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on China |
| By: | Jensen, Robert T. (U of California, Los Angeles); Miller, Nolan (Harvard U) |
| Abstract: | World food prices have increased dramatically in recent years. We use panel data from 2006 to examine the impact of these increases on the consumption and nutrition of poor households in two Chinese provinces. We find that households in Hunan suffered no nutrition declines. Households in Gansu experienced a small decline in calories, though the decline is on par with usual seasonal effects. The overall nutritional impact of the world price increase was small because households were able to substitute to cheaper foods and because the domestic prices of staple foods remained low due to government intervention in grain markets. |
| Date: | 2008–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:harjfk:rwp08-039&r=cna |
| By: | Jeffrey A. Frankel |
| Abstract: | The paper updates the answer to the question: what precisely is the exchange rate regime that China has put into place since 2005, when it announced a move away from the dollar peg? Is it a basket anchor with the possibility of cumulatable daily appreciations, as was announced at the time? We apply to this question a new approach to estimating countries' de facto exchange rate regimes, a synthesis of two techniques. One is a technique that has been used in the past to estimate implicit de facto currency weights when the hypothesis is a basket peg with little flexibility. The second is a technique used to estimate the de facto degree of exchange rate flexibility when the hypothesis is an anchor to the dollar or some other single major currency. Since the RMB and many other currencies today purportedly follow variants of Band-Basket-Crawl, it is important to have available a technique that can cover both dimensions, inferring weights and inferring flexibility. The synthesis adds a variable representing "exchange market pressure" to the currency basket equation, whereby the degree of flexibility is estimated at the same time as the currency weights. This approach reveals that by mid-2007, the RMB basket had switched a substantial part of the dollar's weight onto the euro. The implication is that the appreciation of the RMB against the dollar during this period was due to the appreciation of the euro against the dollar, not to any upward trend in the RMB relative to its basket. |
| JEL: | F31 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14700&r=cna |
| By: | Li, Hongbin (Tsinghua U); Rosenzweig, Mark (Yale U); Zhang, Junsen (The Chinese U of Hong Kong) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we use new survey data on twins born in urban China, among whom many experienced the consequences of the forced mass rustication movement of the Chinese "cultural revolution," to identify the distinct roles of altruism and guilt in affecting behavior within families. Based on a model depicting the choices of the allocation of parental time and transfers to multiple children incorporating favoritism, altruism and guilt, we show the conditions under which guilt and altruism can be separately identified by experimental variation in parental time with children. Based on within-twins estimates of affected cohorts, we find that parents selected children with lower endowments to be sent down; that parents behaved altruistically, providing more gifts to the sibling with lower earnings and schooling; but also exhibited guilt--given the current state variables of the two children, the child experiencing more years of rustication received significantly higher transfers. |
| JEL: | J12 J13 O12 |
| Date: | 2008–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:yaleco:54&r=cna |
| By: | Ari Van Assche |
| Date: | 2009–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cir:cirbur:2009rb-03&r=cna |
| By: | Killion, M. Ulric |
| Abstract: | The Article first presents a brief history or survey of the some of the earlier problems that associate with China’s banking and financial institutions. The Article then addresses specific problems, in the context of the rules, procedures, and practices of the banking and finance sector, which widely range from non-performing loans, to China’s money market and interbank lending business. These problems also directly associate with the liberalization of the banking and finance sector of the economy, and the requirements of both the WTO rules and China’s WTO Protocol on accession. The Article also briefly explores the US sub-prime mortgage crisis and its contagion effect throughout the world, including the Asian region. In the context of China and the subprime crisis, the Article summarizes some of the problems that associate with China banking and financial institutions, by focusing on the policy implications of the history of banking and finance in China, and what this means in terms of both WTO compliance and greater liberalization of banking and financial institutions, especially pursuant to the WTO GATS, as service industries. All of this, eventually, allows for the presentation of certain conclusions concerning China banking and finance in the new era of a global subprime crisis. |
| Keywords: | China; banking; finance; WTO; GATT; GATS; subprime crisis; Interbank lending |
| JEL: | F10 F30 G21 |
| Date: | 2009–01–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:13091&r=cna |
| By: | MOTOHASHI Kazuyuki; YUAN Yuan |
| Abstract: | This study compares knowledge spillovers from multinationals to local firms in China between the automobile and electronics industries. In the automobile industry we find that multinationals in the assembly industry affect vertical spillovers to domestic parts supply firms, and horizontal spillovers also exist between domestic parts suppliers. In contrast, we cannot find vertical spillover effects of multinationals in the assembly industry to domestic suppliers in the electronics industry, only horizontal spillover effects from multinationals to domestic supply firms can be found. A different pattern of technology spillover suggests the importance of customization of FDI policy by industry. |
| Date: | 2009–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:09005&r=cna |
| By: | Lang, X.; Reiner, D.; Neuhoff, K. |
| Abstract: | The economic and policy framework for investment decisions in the power generation sector in China are investigated. Our analysis combines a review of the existing legal framework with a survey of stakeholders in industry and government. Based on interviews with over 60 stakeholders, we find a consistent picture emerges of the role of the major institutions and the decision criteria used in investment decisions for conventional thermal power technologies. In contrast, the evolving legal framework for investment in lower-carbon technologies, as reflected primarily in the renewable energy law, produces no clear consensus regarding decision criteria from either government or industry stakeholders. The overall objectives are widely acknowledged, but there is considerable disagreement amongst stakeholders over its implementation. From an investment analysis of risks versus returns, most respondents perceive advanced thermal power investments and small hydro as being more attractive than lower carbon alternatives such as wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV) power. |
| Keywords: | Investment decisions, Institutions, Power sector, Lower-carbon electricity, China. |
| JEL: | N75 L94 Q42 Q58 Q54 |
| Date: | 2008–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:0862&r=cna |
| By: | Chen, Wei; Marchant, Mary A.; Song, Baohui |
| Abstract: | A model examines how the international and China’s market prices impact China’s soybean imports from the U.S. and South America. Based on soybean crushing ratios and a market clearing presumption, an equation of China’s soybean oil import prices is designed to achieve the goal. |
| Keywords: | China's Soybean Imports, U.S. Soybean Exports, South American Soybean Exports, Price Elasticities, Soybean Crushing Ratios, Marke Clear, GMM, Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade, Q17, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saeana:46820&r=cna |
| By: | Cai, Hailong; Kinnucan, Henry |
| Abstract: | Tobacco production in China is influenced by a government-set procurement price for tobacco leaf, and an excise tax on tobacco leaf revenue. This study examines the increase in the procurement price needed to keep tax revenue constant in the face of a 50% reduction in the tax rate. This “compensative effect†is important because reductions in the tax rate are contemplated and tobacco tax revenue is a major source of funding for rural communities. Based on an equilibrium-displacement model of China’s tobacco sector, results suggest the “Compensated Effect Elasticity†(CEE) is between 1.0 and 2.5. This means a 50% cut in the tax rate would necessitate an increase in the procurement price of between 50% and 125%. Sensitivity analysis indicates CEE is most sensitive to the retail demand and input substitution elasticities and least sensitive to oligopoly power and returns to scale. |
| Keywords: | tobacco leaf, tax rate, procuring price, compensative effects, Agricultural and Food Policy, |
| Date: | 2009 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:saeana:46727&r=cna |
| By: | Coxhead, Ian (U of Wisconsin and Norwegian University of Life Sciences); Jayasuriya, Sisira (La Trobe U) |
| Abstract: | The rapid growth of China and, more recently, of India, is having major effects on every facet of the global economy. The supply of labor-intensive manufactured exports (from China in particular) has been accompanied by a huge expansion in their imports both of raw materials and of skill-intensive manufactured parts and components. This ‘offshoring’ of intermediates production by large, labor-abundant economies has economic and environmental implications for other developing economies drawn into their trade networks. We sketch a trade-theoretic model showing how the growth of the ‘giants’ generates adjustment pressures on their trading partners and competitors among developing economies. We discuss in particular how differences in relative factor endowments of resource-rich economies can produce quite different outcomes in the context of product fragmentation and expanding commodity trade. We also explore the effects on production, trade, environment and prospects for future growth, recognizing that commodity extraction and production can have strong environmental impacts, particularly in the context of weak institutions and other market failures. We illustrate these different impacts by considering the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and highlight implications for growth, development and policy. |
| JEL: | F14 |
| Date: | 2008–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:wisagr:528&r=cna |