoji hei) or 'low-level red' (diji hong). These labels were initially used to differentiate meticulously crafted political satire and parody from incompetent, illogical and vulgar propaganda pieces that unintendedly blemish the state's patriotic campaigns, but later evolved into an exercise of power to distance the CCP from undesired patriotic content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial inclusion (that is, access by individuals to the services provided by financial institutions such as banks, insurance, and investment firms) is a key condition for economic development, and forms one of the principal policy instruments in China for the promotion of rural-urban integration. Using data from the China Household Financial Studies (2013), this paper investigates the determinants of financial inclusion at the household level in China. Focused on the role of the Chinese household registration system (hukou), this paper proposes a new hukou typology to investigate the composite index of financial inclusion as well as the six indicators. Multilevel estimates reveal substantial differences of financial inclusion among different hukou holders; significant cross-level associations between hukou and economic development is also found, revealing the complex and non-linear relationship between hukou and financial inclusion. These findings shed light on the potential for market failures and two types of discrimination based on hukou system, which deny access to financial services to groups of people. Research implications on how to increase financial inclusion are mentioned and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of frequent international trade frictions, reducing external risks in export trade through industrial policies has become crucial for China's high-quality and steady foreign trade development. This paper examines the impact of development zone upgrading policies on the diversification of firm product exports by using a time-varying difference-in-differences model. We find that after the upgrading of development zones, the diversification of firm product exports increases by 2.13%, and concentration decreases by 1.33%. Moreover, this policy has a stronger impact on the diversification level of product exports for firms upgraded to customs special supervision areas, located inland, and engaged in general trade. These conclusions remain robust even after conducting additional robustness tests using alternative measures of the dependent variable, different identification methods for development zone upgrading, and controlling for other industrial policy effects. Furthermore, the upgrading of development zones improves export diversification through three main channels: enhancing firm innovation capabilities, optimizing management efficiency, and providing financial support to firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revealing regional differences and evolutionary patterns is a crucial component of studying digital trade development. This paper constructs an evaluation index system for digital trade development and assesses the level of digital trade development in mainland China of 30 provinces from 2013 to 2020. Using methods such as Dagum Gini coefficient, this study investigates the differences in regional development and the spatial dynamic evolution of digital trade development. The findings indicate that (1) while the overall level of digital trade in China is increasing, it manifests unbalanced growth. Additionally, inter-regional difference, as opposed to intra-regional difference, account for the primary source of digital trade development difference, contributing an annual average of 71.699%. (2) The kernel density distribution of digital trade is gradually narrowing. The absolute difference in the level of digital trade development between China and the four regions (east, central, west, and northeast) is progressively diminishing over time. (3) The Moran's I index is positive, indicating a strong spatial correlation among digital trade development. In the eastern and western regions, there are 'high-high' and 'low-low' clusters between adjacent provinces; the dynamic transfer of digital trade levels occurs between provinces of adjacent levels, demonstrating the positive effect of proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between culture, history, government policies and the development of economic institutions. Specifically, the paper discusses the impact that history and culture, including the influence of Confucianism, have played in shaping the economic institutions of South Korea and the People's Republic of China. Research results indicate that culture, history and government policies all played a role in shaping the organizational structure of these two East Asian nations. However, China's economic landscape is dominated by small and medium-sized, family-oriented firms, particularly in the rural parts of the country. The South Korean economic landscape, on the other hand, is dominated by large conglomerate firms called Chaebols which are also dominated by one family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation plays a vital role in economic development. This paper examined the effect of state ownership on firm innovation as well as the moderating roles of R&D capability and marketization by Chinese firm-level data from Chinese Industrial Enterprises (2008–2011) and listed companies (2007–2016). The theoretical and empirical study verified that state ownership positively influences firm innovation, and firm's R&D capability and the degree of marketization have significant positive moderate effect. The result was robust in a series of checks such as using lagged data, adopting alternative identification methods and variables, and using independent replication. The conclusion provided implications for the management of Chinese firms. The unique innovation pattern of Chinese firms also provided enlightening experience to other emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing openness contributes to economic growth in developing countries, but the endogeneity problem impedes drawing this conclusion. This paper uses the constructed trade share to circumvent the effects of endogeneity according to a method proposed by Frankel and Romer. The results demonstrate that increasing openness has a positive impact on provinces' GDP and GDP per capita. In addition, an increase in lagged openness is beneficial for present economic growth, and even openness gained many years ago, which is measured by the number of treaty ports, makes a difference in present economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the extent to which the official Chinese discourse of Ecological Civilisation (shengtai wenming) is adhered to in practise. Ecological Civilisation (or Eco-Civilisation) is presented as a Chinese vision of human progress which purports to de-couple economic development from environmental degradation. Underpinning the idea are five overlapping pillars (environment, economy, society, culture and governance) which, it is claimed, provide a theoretical framework to promote harmony between humanity and nature. Advocates see the concept as an example of a new Chinese modernity based on socialist values and President Xi Jinping has declared China a torchbearer of the global endeavour for Eco-Civilisation. However, our paper casts doubt over this assertion when applied specifically to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Although there is some evidence of a commitment to the principles of Eco-Civilisation, we identify a number of substantial and interlinking practical shortfalls relating to three core themes: inclusion, enforcement and transparency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinions differ among academics concerning the relationship between the Confucian ethic and China's economic development. This research reveals that the Confucian ethic originated from the practical demand for guaranteeing the smooth operation of households. Later, it developed into a coordinator between the government and individuals, thus bringing about the institutional compromise between the family system and bureaucracy, which is the foundation of the market system specific to China. In the future, the successful development of a market economy will be largely dependent on whether an institutional equilibrium between the government and market forces can be reached, and this will be strongly related to the Confucian ethic. This paper holds that Confucianism involves inherent conflicts between the macro and the micro level. At the macro level, Confucianism sets very high standards for wealth and morals, but at the micro level it pays little attention to how to create wealth. Accordingly, for the ongoing market reform, it is rational to continue introducing Protestant ethics-oriented Western systems since they are more advantageous in terms of increasing wealth accumulation. However, this process lacks stability and inclusiveness and is thus prone to the separation of wealth from morals. This is exactly where Confucianism should step in. This paper concludes that the long separation of wealth accumulation from the Chinese cultural traditions has become the biggest obstacle to China's economic growth. In the face of intensified social and economic conflicts, the only appropriate option is to revive tradition and root the reform in China's own cultural soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) announced in 2015, is a $60 billion package of Chinese-led investment in roads, railways, energy, and industry. It is part of China's new Eurasia-wide Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The likely impact of CPEC is controversial. Some scholars argue that CPEC will generate prosperity, regional equality and rapid economic growth in Pakistan. Other scholars argue, however, that CPEC will lead to debt and to the economic and political subordination of Pakistan to China. The existing discussion of CPEC has a near exclusive inward-looking focus on Pakistan. Some scholars, mainly from outside of Pakistan, have looked in more detail at China, but principally from an international relations perspective. Missing from all of this discussion is how economic change in China, particularly in western China, will influence the likely economic outcome of the CPEC. This paper makes an effort to begin to fill this gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper explains the mechanism that causes the two motions of intergenerational mobility, monotonic motion and cyclical motion. Increasing longevity encourages incentives for education investment while decreasing transfers, which is the funding source for education. If longevity increases slowly, mobility increases monotonically. However, if longevity increases rapidly with economic development, mobility is cyclical owing to a largely decreasing transfer. This result is consistent with the empirical evidence in the literature on intergenerational mobility. In fact, China, where longevity increased rapidly, experienced a cyclical motion of mobility, whereas Norway, where longevity increased slowly, has experienced a monotonic motion of mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of carbon price in emissions trading schemes (ETS) is an important issue in China in the context of its ambitious climate change goals. This paper adopts a staggered difference-in-differences model to estimate whether China's ETS reduced CO2 emissions while maintaining economic growth even under low carbon prices. The results indicate that despite the low carbon prices, the ETS effectively reduced CO2 emissions without undermining the economy. Specifically, an increase of $1 in the carbon price reduced CO2 emissions by 1.69% and increased the per capita GDP by $286. The carbon price primarily achieved emission reduction and promoted economic development through channels, such as technological innovation, foreign direct investment, energy mix, and industrial structure. Carbon leakage to neighboring regions was not evident. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the environmental effects of the carbon price were more pronounced in regions with higher levels of economic development and CO2 emissions. Conversely, the economic effects of the carbon price were more pronounced in regions with lower levels of economic development and CO2 emissions. The carbon price achieved significant economic effects in regions that solely adopted the free allocation mode of emission allowances, while regions that used a combination of free allocation and auctioning experienced substantial emission reduction effects. Despite low carbon prices, China's ETS effectively reduced CO2 emissions without compromising economic growth. This finding provides new empirical evidence for the effectiveness of carbon price as well as decision support for the future promotion of ETS. Technological innovation, FDI, energy mix, and industrial structure are crucial channels through which the carbon price achieves emission reduction and promotes economic development. The absence of carbon leakage to neighboring regions suggests that ETS is an internally effective mechanism for emission control. Heterogeneity analysis showed that regional characteristics and allowance allocation modes can influence the effectiveness of carbon price, thus emphasizing the importance of targeted policy design and appropriate allocation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic development fails to greatly increase demand for liberal democracy in China. Is China an exception to modernization theory? If so, why? This paper studies these questions by analysing five waves of Asian Barometer Survey data from 2002 to 2019. We have three major findings. First, the shift of political values exhibits an inverted U-shaped curve with the mid-2010s as its turning point. Second, the better educated and more media exposed turned conservative much faster than the rest after the mid-2010s. Third, to trace the mechanism of this unusual reversal and divergence, we resort to a Difference-In-Differences model, taking political indoctrination, measured by media exposure and education, as treatment and the post-2013 era as treatment time, finding that political indoctrination significantly explains political cultural backsliding. Our findings enrich modernization theory by identifying the "interceptive" power of the state between economic development and cultural shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty-stricken areas in China have the dual task of alleviating poverty and safeguarding national ecological security. Based on statistical surveys and satellite remote sensing data, we construct a staggered difference-in-difference model to empirically analyze the dual impact of poverty alleviation on the economic development and eco-environment of poverty-stricken areas. This study also examines viable pathways for economic development in poor areas in the context of ecological conservation. The results show that the poverty eradication campaign under the leadership of the Communist Party of China has significantly improved the rate of economic growth in poverty-stricken areas while also significantly improving the quality of the local eco-environment. Further analysis shows that ecological projects and ecological compensation make the greatest contribution to promoting the conversion of ecological resources into economic output in poverty-stricken areas. China's successful experience in green poverty alleviation can not only provide important policy enlightenment for the nation's continuation of its comprehensive revitalization drive in rural areas, but also provide new options for other developing countries to achieve their green take-off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of the regional economic environment and technology diffusion on China's regional total factor productivity (TFP) growth. We build a model of TFP growth in which Chinese regions achieve growth in TFP by making use of technology spillovers from the world technology frontier. We hypothesize that given the world frontier level of TFP, China's regional TFP growth is positively related to regional openness and negatively related to the current level of regional TFP. Empirical analysis in this paper of 29 province-level regions in China strongly supports our hypothesis. By using a nonlinear least squares regression method, we show that regional openness has a significantly positive effect on regional TFP growth. As a by-product, we also estimate a value of the output elasticity of capital that conforms to its traditionally accepted values. The findings of this paper lend strong support to the claim that the opening up process of China promotes the country's economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road (B&R) initiative was introduced by the Chinese government to promote the worldwide economic development and multilateral cooperation between China and the associated countries. As a crucial part of global supply chains, transportation plays a key role to ensure the implementation of the B&R. Safety is one of the issues with great importance in transportation research. However, its foci have been expanded from traditional risk through security to resilience and sustainability. Resilience has attracted considerable interests from both researchers and practitioners across different research domains in recent years. Various studies have been conducted on transportation resilience from different perspectives. Consequently, different definitions have been developed to define and describe resilience. This paper presents a systematic review on transportation resilience with emphasis on its definitions, characteristics, and research methods applied in different transportation systems/contexts. It aims to figure out what transportation resilience is and what kind of essential characters it usually has. More importantly, research challenges are analysed and a future research agenda on the resilience of transportation systems is proposed. This paper will provide comprehensive insights into understanding the transportation resilience, as well as establish new horizons for relevant research topics within the context of the B&R. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpretations of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) mostly agree that it is a policy opening that offers some remedies for China's economic and security challenges, as well as reflects China's increasing regional and global ambitions. This paper argues that the multiple drivers characterizing the BRI result from the multiple identities of China as a developing country struggling with several sources of instability and macroeconomic problems and, simultaneously, a regional and an emerging power, and finally a major global power with significant economic capacity to shape the global economic order. The paper aims to substantiate the entanglement of the defensive and ambitious motivations behind the BRI by examining the background against which the Chinese Communist Party leadership has suggested it. In so doing, it draws on Chinese official policy documents and statistics, speeches from Chinese leaders and existing social-scientific research on the transformation of China's economic and political landscape in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevailing narratives in the discourse on China-Africa engagement are that China is developing Africa. This paper departs from those narratives because they disregard the agency of Africa's political elite. Basing its argument on the nature of the African political elite, the paper analyses their role in determining the impact of China's economic and trade engagement on economic development in their respective countries. To do that, it first discusses the nature and identity of African political elites, and examines how they control their states and scarce resources. Having done that, the paper then analyses their role in determining the nature and extent of development emanating from their countries’ economic engagement with China. It then concludes that it is not how much foreign states invest in African countries that determines Africa's rise, but rather political elites who influence the direction of their states’ development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past 30 years, Jiangsu Province in China has achieved great feats regarding its export trade; however, its export trade growth rate has not only been showing a recent downward trend but also great fluctuations. Hence, the competitiveness of Jiangsu Province's export products seems to have weakened. Through an empirical analysis, we demonstrate the relationship between financial development and export trade in Jiangsu Province, showing that the influence of financial development on the growth and the structure of provincial export trade is relatively weak. Thus, we believe that provincial financial development lacks coordination with export trade, requiring further efforts from actors at coordinating both. This paper puts forward relevant suggestions that may facilitate stakeholders to promote the steady development, transformation, and improvement of Jiangsu Province's export trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of digital financial inclusion on illegal fundraising activities in China. From the China Judgments Online website, we extract data of criminal court cases of illegal fundraising from 2013 to 2019, during which both the illegal fundraising court cases and the development of digital finance displayed a rising trend. We then evaluate if digital financial inclusion may have worsened illegal fundraising activities. We find that digital financial inclusion has a positive effect on illegal fundraising activities. This effect remains robust under alternative measures of the intensity of illegal fundraising activities and when instrumental variable estimations are used to tackle potential endogeneity problems. Furthermore, convenient banking services are an important channel through which digital financial inclusion exerts its positive impact on illegal fundraising. Therefore, while active promotions of digital finance could benefit economic development, it is also necessary to timely improve the supervision of emerging finance to guard against financial risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why China's economy growing rapidly under the conditions of long-term financial asset shortage, and what's the relationship between supply-demand of financial asset and economic development? This paper obtains some conclusions from mathematical model and empirical test analysis. Firstly, shortage of financial assets is the result of adjustment of financial supply and demand, rather than the direct cause of restricting economic development. Secondly, increasing financial assets supply will promote economic growth, and financial asset from China's banking sector, such as Credit, Bonds, are more effective than capital markets. Thirdly, when financial asset shortages exist, increasing supply can achieve additional growth to enhance economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do states pursue industrial policies in the context of China's rise? Examining Indonesia and Malaysia's mineral processing sectors, we argue that these countries illustrate two different pathways that states take to bolster their industrial policies. Indonesia has followed the leading sector strategy to increase domestic nickel processing capacity and decrease reliance on resource exports. Chinese firms and the Indonesian government built the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park to house nickel smelters, fostering a new leading sector. Chinese capital in smelting follows what Albert Hirschman has called 'intermediate investments', maximising forward and backward linkages across the Indonesian economy. In contrast, Malaysia has followed the dual economy strategy, where semi-finished goods are imported and assembled into finished ones to be exported abroad. Chinese firms and the Malaysian government established the Malaysia–China Kuantan Industrial Park to import, process and export steel products. However, due to the dual economy strategy, the industrial park impairs the activities of domestic steelmaking companies and inhibits the potential build-up of smelting capacity. In sum, through an examination of an industrial park in each country, our paper connects the literatures on industrial policy and Chinese capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies the incomplete contracts model to study an optimal banking structure corresponding to different levels of technological development from the perspective of technological innovation. The findings indicate that, with the development of technology, there exists an optimal banking structure that matches the real economy and has a dynamic evolution in different stages of economic development. At the same time, an optimal banking structure depends on the level of technological development, which seems to render invalid the argument that one structure is absolutely better than the other. Finally, the paper empirically analyzes the impact of banking structure on technological innovation using the data of China's industrial enterprises from 2005 to 2009. The empirical results show firstly that, with economic development and technological progress, an optimal banking structure that promotes technological innovation is biased towards a monopoly structure. Secondly, from the perspective of the sub-regional level of technological progress, a competitive banking structure is more conductive to technological innovation in low-tech areas but, in medium- and high-tech areas, a monopolistic banking structure will further promote technological innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial policy (IP) toward technology innovation (TI) is a focus of the US trade war against China. The US is forcing China to stop IP uses in promoting TI that directly threaten the US technology leaders, like its reaction to China's plan of "Made in China 2025". Does China have too many IP? Does the US use IP? What TI patterns affect IP? This paper develops the following points as conclusions: (a) Due to market failures, all countries implement IP in their economic development; (b) original innovation (OI) involves a lot of risks and uncertainties such that entrepreneurship rather than government plays a key role, while imitation innovation (II) is much less risky and uncertain so that more rooms are left for IP; (c) technology-leading countries like the US has to conduct OI to maintain their advantages, and catching-up countries like China do more II, thus more IP are adopted in China than the US; and (d) the US engaged substantially IP in the history and is deploying various IP to meet challenges from China; and (e) economic and political institutions matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two sources of economic interaction are knowledge spillover and technical diffusion. This paper proposes a structural model with spatial effect in knowledge spillover and technical diffusion and empirically estimates the sources of economic interaction. The empirical results demonstrate that economic interaction mainly comes from knowledge spillover, and the effect of technical diffusion is weak. These results appeal for special attention to be paid to enhancing the effect of technical diffusion on long-term economic growth. Moreover, the knowledge spillover effect within China is only slightly larger than that in the global setting, implying existence of barriers, particularly institutional impediments, to economic interaction in China. The findings of this paper strongly call for the removal of China's hukou system and local protectionism, which restrict factor mobility across space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital misallocation is a main obstacle to China's economic development. This paper deploys a quasi-natural experiment formed by the 'Revitalization Plan for Ten Industries' (RPTI) and examines the impacts that selective industrial policies have on capital misallocation. It is found that the RPTI significantly exacerbates capital misallocation and that the effect does not disappear when the RPTI ends. Mechanism analysis indicates that the RPTI significantly increases the capital productivity of firm groups with high capital productivity but significantly reduces the capital productivity of firm groups with low capital productivity. This can be further interpreted by a decrease or an increase of inefficient investment and financial constraints faced by the corresponding firm groups. The documented relationship is stronger in state-owned enterprises and in firms located in areas of high marketization. Our findings advance the understanding of governmental policy intervention in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the trade data of digitizable products exported by China to the 65 'Belt and Road' countries from 1998 to 2018, this study adopts the extended trade gravity model to analyze the impact of ICT on the country's exports of these products. The empirical results show that ICT has a significant and positive effect on the development of trade of digitizable products and it also promotes China's exports by lowering trade costs and accelerating innovation. The paper provides new evidence on information and technology's impact and influential mechanisms with regard to new trade patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue comprehensively researches China's financialization and examines the transformation of its development model, state development corporations, local government bonds, productivity, and the extent and characteristics of financialization. While it is widely known that the state plays an important role in enabling and constraining financialization, these papers further reveal that China's financialization originates from the state's deployment of financial approaches to urban and regional development under state entrepreneurialism. Through internalizing financial logic into the state development system, the expansion of financial operations reflects the state's developmental intention and increases its governance capability. Thus, financialization is not a unidirectional process but involves extensive state involvement and participation in finance, to such an extent that it often simultaneously evolves into greater interference and de-financialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial agglomeration and green economic growth have become a trend in global financial and economic development. This paper analyzes the impact mechanism of financial agglomeration on green economic growth from two angles: growth promotion and energy conservation/emission reduction. Based on the Slacks Based Model-Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA) of undesired outputs, the green economic growth efficiency of 30 regions in China from 2008 to 2017 was measured. The study uses a spatial measurement model and finds that financial agglomeration has a significant positive effect on green economic growth. The specific manifestation is that with a 1% increase in the level of financial agglomeration, the productivity of green total factor increases by about 0.1837% and 0.0964% green economic growth in neighboring areas. Further analysis shows that this improvement in green total factor productivity is mainly achieved through technological advancement that promotes coordinated economic growth, energy saving and emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between China's changing economy and its global business tax diplomacy. Three trends dominate: China is becoming a net capital exporter, emerging as a major consumer market, and is home to digital giant firms including Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba. The resulting drive to promote both 'going out' and 'bringing in' foreign direct investment has led China to engage selectively and strategically with Western-led institutions. We show how China variously challenges, defends, and develops alternatives to global tax standards in three cases: global efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance, bilateral tax treaty negotiations, and administrative tax cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a thorough analysis to quantify the financing needs in the Belt and Road countries during 2009 and 2014. By examining financial constraints using financial data of firms in the Belt and Road countries, this study constructs a Financing Needs Index for Belt and Road countries and highlights the characteristics of financing needs across 36 countries and 6 years. By further incorporating information from World Bank Enterprise Surveys, this paper builds an Augmented Financing Needs Index for 56 Belt and Road countries. The findings of this paper provide important policy implications by showing that countries can improve their financial liberalization and institutional environment to address the financing needs of their indigenous firms and thus achieve economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ports are an important driving force for world economic growth, but they consume considerable energy. The marine sector has proposed the development of green ports to achieve low-carbon sustainable development. This paper presents a green project scheduling model of port construction to optimize comprehensive economic and environmental efficiency. Various realistic constraints are considered, including investment scale, energy savings, emissions reduction, and project priority. Comprehensive efficiency involves cost reduction, energy savings, emissions reduction, and other efficiency goals. The problem is formulated as an integer program and is solved using CPLEX in a general algebraic modeling system (GAMS). We use a representative port in China as a case port in solving its green project scheduling. The results show that the port can save 6,527 tons of standard coal, reduce 40,875 tons of CO2, and save 49 million yuan per year in the five-year implementation period. The payback in investing in these green projects is less than six years. From an economic and environmental perspective, the comprehensive efficiency achieved is significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]