Hui-Tzu Shih - Böcker

The establishment of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in December 1990 was a landmark in China's institutional transformation. With this in mind, the authors consider the factors relating to institutional change - such as changes in the financial system, the scale and structure of stock market, operational efficiency and the regulatory system of the stock market. During the course of its development the Chinese stock market has experienced speculation, dramatic fluctuations and violations of market regulations of frequent and diverse natures. There is therefore, urgent need for the discussion contained within this volume of best procedure policies for the establishment of a properly ordered and regulated market.The authors assess the operational performance of listed companies, and changes in the external environment such as the impact of China's accession to the WTO on the stock market. The authors find that WTO accession will have a more serious impact on the more heavily protected agricultural sector and on capital-intensive industries such as automobile, instruments, cotton and wheat to name a few. They argue that the fundamental reason for the inefficiency of China's stock market is the weakness of the competitive mechanism leading to imperfect competition and rent-seeking activity. This book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of Asian studies and money and finance. Multinational enterprise managers, as well as brokers, dealers, business economists and others involved in the global financial markets will also find this book of value.

Financial reform has been a major concern for China's transitional economy - especially in the realms of banking and insurance - since accession to the WTO in 2001. This book scrutinizes the development and limitations of these industries during the process of institutional transformation, and demonstrates that they are now facing severe challenges as well as opportunities. The relationships between the market structure, behavior and performance of China's banking and insurance industries are analysed. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat (SWOT) approach is utilized in investigating the impact of WTO accession on Chinese banking and insurance, and strategies for the prevention of future financial crises are prescribed. Exploring the juxtaposition of institutional transformation in China and the financial risk inherent in the old system, the book concludes that with WTO accession and the opening up of financial services to foreign companies, competitiveness will become fiercer, resulting in increased uncertainty, intensifying the level of risk even further. Banking and Insurance in the New China will prove invaluable to multinational enterprise managers, brokers, dealers and investors, business economists, students and academics with a specific interest in the Chinese economy.

Following China's accession to the WTO in 2001, reform of its science and technology system has deepened. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the high-tech sector, examining Chinese high-tech industry policy, the emergence of industrial clusters, the R&D activities of multinational corporations operating in China, and the prospect of commercialization of high-tech achievements. The authors argue that since commercialization has become the ultimate objective of innovation activity, the relationship between R&D facilities, the local economy and local enterprises has become closer, thereby boosting the technology innovation capability of the corporate sector. They go on to explore regions with the greatest scale and depth of high-tech industry development: Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Shaanxi; which now serve as models for other regions. The book concludes that although high-tech exports have become an important contributing factor to China's economic growth, the country still has no effective mechanism for high-risk investment, therefore Chinese high-tech enterprises still find it difficult to secure financing.This book will strongly appeal to those affiliated to multinational enterprises: managers, brokers, dealers and investors, as well as academics and researchers specialising in business economics and Asian studies.