Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
David McDermott Hughes, From Enslavement to Environmentalism: Politics on a Southern African Frontier
Edmund Abaka, Kola is God's Gift: Agricultural Production, Export Initiatives & the Kola Industry of Asante & the Gold Coast c.1820–1950
David Hall-Mathews, Peasants, Famine and the State in Colonial Western India
Linda Whiteford and Scott Whiteford (eds), Globalization, Water and Health
Penelope Francks, Rural Economic Development in Japan: From the Nineteenth Century to the Pacific War
Him Chung, China's Rural Market Development in the Reform Era     

MARKET DEVELOPMENT AND THE RISE AND FALL OF BACKYARD HOG PRODUCTION IN CHINA

With economic growth, the share of backyard hog production has declined in China over the past two decades. However, as backyard hog production fell in the rich, coastal regions, the backyard hog production from less wealthy, inland provinces has increased. In this paper, we illustrate the linkage between market development and patterns of household livestock production in rural China. The results indicate that rural labor and grain market developments have significant effects on household hog production. Using household‐level survey data, we find a distinctive inverted‐U relationship between backyard livestock production and the stage of market development. Hence, market developments might foster the contraction of hog production in rich coastal areas and at the same time lead to an expansion in hog production in poor inland areas.     

Volatility Transmission in Asian Bond Markets: Tests of Portfolio Diversification

The 1997 Asian crisis illustrated the need to develop local bond markets to reduce vulnerabilities to future mismatches in currency and maturity. This article examines a regional initiative – the Pan-Asian Bond Index Fund – and tests the implications for portfolio diversification. Intra- and inter-regional transmission of bond market volatilities between Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea and from the United States and Japan is investigated. The results show that since Hong Kong and Singapore are highly integrated into global capital markets, the prospects of diversification of investment become undermined. The study provides evidence to assist policy makers in designing bond-index funds as a strategy for portfolio diversification to promote regional bond markets.