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on China |
| By: | Fengxia Dong (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD); Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI)); Frank H. Fuller (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD); Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI); Midwest Agribusiness Trade Research and Information Center (MATRIC)) |
| Abstract: | China's economic reforms, which began in 1978, resulted in remarkable income growth, and urban Chinese consumers have responded by dramatically increasing their consumption of meat, other livestock products, and fruits and by decreasing consumption of grain-based foods. Economic prosperity, a growing openness to international markets, and domestic policy reforms have changed the food marketing environment for Chinese consumers and may have contributed to shifts in consumer preferences. The objective of this paper is to uncover evidence of structural change in food consumption among urban residents in China. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to test for structural change in aggregate household data from 1981 to 2004. The tests provided a reasonably clear picture of changing food consumption over the study period. |
| Keywords: | China, demand models, food consumption, nonparametric analysis, parametric tests, structural change. |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ias:cpaper:06-wp437&r=cna |
| By: | Dong, Fengxia; Fuller, Frank H. |
| Abstract: | China’s economic reforms, which began in 1978, resulted in remarkable income growth, and urban Chinese consumers have responded by dramatically increasing their consumption of meat, other livestock products, and fruits and by decreasing consumption of grain-based foods. Economic prosperity, a growing openness to international markets, and domestic policy reforms have changed the food marketing environment for Chinese consumers and may have contributed to shifts in consumer preferences. The objective of this paper is to uncover evidence of structural change in food consumption among urban residents in China. Both parametric and nonparametric methods are used to test for structural change in aggregate household data from 1981 to 2004. The tests provided a reasonably clear picture of changing food consumption over the study period. |
| Keywords: | China, demand models, food consumption, nonparametric analysis, parametric tests, structural change. |
| Date: | 2006–11–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:isu:genres:12695&r=cna |
| By: | James Boyce; Matthew Riddle; Mark D Brenner |
| Abstract: | The introduction of carbon charges on the use of fossil fuels in China would have a progressive impact on income distribution. This outcome, which contrasts to the regressive distributional impact found in most studies of carbon charges in industrialized countries, is driven primarily by differences between urban and rural expenditure patterns. If carbon revenues were recycled on an equal per capita basis via a ‘sky trust,’ the progressive impact would be further enhanced: low-income (mainly rural) households would receive more in sky-trust dividends than they pay in carbon charges, and high-income (mainly urban) households would pay more than they receive in dividends. Thus a Chinese sky trust would contribute to both lower fossil fuel consumption and greater income equality. |
| Keywords: | carbon charges, fossil fuels, China, income distribution, carbon revenues, fuel consumption, income equality |
| JEL: | Q32 Q52 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uma:periwp:wp_brenner_riddle_boyce&r=cna |
| By: | Steven Vincent Dunaway; Lamin Leigh; Xiangming Li |
| Abstract: | Increased attention is being paid to assessments of the actual values of countries' real exchange rates relative to their "equilibrium" values as suggested by "fundamental" determining factors. This paper assesses the robustness of alternative approaches and models commonly used to derive equilibrium real exchange rate estimates. Using China's currency to illustrate this analysis, the variance in estimates raises serious questions regarding how robust the results are. The basic conclusion from the tests used here is that, at least for China, small changes in model specifications, explanatory variable definitions, and time periods used in estimation can lead to very substantial differences in equilibrium real exchange rate estimates. Thus, such estimates should be treated with great caution. |
| Keywords: | China's equilibrium real exchange rate , robustness tests , |
| Date: | 2006–10–13 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:06/220&r=cna |
| By: | Robert Dekle; Guillaume Vandenbroucke |
| Abstract: | Between 1978 and 2003 the Chinese economy experienced a remarkable 5.7 percent annual growth of GDP per labor. At the same time, there has been a noticeable transformation of the economy: the share of workers in agriculture decreased from over 70 percent to less than 50 percent. We distinguish three sectors: private agriculture and nonagriculture and public nonagriculture. A growth accounting exercise reveals that the main source of growth was TFP in the private nonagricultural sector. The reallocation of labor from agriculture to nonagriculture accounted for 1.9 percent out of the 5.7 percent growth in output per labor. The reallocation of labor from the public to the private sector also accounted for a significant part of growth in the 1996-2003 period. We calibrate a general equilibrium model where the driving forces are public investment and employment, as well as sectorial TFP derived from our growth accounting exercise. The model tracks the historical employment share of agriculture and the labor productivities of all three sectors quite well. |
| Keywords: | China |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2006-37&r=cna |
| By: | Kyoji Fukao; Keiko Ito; Shigesaburo Kabe; Deqiang Liu; Fumihide Takeuchi |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the degree and the current status of localization of Japanese affiliates in China. For this purpose, we (1) compare the localization (measured in terms of the number of expatriates, local sales, local procurement, and local management) of Japanese and U.S. affiliates in China and other major regions; (2) analyze the impact of localization on the profitability of Japanese affiliates in China and in other major regions; and (3) conduct a detailed investigation of inter-firm transactional relationships in China between automobile manufacturers and parts suppliers. We find that compared with U.S. affiliates, Japanese affiliates tend to be less localized. Using a comprehensive affiliate-level panel data set on Japanese multinationals and concentrating on China, we then examine the effect of localization quantitatively and find that Japanese affiliates with higher procurement ratios and/or local CEOs and procurement managers enjoyed high profits. Next, turning to the factors determining trading relationships between assemblers and suppliers of different nationalities in China, our analysis suggests that even when taking various control variables into account, such as suppliers' productivity level and the distance between assembler and supplier, the transactional relationships of Japanese suppliers are more limited than those of suppliers of other nationalities. Moreover, Japanese automobile assemblers do not choose suppliers based on their current labor productivity level and transactional relationships between assemblers and suppliers are more closed in the case of Japanese firms than in the case of firms of other nationalities. On the other hand, we find that auto parts suppliers dealing with Japanese assemblers see their productivity grow faster regardless of the supplier's nationality. The results indicate that Japanese assemblers may well be choosing business partners which they expect to realize sustainable productivity increases in the future rather than focusing on present productivity levels. This finding provides evidence of business practices based on a long-term perspective characteristic of Japanese enterprises. |
| Date: | 2006–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:hstdps:d06-191&r=cna |
| By: | Chaudhuri, Shubham; Ravallion, Martin |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the ways in which recent economic growth has been uneven in China and India and what this has meant for inequality and poverty. Drawing on analyses based on existing household survey data and aggregate data from official sources, the authors show that growth has indeed been uneven-geographically, sectorally, and at the household level-and that this has meant uneven progress against poverty, less poverty reduction than might have been achieved had growth been more balanced, and an increase in income inequality. The paper then examines why growth was uneven and why this should be of concern. The discussion is structured around the idea that there are both " good " and " bad " inequalities-drivers and dimensions of inequality and uneven growth that are good or bad in terms of what they imply for both equity and long-term growth and development. The authors argue that the development paths of both China and India have been influenced by, and have generated, both types of inequalities and that while good inequalities-most notably those that reflect the role of economic incentives-have been critical to the growth experience thus far, there is a risk that bad inequalities-those that prevent individuals from connecting to markets and limit investment and accumulation of human capital and physical capital-may undermine the sustainability of growth in the coming years. The authors argue that policies are needed that preserve the good inequalities-continued incentives for innovation and investment-but reduce the scope for bad ones, notably through investments in human capital and rural infrastructure that help the poor connect to markets. |
| Keywords: | Rural Poverty Reduction,Pro-Poor Growth and Inequality,Inequality,Population Policies |
| Date: | 2006–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4069&r=cna |
| By: | Jaime Marquez; John W. Schindler |
| Abstract: | The rising current account deficit in the USA has attracted considerable attention in recent years. We use the "business cycle accounting" methodology to identify the principal distortions that have affected the external accounts of the US. In particular, we measure distortions in the optimality conditions of a simple two-country general equilibrium model using data from the US and the other G7 countries. We then feed these measured distortions into the model individually and use the simulated counterfactual paths of the current account to determine the contribution of each of these "wedges" to the overall external imbalance of the USA. We find that no single wedge in isolation can account closely for the observed current account. However, a combination of productivity differences and deviations from risk-sharing between the US and the rest of the G7 does the best job in accounting for most of the measured movement of the US current account. |
| Keywords: | Foreign exchange rates - China ; Trade ; Econometric models |
| Date: | 2006 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedfwp:2006-41&r=cna |