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The Rio Declaration of 1992 called for states to integrate environmental protection in their process of development in order to achieve the ultimate goal of sustainable development (Principle 4). The paper investigates to what extent the People's Republic of China (PRC) has integrated environmental protection into her fisheries policy. The environment/development nexus is analysed in relation to the adoption and implementation of the Fisheries Law of 2000. Official documents and, more importantly, interviews conducted in several organizations at multiple levels of governance disclose a complex reality beyond the formal commitment to sustainable fisheries. Diverging interests, goals and strategies can be traced beyond formal policy documents in Beijing, Guangdong and between the Centre and the Province. Inter-organizational divergences at the central and local levels, as well as between them, hinder the pursuit of environmental protection in the development of China's fisheries sector. The paper highlights the political complexity of pursuing more responsible fisheries in the multi-actor and multi-level political-administrative system of the PRC. Here, as well as in many other developing countries, economic development constitutes the policy priority. Environmental protection often remains not only an ambitious objective but also an unperceived need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts, through a comparative analysis, to assess the significance of foreign direct investment to the growth and development of both China and India, from the period following the introduction of economic reform programmes, to the last few years. It suggests that foreign direct investment (FDI) has had a significant positive bearing on the Chinese economy and a considerably more moderate effect on that of India. This discrepancy is attributed, in particular, to the composition and nature of FDI, and the institutional framework within which FDI is received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incorporating asymmetric cost and benefit of supplying excess liquidity into an otherwise standard time inconsistency model, this paper offers an explanation of the excess liquidity and housing price booms recently experienced in China. We find that the central bank's incentive to stimulate economic growth with excess liquidity fuels real estate prices and accelerates inflation bias. Therefore, the central bank should free itself from the pressure to achieve an economic growth rate higher than the potential level, and assign an appropriate weight to the real estate price fluctuations in the central bank's objective function, so that the central bank's policy of stimulating economic growth with excess liquidity can be constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the trade of China in the past 150 years, starting from the first opening of China after the Opium War. The main purpose of the paper is to identify what is (and was) China's 'normal' level of foreign trade, and how these levels changed under different trade regimes, from 1840 to the present. We present new evidence on China's foreign trade during the treaty port era (1842-1948), drawn from disaggregated trade data collected by the Chinese Maritime Customs Service, that yields important findings for current research. First, although the volume of foreign trade remained limited initially, there was a notable expansion in the diversity of products, with many new goods being imported into China. Second, the regional diffusion of foreign goods through China was greatly facilitated by the expansions of the port system. Third, the importance of Hong Kong as an intermediary in China's trade has undergone long-term fluctuations suggestive of learning effects. China's recent wave of liberalization has led by the early 1990s to a trade level comparable to the high of the 1920s. While much of China's recent growth in world trade is in line with her income growth, there is no doubt that China's trade openness today, comparable by some measures to Denmark's, is a stunning reversal relative to the pre-1978 and also the pre-1840 period. The paper emphasises the roles that history and institutional change have played in this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and tests a series of sources of regional variations in self-employment rate in China in the 2000s, and illustrates that the stage of economic development is a major explanation for the variations of self-employment rate across regions over the past decade. The negative relationship between the stage of economic development and self-employment rate identified in the paper indicates that China has entered the process of fast industrialization, and self-employment is playing a diminishing role in economic growth and employment. We also find a substitution effect between self-employment and private enterprises. While both are important components of China's private sector, private enterprises are becoming an increasingly important source of China's economic growth and employment. Furthermore, our findings also imply that when job opportunities are limited, self-employment in China is likely a forced choice of disadvantaged people who are not qualified for wage jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to combine cointegration theory and the material flow analysis approach to examine the causal relationship between resource use and real GDP in Jiangsu Province in East China. The study considers the period from 1990 to 2007. We use direct material input as the proxy variable for resource use. Our estimation indicates that real GDP and resource use are cointegrated and there is only unidirectional long-run Granger causality running from resource use to real GDP, but not vice versa. The estimation results mean that resources are a limiting factor in terms of economic growth, and, therefore, strategies should be adopted for more vigorous economic development and consistent resource use in East China. Furthermore, the novel idea and methodology involved in the present study can be readily extended to cover other regions for the analysis of the relationship between resource use and economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between economic growth and industrial pollution emissions in China using data for 112 major cities between 2001 and 2004. Using disaggregated data, we separate foreign direct investment inflows from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan from those of other foreign economies. We examine two industrial water pollution indicators (wastewater and petroleum-like matter) and four industrial air pollution indicators (waste gas, sulfur dioxide, soot, and dust). Our results suggest that most air and water emissions rise with increases in economic growth at current income levels. The share of output of domestic- and foreign-owned firms increases several pollutants in a statistically significant manner while output of firms from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan either reduces pollution or is statistically insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last thirty years, remarkable achievements have been made in China's poverty reduction course. The dramatic fall in China's poor can be attributed mainly to a high rate of economic growth, government poverty reduction policies and targeted programmes and pro-poor macroeconomic and industrial policies. This paper focuses on China's poverty reduction policies and programmes and their impact on the poor regions and poor households. Lessons are drawn for poverty reduction and economic development in African countries. The paper also explores the potential for collaboration in poverty reduction between China and African countries and recommendations are made for the governments and donor agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the link between hot money and business cycle volatility in China from January 1997 to December 2009. Using the structural vector error correction model, we find a considerable degree of long-run cointegration and bidirectional causality effects between hot money and business cycle volatility. The speculative shocks are found to temporarily promote China's economic growth, but also to exacerbate business cycle volatility. The liquidity shock stemming from hot money is shown to be the primary factor responsible for the significantly enhanced fluctuation in business cycles during the most recent global financial crisis period. This could be detrimental to the smooth operation of financial markets. Therefore, in forming future policies, it is critical for policy-makers to take precautions against the speculative factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores why labor share in China has declined since the middle of the 1990s. Existing literature usually ascribes the labor share decline in developed countries to biased technological progress. However, our investigation shows that China's case is different. Using a simultaneous equation model estimated with three-stage least squares, we find that FDI, levels of economic development and privatization have negative effects on the labor share. The negative influence of FDI on labor share results from regional competition for FDI, which weakens labor forces' bargaining power. A U-shaped relationship exists between labor share and the level of economic development, and China is now on the declining part of the curve. The negative effects of privatization on the labor share stem from the elimination of the so-called 'wage costs eroding profit' situation and the positive supply shock on the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BSTRACT Discussions on the politics of Chinese engagement with African development have been marked by increasing concern over Chinese use of aid in exchange for preferential energy deals. Normative liberal discourse criticizes the Chinese for disbursing 'rogue aid' and undermining good governance in the African continent. These criticisms not only ignore the longer-term motivations and modalities of Chinese aid and the historical diversity of Chinese relations with Africa, but also uncritically assume 'Western' aid to be morally 'superior' and 'more effective' in terms of development outcomes. This paper consists of three parts. First, it will discuss the debates surrounding Chinese engagement in Africa, especially around aid and development issues. Second, the paper maps the historical development of China-Africa engagement and investigates the impacts of the changing modalities of Chinese aid with reference to case studies of two countries: Angola and Ghana. It then offers a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between these two cases. The principal argument is that Chinese and Western donors employ different ideologies and practices of governance to conceal their own interests and political discourses in the African continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from 1986–2005, the present paper estimates the impact of direct knowledge spilled over from G-7 countries on China's economy. We use telephone line penetration rates and personnel flows to estimate the direct spillover effect. Our results show that direct knowledge spillovers through telecommunication networks and personnel flows are important components of international R&D spillovers in China. These direct channels of spillover effectively accelerate China's economic growth. Therefore, China should invest more in human capital and in its telecommunication network to enhance the absorptive capacity of direct R&D spillovers, and to increase communication with other nations, in particular the USA and Japan. More subsidies to domestic R&D research and purchase of intermediate goods will help to raise China's R&D intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant workers have become a major element of the labor force in Chinese cities, making important contributions to the economy while forming a socially disadvantaged group. Existing research on the relationship between the level of nutrition and health and income in China mainly focuses on farmers living in rural areas. Based on a Mincer equation and using a survey in Beijing, this paper examines the relationship between migrant workers' nutrition and health levels and their monthly incomes. We find that the nutrition intake and the body mass index have positive effects on income while duration of illness and daily working hours have negative effects. These conclusions imply that the Chinese Government should put more emphasis on improving migrant workers' well-being, including offering educational programs on nutrition and health, and enhancing medical insurance and the old-age insurance system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry collapse has become an important phenomenon in China's recent economic growth fluctuation. This paper develops a simple model to analyze this phenomenon. Our analysis focuses on an external demand decline-caused industry collapse. The model reveals that the combination of large-scale decline in external demand with a horizontal domestic supply curve causes the domestic export industry to undergo a sharp decrease in output in a short period of time, which further leads to a sharp decline in employment. The conventional stabilization policy is less effective in coping with this sudden industry collapse. The Chinese Government needs to formulate an appropriate structural industry stabilization policy to cope with the sudden industry collapse, and, in particular, to implement a direct employment aid program to deal with unemployment resulting from the industry collapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using 1987–2006 panel data for China, we explore the dynamics of the skill premium. The present paper focuses on the skill premium as an explanation for why income differences are so large in China. Our empirics show that: the rise in the relative supply of skilled labor results in an increase, instead of a decrease, in the skill premium; domestic investment is not complementary with skill formation; the skillpremium is higher in more developed provinces; economic openness facilitates an increase in the skill premium; whether foreign direct investment induces skill-based technology change or not, it drives up the skillpremium. An array of policy prescriptions for reducing income differences and ensuring sustained economic growth are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant changes have occurred in China's energy development strategy in the past 30 years since the reform and opening policy was put into effect. The strategy has been shifted from the Strategy of Exploiting Energy Resources (SEER) to the Strategy of Comprehensive Energy Efficiency (SCEE); this made it possible that the target of ‘Doubling guarantees Quadrupling’ set by the CPC in the 1990s become a reality 5 years earlier than the target time frame. For the new target of ‘Doubling Economic Development’ set for the new century by the CPC, this paper will attempt to provide ideas and recommendations to offer possible alternative views. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying a commonly used index for export sophistication in a cross-country study, Rodrik finds that the technological content of Chinese exports over the past decade has been so high that it cannot be explained simply by the economic fundamentals of a low-income country abundant with unskilled labor. Question has been raised for the empirical robustness of the index. I am also doubtful with Rodrik's analysis but develop my argument from a different perspective. This paper briefly reviews Rodrik's methodology and identifies other factors his empirical results potentially hinge on. Based on this, it elaborates on China's unique processing trade regime, the uneven distribution of its exports across Chinese regions and the limitation of HS codes in terms of identifying differentiated products, in an attempt to show that these factors also contribute to higher estimations of China's export sophistication level. Finally, it organizes trade data to reveal the trade patterns that are indeed consistent with the country's comparative advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strong economic growth in China is difficult to reconcile with its inefficient financial system. The puzzle of China's financial development and growth can be explained through a dynamic criterion of adaptive efficiency, rather than through allocative efficiency. Using the framework of an autoregressive distributed lag model, the present paper tests the hypothesis that the GDP growth rate is dependent on financial development along with other variables in China and Pakistan. The hypothesis cannot be rejected in both cases. However, the results show that economic growth has a negative relationship with credit to the private sector in China. We conclude that financial development is a source of China's high growth rate and that the banking system is still under an evolutionary process, involving the pursuit of social objectives instead of the sole objective of profit maximization. Our results provide some implications for other developing countries like Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses reports published within the journal, such as one by Jie Zhang and T. Li concerning economic developments in China and India.

This paper investigates the causal link between foreign direct investment (FDI), domestic investment and economic growth in China for the period 1988–2003 using a multivariate VAR system with error correction model (ECM) and the innovation accounting (variance decomposition and impulse response function analysis) techniques. The results show that while there is a bi-directional causality between domestic investment and economic growth, there is only a single-directional causality from FDI to domestic investment and to economic growth. Rather than crowding out domestic investment, FDI is found to be complementary with domestic investment. Thus, FDI has not only assisted in overcoming shortage of capital, it has also stimulated economic growth through complementing domestic investment in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a survey of the literature on inequality in China – level, change, causes, and consequences. It attempts to answer six main questions. How much has inequality risen? What is its relation to poverty alleviation? What has happened to wealth inequality? What are the main dimensions of rising income inequality? The dimensions examined are: the rural–urban divide; urban labor market reform; regional divergence; rural–urban migration; and entrepreneurship, rent-seeking, and corruption. Was it inevitable that inequality should rise so much? Does it matter that inequality has risen? Income distribution in China is bound up with both economic reform and economic growth. This paper concludes by considering the countervailing forces that will determine the path of inequality in future years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the case of Taizhou City in Zhejiang Province, the present paper investigates the mechanism of the interaction between the local government and private enterprise in the process of regional economic development. We identify the “Taizhou Model” as a model of institutional innovation and the development of private economy, which is private sector-induced and local government-promoted Indeed, the impact of such mechanisms has had a significant influence on the reforms and development of China s economic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the relationship between initial government policies and the emergence of convergence clubs in post-reform China. We test the structural stability of a global convergence equation using China's provincial data over the period 1985–2000. We find that the provinces cluster around two basins of attraction defined by initial opening-up. Domestic market reform exerts a positive and significant influence on provincial economic growth but has no threshold effect. The two convergence clubs exhibit strikingly different growth behaviors, suggesting that the roles of some growth-promoting factors, such as human capital and infrastructure, depend on whether an openness threshold is passed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various reasons have been put forward to explain the massive accumulation of non-performing loans in China. This paper applies the financial-restraint model as the analytical framework and argues that failure to create sufficient economic rents is the chief reason underlying the current dismal performance of banks. While the formal financial system is less important than the informal system—especially for financing the private enterprises that are playing a crucial role in economic growth—not addressing the non-performing loan crisis in the formal financial system will likely invite an economic slow-down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today rapidly growing economies depend more on the creation, acquisition, distribution, and use of knowledge. As such, strategies for enhancing research and innovation capabilities have come to occupy a more important position in many developing nations, including China. Already the leading production center, and often seen as China's economic locomotive, Shanghai is striving aggressively to retain its national preeminence and has launched concerted efforts to increase local innovative output. The primary purpose of this paper is to understand how state-led efforts have fared in promoting technology innovation. By situating the city in the national and global context, the paper shows that Shanghai has gained a substantial lead in developing an innovation environment with extensive global linkages and leading research institutions. Recent efforts in building up the research and innovation capacity of the enterprise sector have begun to show progress. Although firms are enthusiastic about its future as an innovation center, Shanghai continues to face challenges of inadequate protection of intellectual property, lack of venture capital investment, and the tightening supply of highly qualified knowledge workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following experience elsewhere in the world, China has pinned its hopes for development on industrialisation and China's economy has grown exceptionally fast in the last two decades. But many unintended environmental consequences have been recognised. This paper asks whether there really is a trade-off between economic and environmental performance. This is considered in the context of China's macroeconomic performance as well as in the case study of a Chinese state-owned enterprise (SOE) (Zhengzhou Abrasive Company (ZZAC)). The feature of the paper is that stakeholders' perceptions of the trade-off were considered. Our results indicate that the low economic performance of ZZAC to some extent resulted in its improved environmental performance. However, other factors like investment in pollution abatement, which is also influenced by the economic performance, have had a positive impact. Furthermore, ZZAC is found to have increased its labour productivity level, but is retreating from social commitments. Finally, our results clearly indicate that the characteristics of the stakeholders, as well as their positions in the local economy, make a significant difference to their perception of trade-offs between economic growth and the environment, which will finally affect environmental policy making in China. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outcomes and forms of urbanization and modernization in China following the reform and opening of the late 1970s have attracted extensive attention and competing interpretations in scholarly documentation. This paper focuses on Hainan Island, established in 1988 as the biggest special economic zone in China. Since then, considerable inflows of human as well as speculative capital have led to rapid real estate, in particular tourism-related, development. While urban expansion and improvements have been encouraged, the ongoing over-building, unregulated conversion of land use and degradation of the urban environment present serious social and economic problems. This paper summarizes the trajectory, causal factors and outcomes of this urban growth and consequent planning problems that make the island an atypical case in China’s urbanization experience. We argue that the establishment of a practical framework combining socioeconomic planning, land use planning, and the management of both, is crucial to achieve sustainable growth for this transitional economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pegged exchange rate regime has been pivotal to China's export-led development strategy. However, its huge trade surpluses and massive build up of international reserves have been matched by large deficits for major trading partners, creating acute policy concerns abroad, especially in the USA. This paper provides a straightforward conceptual framework for interpreting the effect of China's exchange rate policy on its own trade balance and that of trading partners in the context of discrepant economic growth rates. It shows how pegging the exchange rate when output is outstripping expenditure induces China's trade surpluses and counterpart deficits for its trading partners. An important corollary is that given its strictly regulated capital account, China's persistently large surpluses imply a significantly undervalued renminbi, which should gradually become more flexible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the forces that shaped China's interprovincial inequality in the last five decades of Communist rule. In so far as the change in interprovincial inequality is the result of differential growth in provincial GDP per capita and provincial economic growth, it may be decomposed into contributions by total factor productivity (TFP) and other factor inputs. A new method is introduced to make this decomposition. Care is exercised in taking into account problems of Chinese official data when implementing the decomposition analysis. The findings suggest that TFP and factor inputs exerted different and sometimes opposing effects on interprovincial inequality in the Maoist and reform era. The increase in inequality from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s is due to the contribution of TFP overwhelming that of physical capital. The opposite is true for the 1980s. The increase in the 1990s is mainly driven by the skewed distribution of investments in favor of the richer coastal provinces reinforced by the increasing contribution of TFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing resource and environmental pressures have impeded China's efforts to quickly promote its people's quality of life, while protecting its natural environment. Due to lack of resources, technologies and capital, China needs to seek a more integrated development strategy. Industrial ecology (IE) may be one solution as it aims at optimizing the use of materials and energy in products, processes, industrial sectors and economies by systemically mimicking natural systems in an industrial setting. The relevant practices and experiences in the developed world have proved that there is a degree of effectiveness and efficiency to development through the application of IE. It is even more critical to apply the principles of IE in China, where resources are scarce. However, compared with developed nations, China faces different environmental, economic and social constraints. Therefore, China has to adopt different approaches to implement the concept of IE. In this paper, we first review the current practices in eco-industrial development in China. Then the advantages and barriers to applying IE in China are analyzed and recommendations are provided. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How much of China’s recent economic performance can be attributed to market-oriented reforms introduced in the last two decades? A long-run perspective may be important for understanding the process of economic development occurring today. This paper compares the integration of rice markets in China today and 270 years ago. In the eighteenth century, transport technology was non-mechanized, but markets were close to being free. We distinguish local harvest and weather from aggregate sources of price variation in a historical sample and in a similarly constructed contemporary sample. Findings indicate the degree of market integration in the 1720s is a very good predictor of per capita income in the 1990s. Moreover, the current pattern of interregional income in China is strongly linked to persistent geographic factors that were already apparent several centuries ago, well before the enactment of modern reform programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic relations between China and ASEAN have further intensified since the 1990s. Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows between the two economic giants have reached a new high, attracting the attention of policy-makers and economists. The present paper investigates recent contextual changes and identifies some significant emerging factors that exert influence on the flows of FDI between China and ASEAN. This paper also analyzes the development trend of FDI between the two economies, and it is found that the FDI flows are at a historical turning point. (Edited by Xiaoming Feng) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, international tourism to China has grown dramatically, as has the rest of the Chinese economy. Its impact on the Chinese economy is estimated for 1997, the last year for which sufficient input–output, social accounting and tourist expenditure data are available when the paper was written. With these data, a so-called type II input–output model is constructed, which enables to estimate direct, indirect and induced impacts. The results show that 1.64% of gross domestic product, 1.40% of household income and 1.01% of Chinese employment is dependent on international tourism. The differences are explained by the sectoral composition of the tourist expenditures, together with the sectoral differences in capital/labour ratios, labour productivity and backward linkages. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private capital is one of the main driving forces in China's initiatives towards stimulating the market economy. The development of private economy in China has always been based on integrating industrial and corporate structures with product composition and market structures. This paper explores the development of the private economy and how it integrates different industries with specific markets by analyzing the leading private sector in Zhejiang province. It also examines the trends of industrial cluster, the formation of the agglomerative economy and their effects on private economy development. Finally, the paper explains why Zhejiang people have profited much from the Wenzhou model, and discusses some existing problems and future possibilities for development of the Wenzhou model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparison is not restricted to Mumbai and Shanghai but also to Bangalore and Hangzhou, Delhi and Beijing and so on. The Chinese and Indian economies are expected to be the growth engines of the global economy. In this process cities are expected to play an important role, through their transformation into “World Class” cities, a term now doing rounds in the policy circles in Mumbai, to be achieved through massive infrastructure investments made in them. In China, this has been possible because of the decentralized administrative and fiscal system in China. In contrast, in India, the system of urban infrastructure is currently evolving and making a transition from a centralized to a decentralized system. This paper: (i) compares the Chinese and Indian financial systems to explain differences in the quantum of funds available in cities in both countries; (ii) looks at urban responsibility allocations in terms of institutions; and (iii) compares capital investments made by one city each in the two countries, in Beijing (China) and in Mumbai (India). Edited by Xinyu Fan [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central theme of this paper is that China's macroeconomic development can be divided into three distinct stages with significant trend changes. Market-oriented reform and opening to the outside world provide main driving forces for the convergence. However, the gradual reform and some inappropriate policies have caused serious ups and downs in China's macroeconomic performance. (Edited by Zhinan Zhang) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses both macro level and sectoral data to study the sources and pattern of China's impressive economic growth over the last 25 years. Extending the growth accounting framework, we show that widening inequality, rural poverty, and resource intensity are to a large extent rooted in China's growth strategy, and resolving them requires a rebalancing of policies. We find that growth of investment in the industrial sector has been the single most important factor driving gross domestic product and overall labor productivity growth since the early 1990s. The shift of labor from low-productivity agriculture has been limited. The productivity gap between agriculture and the rest of the economy has continued to widen, leading to increased rural-urban income inequality. Continuing with the current growth pattern would further increase already high investment and saving needs to unsustainable levels, lower urban employment growth, and widen the rural-urban income gap. However, reducing subsidies to industry and investment, encouraging the development of the services industry, and reducing barriers to labor mobility would result in a more balanced growth and a substantial reduction in the income gap between rural and urban residents. (Edited by Xiaoming Feng) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor markets are the conduits through which labor moves from rural to urban areas, a shift in population that will drive China's development. Although the focus of considerable research, scholars do not agree on how well labor markets have been functioning during the past two decades. It is the aim of this article to understand how well labor markets are functioning in rural China. The authors review previous studies on rates of return to human capital and examine why it can argued that labor markets are not functioning well. The authors also consider if methodology plays a role in explaining the low estimated rates of return reported in other studies.

This paper investigates China's economic growth by performing multiple-break unit root tests on the data of national and sectoral output and output per worker to identify their steady-state and transitional growth paths. The evidence generated suggests that the growth behaviour of the Chinese economy is consistent with endogenous growth theory. The results of multiple-break unit root tests are then explained within the endogenous growth framework, using historical observations on how the evolution of economic institution/environment causes changes in some institutional parameters and hence in the steady-state growth rate of GDP per worker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the growth of production and employment in China during the period 1978 to the early 1990s. It argues that the Chinese experience with export-led growth provides an excellent case study of the phenomenon of a vent for surplus resources provided by exports, identified by Adam Smith in the Wealth of Nations and elaborated by Hla Myint. The paper extends the Smith-Myint model of‘vent-for-surplus’ productive capacity to‘vent-for-surplus’ resources by allowing for foreign investment flows. The‘vent-for-surplus’ effect of exports on employment and growth is examined in a dynamic labour demand framework for a panel of township and village enterprises (TVEs) in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional diversity in the process of economic growth is the major concern in this paper. We will try to identify its sources for growth and to specify production functions in each province by estimating translog production function. This paper clarifies the following four facts: First, capital accumulation was a major source for growth in the earlier stage of the Chinese economy, especially in the eastern coastal region. Unexpectedly, capital accumulation is losing its ground over the years. Second, the employment structure of the economy in the eastern region has changed significantly and the shares of workers in the secondary and tertiary industries increased until 1992. Since 1992, these figures have not changed significantly despite China's continuous economic high growth. Third, four distinguishable regional growth patterns have contributed to China's economic growth. Finally, production technologies in each province vary both in the direction of factor intensity and in the elasticity of substitution between inputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims at studying the investment flows in the Greater Pearl River Delta region (Hong Kong-PRD) in China and its impacts on industrial restructuring at the firm-level using a business survey with the Hong Kong-PRD entity acted as a core-periphery economy. The critical effects of gravity distance on transaction costs in the determination of investment flows are examined statistically by a gravity model by incorporating a hypothetical infrastructural construction project. Survey findings show that the evolution of the cross-border operations at the main core has directed the outward FDI flows and the subsequent industrial structural adjustments of the core-periphery economy. This paper has presented a typical illustrative case for further studies of investment flows and its impacts upon industrial adjustments and performance in other regions in China especially after the WTO accession. Its implication on regional economic growth is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different comparative advantages may affect the pattern of regional specialization in many ways. In this paper, by employing panel data covering 20 main industrial sectors in 29 Chinese provinces over the period of 1988–2001, and applying the generalized method of moment techniques, the determinants of regional specialization in China are investigated, paying particular attention to the role of dynamic comparative advantages. It is found that changing comparative advantages arising from technical efficiency improvement, scale economies enhancement, and growing economic openness contribute positively and significantly to China's regional specialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State-owned banks remain dominant in China's financial sector despite over two decades of gradual financial liberalization. Their performance is typically evaluated using commercial banking criteria. The standard view is that because state banks have experienced declining profitability and capital adequacy, they have been a drain on past economic development and endanger future growth prospects. However, we argue that state banks have strong development bank characteristics and hence warrant different performance criteria. The analysis in this paper suggests that while thier commercial performance may have been poor, the overall impact of state banks on China's economic development appears to have been both positive and sustainable. Copyright © 2001 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]

In the last two decades in rural China, increasing numbers of children of economic migrants have been left behind with kin, which is of growing concern for social work and welfare policy. The genesis of this rural to urban migration has been China's rapid economic development and greater opportunities for work in better paying jobs in cities. However, there is growing evidence of the negative impact upon these children. This paper reports the views of caregivers ( n = 23) and school personnel ( n = 5) from a small town in Northeast China. Interviews sought adults opinions on these children's needs, with the major outcome being children's need to be empowered - to be respected, to express themselves, to have influence, and to be supported to be able to more fully participate in education and their communities. We argue that caregiver strategies to empower children left behind provide insight into culturally appropriate processes and practices that underpin social inclusion. However, some discrepancies between the views of caregivers and school personnel alert us to the potential for tension between family and broader community and institutional views. Implications for social work practice include responding to the cultural values embedded in child rearing practices and local ideas about children's entitlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 'resource curse' theory, this study uses panel data for 256 prefecture‐level cities in China from 2003 to 2016 to test the relationship and mechanism between natural resource dependence and economic development. The panel model and instrumental variable regression results show that natural resources generally promote economic development, but for 109 resource‐based cities, the influence of natural resources on economic development seems quite different. The panel threshold model shows that in the resource‐based cities, (i) resources have a 'blessing effect' on economic development during economic prosperity (GDP growth rate is greater than 12.1 per cent); (ii) the relationship is not statistically significant when the GDP growth rate is between 5 per cent and 12.1 per cent; and (iii) when the GDP growth rate is lower than 5 per cent, natural resources have a 'curse effect' on economic development. Furthermore, the results of the mediation effect model show that the mediation effect of industrial diversification on the relationship between resource dependence and economic development suppresses the promotion of natural resource on economy. An excessive concentration of resource industries has a crowding‐out effect on non‐resource industries in resource‐based cities, which reduces the level of industrial diversification and is not conducive to economic development. [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 applies different approaches to modelling sources of economic growth from time series and panel data sets for 10 Asian countries over the period 1970-2010. After being subjected to fragility tests, the cross-country estimates indicate that investment, together with policy variables and openness to trade, explains about 90 per cent of the estimated 3.2 per cent steady-state growth rate for the region. Regional growth policy points to expanding trade, supporting financial development, and maintaining sound investment environments. Although country-specific growth effects vary, the results imply that different estimation methods, combined with fragility tests, can help establish stronger links between growth theory and policy advice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]