Series on Chinese Economics Research - Böcker

As the Chinese economy has moved to a "New Normal" of slower growth and changed model of development, its income distribution is being affected in a number of ways. What exactly are the impacts brought by the new changes? How should we view China's income distribution on the whole? What trend will we see in the future? With regard to these and other questions that arise against the backdrop of the economic "New Normal", the book provides an in-depth analysis of the new issues, characteristics and trends in relation to income growth rates, income and wealth gaps, and the proportion of personal income in China.

This book examines the economic, cultural and structural factors affecting China's economic growth, and expounds why China's economy has been so successful in the past, and the challenges that lie ahead for the country amidst the changing world, new challenges and uncertainties. The authors lay out their thoughts persuasively and powerfully, advocating changes that should be implemented in order to achieve a successful economic transformation of China's economy. Through an exchange of ideas among the four Chinese authors, each of whom hail from different backgrounds, practical solutions are presented in the book.

This book discusses several important issues in the practice of China's green development. It analyzes the carbon mitigation, water conservation and environmental pollution from the perspectives of economic development, technological change, production and demand. The book uses various quantitative methods to reveal the pathways of China's green development. The methods include Log Mean Divisia Index, input-output analysis, structural decomposition analysis, data envelope analysis, econometric methods and computable general equilibrium model. The findings, discussions and policy implications of this book contribute to the theory and policy studies in China's green development.

China is a powerful engine of the global economy and the country's rise is undoubtedly the outcome of its protracted campaign of designing and implementing national development strategies since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. This book reviews the transformation and innovation of China's economic development strategies, especially Deng Xiaoping's Three-Step strategy and Xi Jinping's internal and external strategies. By introducing the concept of strategic paradigm, it analyzes the theoretical basis of myriads of economic development strategies and predicts China's choice. With the evolutionary process and the outstanding problems in national development planning as the main thread, it discusses the improvement of the national planning system, specifically of the national overall planning system, the regional planning system, the interplay and conflict between regional planning. It also studies the reform of city-county planning system, major function-oriented zones (MFOZs) and planning legislation and institutionalization. It also attempts to put forward proposals to coordinate the interests of planning departments and make different types of planning at different administrative levels compatible.

The continuous migration of rural labor to cities has changed the fundamental characteristics of China's labor market, profoundly affected the country's investments, savings, technological progress and economic cycle fluctuation, and more importantly, the rapid development of non-agricultural industries. Though the significant changes in China's labor market has played a vital role in the country's economic growth, it has not been duly valued and studied. This book aims to fill the gap by studying the role of rural labor in China's economic development.The book systematically presents the three most important characteristics of China's economic development and summarizes them as "the riddle of China's rising return on capital", "the riddle of China's rising rate of saving", and "the riddle of 'Okun's law' not applicable to China". It empirically and theoretically analyses the "three riddles" from the perspective of the migration of rural labor. It also proposes macro-policies and developmental strategies to address the "three riddles".

In recent years, the "supply-side structural reform" has become a popular term in all regions and fields in China. The supply-side structural reform is the key component of the Chinese government's economic policy framework during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. It is crucial in both theory and practice, to have an accurate understanding of its background, content, essential features, principles, and goals.The theme of the book revolves around the supply-side structural reform and analyses the concept from different perspectives, such as the basic theories and institutional framework, the fiscal taxation system, the financial system reform, and the innovation system. It attempts to address questions such as: how to understand the supply side and the demand side; why the supply-side structural reform is currently proposed; how to implement the reform; what are the changes brought about by the reform; what factors should be taken into consideration in its implementation; what are the policies to be developed in the process, etc.

The debate on industrial policy has been in full swing among the academic circles in the recent years. The crux of this debate is not whether China needs industrial policies, but rather, the kind of industrial policies it wants. Given the profound changes to the domestic and international environments, and institutional background during China's industrial development, industrial policies must be able to make up for 'market failures,' while avoiding 'government failures'. To this end, it is suggested to establish a 'market-friendly' industrial policy system dominated by functional industrial policies, in accordance with the requirements of building an 'interactive and cooperative' government-market relationship to help transform and upgrade China's industries.

Medical expenditure has become a heavy burden on the public sector and the family system in many countries. Expanding the coverage and reimbursement of medical insurance has become a common way to reduce the burden. This book will elaborate on how medical insurance may increase the burden instead.It explains why the existing medical insurance system results in increased medical costs, where higher costs may offset the benefits of certainty brought by medical insurance, forming the "paradox of medical care insurance". This assumption is verified by empirical evidence in China, through a new method developed to find out the actual medical costs, using two parameters: ratio of self-payment of medical insurance and the level of monopoly in the supply of medical services. The book also describes the history, the current situation, and the reform of the health care system in China.

This book constructs a new theoretical framework for understanding contemporary Chinese agricultural production organizations from the perspective of promoting farmers' realization of "substantial freedom" and "feasible ability". The new theoretical framework deepens and expands the theory of agricultural modernization and production organizations. The book discusses the "multi-symbiosis" pattern of agricultural production organizations in contemporary China from macro and micro economics perspectives. Based on the peasant household economy, this multi-symbiosis organizational structure co-exists and interweaves with various forms of economic organizations. The book points out that this multi-symbiosis organizational structure is the result of free choice of the majority of farmers since the "reform" and "opening-up"; in turn, it also provides a broader organizational and institutional space for farmers' diversified choices. The book predicts that China's agricultural production organization networking will gradually move towards networking based on diversification and also form networked organization groups.

Since 2012, industrial overcapacity has become an increasingly serious problem in China, against the backdrop of domestic economic slowdown and continued downturn in international markets. Overcapacity is widespread in the traditional manufacturing sector, particularly in iron and steel, cement, electrolytic aluminium, flat glass, and ship-building industries. It is also grave in emerging industries such as polysilicon, solar cells, and wind power equipment.This book provides an overview on the overcapacity problem facing China and examines the main characteristics of overcapacity in some important industries. The book identifies two types of overcapacity: one is excess capacity that results from natural supply-demand dynamics or cyclical economic fluctuations under a relatively sound market system; the other is overcapacity caused by the overinvestment of enterprises under a flawed economic system. It probes into how overcapacity is caused and finds two contributors — change of growth model and institutional flaws. It explores to establish a long-term mechanism for solving the problem. The book concludes that China should establish a long-term mechanism to prevent and resolve overcapacity, and to establish healthy relationship between the market and the government.

In China, the government controls a large part of resources, such as land, energy, bank savings, and so on. This book studies the efficiency and fairness of resources allocation by governmental administration in China. The book states that it is neither fair nor efficient to allocate resources by the governmental administrations. These resources should be allocated by the market.The book analyzes the resources allocation by government administration in three key areas namely education, health care, and land. A quantitive analysis is developed for describing more precisely the situation of unfairness in fiscal resources allocation. This book also describes how ordinary people address the misposition of resources by governmental administrations by migrating from the provinces with less resources to the provinces with more resources in education or health care. Thus, the book concludes that the actual allocation of resources is determined by the interactions between ordinary people and the government.

This book provides a detailed description of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China with respect to both efficiency and income distribution. It demonstrates that state ownership in the form of SOEs does not use resources efficiently, holds a poor record in income distribution, and enjoys unfair advantages while competing with other firms. To illustrate this, the book presents data on how favored policies, monopolistic powers, and subsidies benefit SOEs.This book, with its rich empirical data and information, serves as an authoritative reference for researchers interested in SOEs. It is also a good read for students of social sciences and general public.

The objective of publishing this book is to let the general public have a better understanding of the food security situation in China and better comprehension of the merit of allocating land through market mechanism. In addition, it makes the public aware of the inefficiencies of current government regulated land system.As a populous country in the world, China emphasizes too much importance of food to ensure people's sufficient consumption. There is a national policy to protect farm land, farm land protection refers to 18 hundred million mu of farmland which is specifically designated for food production only. Unirule defined the national food security as the capability to solve food shortages, and calculated the gap between food supply and demand. Two approaches can be used to solve the above food gap. Food security problems will not happen under situations of free trade and factors substitution in market economy, substantial storage and foreign exchange income. In modern China, food insecurity or great famine only happened in planned economy. To link tightly farm land size and grain yield and even food security is baseless both in theory and practices. The previous red line of 21 hundred million mu was already broken through. The current red line of 18 hundred million mu will also be broken through, in view of the process of industrialization and urbanization. In fact, farm land protection should focus on protecting the employment right of peasant in land.

The book presents the comprehensive research findings on the basic features, formation mechanisms and evolution laws of Chinese enterprise migration, from the micro-perspective of enterprise migration; and on this basis, the influences from enterprise migration on industrial agglomeration and diffusion as well as the evolution of regional economy. The migration trends, power mechanisms, determining factors, structural and spatial effects of Chinese manufacturing industry have also been studied. The author also puts forward policy advice on the themes above, such as the central government should pay more attention to the fairness goals in the market economy framework; some policies should be improved to positively and reasonably guide and regulate firm relocation in China, for example, enterprises from Chinese coastal areas should be encouraged to move to the mid and west areas; the industrialization and urbanization in mid and west areas should be accelerated; the economic development should be geared to the bearing capacity of natural resources and environment; industries and economic activities should be promoted to agglomerate effectively in metropolitan regions.This book provides a comprehensive analysis on the relocation of enterprises in China, as well as the situation of China's regional economic development. The author, Wei Houkai, as an authoritative economist on regional development of China, completed his detailed survey on China's regional economy from this perspective of enterprise relocation, together with his research group. This book, doubtlessly, provides a valuable opportunity for readers in English world to obtain the realistic and rational messages about what is happening in China in certain domains. The author, whose policy advice has always been adopted by the government of China, raises some significant viewpoints based on his distinctive insight, which may be influencing the regional development route in China.

Since its reform and opening up, China has experienced unprecedented social and economic development. It is important to understand the biggest and fastest growing economy's policy and strategy. As a key director in Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the author proposes a development path and reform strategies for China in the next three decades.This book suggests reform strategies not only for the economic structure but also for the political system in China. The author makes a sound analysis and exposition of “Chinese dream”, which reflects the vision of a better life in the future and the main indicators of social change. The book investigates China's development path, political system, economic structure, people's livelihood etc and suggests long-term strategies for China in this regard.

This book presents empirical observations and theoretical thinking of the fundamental changes in the Chinese economy. It starts with a warning of the arrival of the Lewis Turning Point, which is empirically proven by disappearance of surplus labor force and a rapid increase in wages of unskilled workers. It further reveals that China's rapid population-aging trend is diminishing the demographic dividend that has kept China's economic growth rate high. Subsequently, it touches upon employment challenges that arise after reaching the Lewis Turning Point, further propelling urbanization, a balanced regional development, and so on. Finally, it introduces middle-income trap which is one of the biggest challenges China is facing, followed by recommendation of policies for the Chinese government to tackle the challenges ahead.This book should be of great interest to graduates, undergraduates, researchers and specialists who follow closely the economic development and demographic transition of China, the world's most populous country.

Since being established in 1949 — and especially since the reform and opening up 30 years ago — China has experienced the most drastic changes ever in its 5000-year history. During this period, China has transformed from an agricultural society into an emerging, dynamic, and industrialized nation and has undergone rapid urbanization. The standard of living of the Chinese continues to rise and is taking rapid strides forward to a higher level of comprehensive well-being.China's development over the past 60 years has indicated that the livelihood of the people is a key factor in economic and social construction in contemporary China. Having sufficient food and clothing is the first step in improving the livelihood of the people. A higher level of well-being can be achieved only after the basic needs are met. This “higher level of well-being” comprises of employment as the foundation, education as the key point, income distribution as the source, social security as the support, and public safety as an assurance.This book offers fresh perspectives by prestigious scholars from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Based on a unique source of data which is available only to Chinese scholars, this book showcases key issues on people's livelihood and social construction in Contemporary China, including income disparity, social security system, employment situation, post-80s generation and so on.

Since the reform and opening up in 1978, the Chinese economy has grown rapidly. China has become the focus of the world due to its astonishing achievements in every aspect of its economical growth. The country's transformation process has witnessed unprecedented social and economic phenomena and the existing economic theories have not been able to explain this rapid growth. Therefore, there is a need to establish new theories. This book fills the gap by bringing forth new ideas and economic theories.The author, who is one of China's most prestigious economists, has a profound understanding of the country's social, economic and political structures. The book is a collection of his most representative works in the recent years. The chapters not only investigate problems and challenges faced by the Chinese economy, but also shed new light on the solutions and opportunities.

This book provides a comprehensive overview on Chinese economy in the last three decades and an insightful view on the future reform in China. The China's miracle is used to describe its rapid economic growth in the last thirty years. The author aims to demystify the miracle by analyzing the past and present of economic transitions and showcases the blueprint for future economic reforms, from the perspectives of institutional transformation, urbanization and changes in the labor markets.The book contains hottest topics on Chinese economy, such as land market reform, new-type urbanization and financial reform. It investigates both the long-run growth and short-run fluctuations. The factor markets, including labor market, capital market and land market, are analyzed as key determinants to long-run growth and consumption, while investment and net export are investigated as elements to short-run fluctuations.

This book focuses on the study of the environment for the survival and development of Chinese private enterprises. It analyzes the historical development and current overall development of private enterprises in China, their number, size structure, contribution to GDP, employment and tax revenue, and size of investment. It summarizes the laws and regulations relating to the development of private enterprises. It assesses their survival environment in comparison with SOEs' and from the perspective of entrepreneurs. The book also addresses the problems with the protection of property rights of private enterprises, their market entry, their capital mobility and their own management. It concludes with the analysis of the main factors hindering the development of private enterprises in China and some policy recommendations for improving the environment for their survival and development.

This book provides a comprehensive and unique perspective on China's oil and natural gas industry and a practical roadmap to reforms.The book begins with a thorough examination of the status quo of China's oil and natural gas industry. It explores the evolution, transition, and characteristics of the oil industry of China, and unveils the problems that caused ineffectiveness of the oil and petroleum products market, namely, the dominance of monopoly enterprises, price regulation, and restriction to entry. It provides an insightful analysis on the efficiency losses and welfare losses the monopoly system brings to the society as the current system distorts income distribution, violates the principle of fairness, and stands against the market rules and the legal pillars of the Chinese constitution. This book argues that the monopoly system in the oil industry of China results in a variety of toxic influences and that reforms are needed. It then offers a roadmap to reforms in the oil and petroleum products market in an incremental fashion.The findings and proposals of the Chinese version of this book have proved to be successful, as they led to immediate shifts in the policies of the Chinese authorities. This book provides valuable insights into the urgency involved in carrying out reforms in the oil and petroleum products market in China, with concrete and up-to-date statistics, comprehensive and detailed analyses, and authoritative and authentic sources.

Administrative Monopoly in China: Causes, Behaviors, and Termination is a further work of our previous book, China's State-Owned Enterprises: Nature, Performance and Reform. This new book analyzes the SOEs with respect to monopoly, and focuses on six industries: telecommunication, petroleum, railway, salt, banking and football.The book tells the history of how administrative monopolies were formed in China, analyzes the factors responsible for this, describes the behaviors of administrative monopoly, enterprises, and individuals against the monopolistic background, and presents data on the losses brought about by the administrative monopolies.

This book provides a thorough analysis of the evolution of land property rights and transfer mechanism during the transition of the Chinese society from being a traditional self-sustaining agricultural society to a modern commercialized agricultural society. It provides empirical proof for complicated property rights theories and a solution and path for land capitalization. It discloses that in practice, land ownership may not be the essence and knot of the problem, and that the implementation of land property rights really matters.The book also provides a series of pragmatic solutions and measures to improve the current land law system and land policy in China. It stresses the importance of a pragmatic research methodology that is based on arguments on real life research and evidence, which may help promote a more grounded research atmosphere in the Chinese academia.

This book focuses on rural-urban migrants in China. They are one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the country but are essential to the country's industrialization and urbanization. Integration of these migrants into urban societies is an urgent issue facing Chinese policy makers. The book provides an updated, systematic, empirically rich, and multifaceted analysis of migrant integration, its determinants and consequences in China. It integrates insights from the perspective of sociology, population studies, social psychology, and public health to help us understand how and why migrants integrate, the role of migrant networks in social integration, and the relationship between integration of migrants and their mental health and settlement intentions.