Growth of Hong Kong Before and After its Reversion to China: The China Factor

The paper focuses on the Hong Kong economy and attempts to measure the contribution of Hong Kong's integration with mainland China to its GDP growth rate. Two linkages have received particular attention, namely, Hong Kong's foreign direct investment (FDI) in China and immigrants from China. While the former is assumed to stimulate capital investment in Hong Kong but at the same time to reduce human capital formation (owing to a shrinkage of its domestic manufacturing sector), the latter is assumed to further reduce Hong Kong's average human capital because immigrants tend to be less educated. By making some assumptions about the future trajectories of Hong Kong direct investment in China and Chinese immigrants into Hong Kong after its reversion to China, the paper offers some predictions about Hong Kong's future economic growth.     

中欧关系中的香港因素探析

在一个半世纪的英殖民统治时期．香港就逐渐成为中国与欧洲乃至西方交流的一座桥梁。自1997年主权回归后。香港在“一国两制”下的特殊地位以及欧盟对香港经济政治事务的密切关注使其在中欧关系中发挥着独特的影响。香港既可以成为中欧之间密切经贸联系的桥梁和纽带,也可能因其内部政治事务的发展而对中欧关系构成挑战。为此,我们在战略性地推动香港在中欧关系中的“门户”作用的同时,也不能忽视外来势力对中国主权与安全构成的潜在威胁。     

New evidence on breaking trend functions in real GDPs from Great China Economic Area

This article explores the difference in the time series property of economic output for the Great China Economic Area (GCEA) (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Using the powerful Kim and Perron (2009) unit root test and real GDPs over the period 1992–2014 as the study sample, results indicate the presence of a break for all economies that corresponds to the Asian financial crisis. Additionally, allowing for a break leads to the rejection of the unit root hypothesis for Taiwan only. Important implications are provided. First, considering the presence of a break in testing for nonstationarity is important or false conclusions can be drawn. Second, given the stationarity of GDP found for Taiwan only, investors should look beyond any local economic shocks and focus more on world economy development when investing in Taiwan. By contrast, investors in Mainland China and Hong Kong should pay attention to any shock because it is likely to be persistent. Third, relevant authorities should recognize that any government policy intended to promote long-run economic growth may be ineffective in Taiwan whereas it can be more effective in Mainland China and Hong Kong.     

Currency Substitution Between the Hong Kong Dollar and the Renminbi in South China

The present paper estimates the demand for the Hong Kong currency circulating in the Guangdong Province of China and Macau. The amount of Hong Kong dollars circulating in the Guangdong (Macau) region is reckoned to be 7.4 (3.2) percent of the total amount issued in Hong Kong. The estimated coeficients in the currency demand equation suggest that the Hong Kong currency in Guangdong is used mainly for transactions. Therefore, in spite of strong evidence of currency substitution of the Renminbi with the Hong Kong Dollar, its impact on the exchange rate and on the international reserves of Hong Kong during currency crisis should be minimal.     

ECONOMIC INTERACTIONS: CHINA VIS-A-VIS HONG KONG

Hong Kong's role has been integral to China's unprecedented economic growth, but privatization ranks first in importance. Another key factor is Beijing's putting economic reform before political reform. Giving democracy to a society in chaos likely makes matters worse. Hong Kong and China both have profited from their partnership. As China has opened up to allow transformation into a market economy, Hong Kong has provided informational impetus for change, a capitalist model to copy, and middleman functions for China to participate in outside-world goods and financial markets. The collapse of Communism in China and elsewhere has increased the supply of cheap labour perhaps by 2 billion. Manufacturing countries with expensive labour and high cost welfare programmes—such as those in the United States, Canada, and Europe—will have difficulty. Capitalists in these countries will do well by investing abroad but not in their own countries. Though wrong in detail, the factor price equalization theorem—that international movement of goods and international movement of factors of production are equivalent—basically is correct. If China continues moving toward privatisation and joining the international community, it will become fiercely competitive, and prospects will be bright for both China and Hong Kong. However, China's recent drift from capitalism clouds those prospects. Fundamentally, three kinds of rights systems exist: (i) a capitalist system, with well defined private property rights, protected by law, where control of resources is based on ownership; (ii) a hierarchical system, such as Communism, where control of resources is based on one's rank in the hierarchy; (iii) a system of corruption, where control of resources is based on bribes and patronage. China rapidly had been making a transition from the second system to the first but recently seems to have derailed into the third. In any case, Communism's collapse is one of the great events in human history. The hero of that event is Deng Xiaoping—not Gorbachev, nor Thatcher, nor Reagan. Hong Kong, by contributing significantly to China's capitalist movement, has led the Communist world to change.     

额外印花税与房价变动：基于香港的实证

房地产业在香港经济运行中占有不可忽视的地位。近年来,香港房价不断上涨引起了香港特区政府及香港社会各界的广泛关注,为保证香港房地产市场的平稳发展,特区政府实施了额外印花税等调控房地产市场的政策。本文分析了额外印花税影响房价变动的理论路径,并以香港2009—2012年房价变动的时间序列数据进行了实证检验。结果显示：额外印花税对香港房价的抑制作用不显著,额外印花税的实施并没有扭转房价持续走高的局面。     

TRADE AND WAGE INEQUALITY: THE HONG KONG CASE

Abstract. This paper examines the effects of Hong Kong–mainland China trade on the wage inequality in Hong Kong. Because of the large volume of trade and the large income disparity between these two regions, this empirical study provides a good test of the theories on North–South trade. The econometric analyses show that the relative wage between the skilled and unskilled workers in Hong Kong increased as the share of the volume of Hong Kong's trade with mainland China in Hong Kong's total trade volume rose.     

A robust textual analysis of the dynamics of Hong Kong property market

Market sentiments influence the dynamics of Hong Kong’s macro-critical property market, but the unobservable nature of market sentiments makes it difficult to systemically assess this sentiment channel. Using text mining techniques, this paper sets up a news-based property market sentiment index and a Google Trends-based buyer incentive index for Hong Kong and studies the sentiment channel of transmission in the Hong Kong property market. The news-based property market sentiment index can reflect the change in sentiments in past key events, with the sentiments in the primary market tending to lead that of the secondary market during the low housing supply period. For the Google Buyer Incentive Index, we find that it has value-added in forecasting (or nowcasting) the official property price index. In mapping out the sentiment channel using a structural vector-autoregressive model, we find that an improvement in market sentiments could stimulate buyers’ incentives, which then together would affect property prices and transaction volumes.     

The China–United States Bilateral Trade Balance: How Big Is It Really?

There are huge discrepancies between the official Chinese and US estimates of the bilateral trade balance. The discrepancies are caused by different treatments accorded to re-exports through Hong Kong, re-export markups, and trade in services. Deficit-shifting between China, on the one hand, and Hong Kong and Taiwan, on the other, owing to direct investment in China from Taiwan and Hong Kong, is partly responsible for the growth in the China–US bilateral trade deficit. The 1995 China–US bilateral balance of trade in goods and services, adjusted by both re-exports and re-export markups, may be estimated as US$23.3 billion, a large deficit but considerably smaller than the often-cited official US figure of US$33.8 billion.     

An empirical examination of factors driving the offshore renminbi market

Following the 2010 establishment of the offshore renminbi market in Hong Kong, renminbi deposits there quickly rose above RMB 1 trillion. In this article, we examine fluctuations between the offshore value of the renminbi in Hong Kong and its onshore value in mainland China. The size of the spot market spread appears to be influenced by stock market sentiment as reflected in the spread between A-shares listed in Shanghai and H-shares listed in Hong Kong. There is also some evidence of a link between the spread and the pace of renminbi deposit growth in Hong Kong.     

港澳台—中国对外开放的独特优势

中国对外开放三十多年,经济发展速度之快举世瞩目。作为对外开放的典型标志,对外贸易和引进外资更是突飞猛进,成为世界贸易排名第二、发展中国家引进外资最多的经济体。中国对外开放之所以取得如此成就,港澳台地区功不可没,甚至可言,如果没有同文同种的新型工业化经济体港澳台与中国内地的密切经贸往来,中国对外开放将经历较长的探索阶段。港澳台地区是中国对外开放最早的也是迄今最主要的投资者,是中国承接国际产业转移最重要的推动者,也是中国进军国际市场的最重要中介与平台。无论是珠三角经济带还是长三角经济带,港澳台企业都是重要的支柱力量。中国最早的区域经济一体化协议,是与香港和澳门签署的,今后中国的自贸区战略,港澳台地区将成为核心。     

Which is a better investment choice in the Hong Kong residential property market: a big or small property?

The relationship between property size and property investment yield is an interesting issue in the real estate market. Previous studies usually use the mean–variance criterion to compare the return-risk profiles of the yields of different property sizes in the United States. However, this criterion has a few shortcomings. This article provides the first attempt to use a stochastic dominance approach to analyse this issue. We adopt two powerful stochastic dominance tests to compare the yields of five property size classes in the Hong Kong residential property market. In our study, we analyse two possible investment outcomes: (1) investors could not rent out their properties, and thus they would gain/lose from the appreciation/depreciation of residential property prices; (2) investors could also gain from rental incomes. Our empirical results provide strong evidence to show that the yields of smaller property classes stochastically dominate the yields of bigger property classes, suggesting that buying smaller properties is a better investment choice in the Hong Kong residential property market.     

Capital Mobility and Investor Confidence: The Case of Hong Kong's Reversion to China's Sovereignty

The paper hypothesizes that capital flows to and from Hong Kong in the years prior to its reversion to Chinese sovereignty were determined in part by the credibility of China's economic and political policies towards Hong Kong. During the transition period, several events occurred that caused investors, foreign and domestic, to reexamine and revise their perceptions about concentrating their investment in Hong Kong. These events were the ongoing negotiations between China and Great Britain that resulted in the signing of the Joint Resolution and the Basic Law, the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, and Deng Xaioping's visit to China's southern provinces in 1992. As a result, Hong Kong provides a particularly relevant example of the impact government policies can have on investor confidence and capital mobility.     

The Impact of the China Factor on the pre-1997 Hong Kong Economy: a macroeconometric analysis

After the reunification of Hong Kong and China in 1997, Hong Kong is assured of a high degree of autonomy by the Basic Law. However, there remains some worry about the territory's economic viability and financial stability. Whether Chinese policies and China's remarkable growth momentum could continue to boost Hong Kong's prosperity has become an issue of concern. As the Chinese economic reform proceeds, the ‘China factor’ has been generating an increasing influence on the performance of the Hong Kong economy. Unfortunately, there have been very few rigorous quantitative analyses of this rapidly evolving development. To fill the gap, we have constructed a macroeconometric model of Hong Kong which takes into detailed account the linkages of the two economies including trade and capital flows. Estimation of the model incorporates error correction techniques to establish short-run dynamics and long-run equilibria. Our findings have identified crucial channels through which the ‘China factor’ has exerted impact on the Hong Kong economy. It is shown that the factor was not overwhelming up to the recent past, in terms of its stabilizing effects in the financial market and its stimulation on growth, although its influence may rise in the post-1997 era.     

中国大陆、香港和澳门地区的收入收敛性

香港和澳门在20世纪90年代末作为两个特别行政区回归中国。由于历史的原因,中国大陆的人均收入水平曾远远落后于香港和澳门地区。然而,在过去的30年里,由于中国大陆经济的快速发展以及香港、澳门和中国大陆的投资与人力资源的双向互动,三地经济出现了显著收敛现象。中国大陆的经济成功得益于香港、澳门地区与沿海各省市尤其是广东省在技术溢出、大规模的投资和贸易行为方面的一体化,而经济溢出、投资和贸易行为必定推动经济一体化和收入收敛行为的出现。本文旨在探讨中国大陆与香港、澳门地区的收敛趋势并研究三地收入收敛性的决定因素。本文使用参数和非参数方法定量分析了中国大陆各省市与香港、澳门地区在过去40多年间人均收入的收敛速度问题,结果表明,在经济改革之前,中国大陆、香港与澳门地区不存在人均收入的收敛行为,而在经济改革之后,却出现了显著的绝对和相对收敛。在经济改革期间,如果模型不考虑贸易和对外开放因素,这一收敛速度将不超过0.01,如果考虑贸易和对外开放因素,这一速度则超过0.02。     

Cointegration analysis of quarterly tourism demand by Hong Kong and Singapore for Australia

Hong Kong and Singapore are two of the most important and fastest growing markets for tourists to Australia. The purpose of this paper is to investigate movements in the long-run demand for tourist travel by these two origin countries for Australia. Some of the leading macroeconomic variables examined to explain tourism demand are incomes in Hong Kong and Singapore, tourism prices in Australia, and transportation costs and exchange rates between the two countries and Australia. Seasonally unadjusted quarterly data are used for Hong Kong for the period 1975(1)–1996(4), and for 1980(4)–1996(4) for Singapore. Several proxy variables are used for the incomes of tourists from Hong Kong and Singapore to explain quarterly tourist arrivals to Australia. The augmented Dickey-Fuller test for unit roots is examined in the univariate framework, and Johansen's maximum likelihood procedure is used to test for cointegration and to estimate the number of cointegrating vectors. Error correction models are estimated to explain quarterly tourism demand by Hong Kong and Singapore for Australia.     

Trade with China: do the figures add up?

There are wide discrepancies in bilateral trade data compiled by China and by its trading partners, particularly the United States. This paper investigates the main reasons, notably the role of Hong Kong as an entrepôt, and develops a methodology to provide more accurate estimates for these trade flows. It extends the Sung—Lardy method in recent literature and achieves a reconciliation of the two data sets by China and by its major partners. The method recognizes that both the Chinese and the partners' data are likely to be distorted and demonstrates that a complete picture can he constructed by using data recorded from Hong Kong. A new estimate of the re-export margins in Hong Kong on Chinese exports is presented and used in the data reconciliation exercises, and problems of valuation and transit lag when comparing an export series with its counterpart import series are taken into account by the new method. The effects of using proved data are demonstrated in an application to examine fair market access in China—US bilateral trade undertaken by Tower (1993).     

两岸四地经济的互补促进与西部开发

改革开放以来，快速、持续、稳定增长的中国经济，为港澳台经济的发展提供了坚实的基础。港澳回归后，两岸四地经济合作将在更大的层面上展示，以实现互促互补，同生共长；而西部大开发则为两岸四地经济的繁荣提供了更为广阔的空间。     

回归以来香港经济竞争力的变化状况及原因分析

本文首先从香港在世界经济竞争力的排名、在中国经济版图中的地位以及在时间序列上发展等角度剖析其经济竞争力的变化,然后利用主成分因子分析方法构造一个描述香港绝对经济竞争力的指数,量化分析香港经济竞争力的变化。结果表明香港金融、贸易和物流、旅游服务和专业服务竞争力在受到一系列事件的冲击下产生波动,但是总体上还是维持在一个较高水平,具有较强的竞争力。随后对香港经济竞争力变化的原因进行剖析,最后对如何提升香港经济竞争力给出了政策建议。     

珠江三角洲经济发展、城市扩张与农田流失研究——以东莞市为例

珠江三角洲自改革开放的２０年来经历了巨大的发展,但也导致了城市的迅速扩张以及大量宝贵农田的流失。本文以珠江三角洲发展最快的城市之一的东莞为例探讨其经济发展、城市扩张以及农田流失的关系。研究发现了农田流失与不同阶段的经济发展有密切的关系。自进入９０年代以来,由于房地产的过热发展,造成了农田的加速流失,严重浪费土地资源。珠江三角洲的农田流失与乡镇企业的发展,地方自主权的扩大,香港的影响,交通条件的改善以及土地管理等一系列因素有关。