Who Supports Redistribution? Subjective Income Inequality in Japan and China

Governments reduce income inequality with redistribution policies. These policies are often contentious because people who live in the same country have different preferences for redistribution. Some prefer the government to do more while others prefer the government to do less. Hence what explains the difference in preferences? Using the methodologically suitable cases of Japan and China, this paper contributes to the redistributive preference literature by proposing an alternative theory of how a person's subjective evaluation of and experiences with income inequality—subjective income inequality—affect his/her redistributive preferences. Specifically, a person who feels that his/her country's level of income inequality is too high is more likely to support government redistribution. But contrary to extant studies, this paper finds that a spatial locality's level of objective income inequality does not systematically affect its citizens' preference for redistribution. This finding has implications for redistribution policies because government policies in Japan and China—as with other countries—narrowly frame income inequality in the objective dimensions by pegging it to "objective" income inequality indices(e.g., Gini ratio), thereby ignoring the more important subjective dimensions of income inequality.     

A study of regional CDM projects distribution in China

CDM will reduce the global GHG emissions with lower costs while promoting sustainable development of the developing countries. However, the lack of distribution equilibrium has been a problem not solved for a long time. In order to increase CDM distribution equilibrium in China, CDM support requirement extent of different areas is analyzed based on the study on the economic development and sustainable development capability. At the same time, registered and issued projects are analyzed to have an assessment on the CDM distribution equilibrium in China. Based on the study, it is concluded that there is a lack of CDM distribution equilibrium in China as most of CDM support has gone to the relatively more developed areas. Based on the reason analysis from the sector development, CDM market and information circulation aspects, suggestions are given to support CDM development in western areas by the “sector development guidance ＋ CDM capability construction ＋ market support” mode in this paper.     

A study on the tourism practitioners＇ perception of tourism impact： a case study of Hainan,China

This study examines the urban population of tourism practitioners perceptions of economic, environmental, and social impacts on cultural, convention, and sport tourism may have in Haikou and Sanya. Hainan, China. The study uses a modified Urban Tourism Impact （UTI） to examine economic, environmental, and social perceived impacts. Analysis of the data includes testing three models of structural relationships between tourism impacts and support for development in each of the tourism market sub-divisions through a confirmatory factor analysis. The results of this study show that the positive economic impacts consistently exert influence on predicting support for tourism development in all three models. However; the social impacts play a greater explanatory role with all three market segment, the negative environmental impacts play a role in determining support for sport tourism only. Differences have been found with those with a higher education level in predicting support for cultural tourism, but not convention or sport tourism.     

Competition and monopoly of Chinese rural groundwater market：structure and determinants

China is facing severe problem of water scarcity.Agricultural sector,the main consumer of water resource,has remarkably changed its institutions on water resource deployment,due to heavy environmental pressure.As a new and spontaneous institution,groundwater market has developed rapidly in northern China,and has impacts on waterusing behaviors and benefits of farmers.Using household survey data from Hebei and Henan in 2007,this paper attempts to pin down the development and operating of groundwater market in rural China.We focus on the monopoly and competition in the market.Empirical analysis reveals that Chinese farmers are trying to make rational decision when they compete with others in groundwater market.In general,monopoly is not fierce in Chinese rural groundwater market,with great variations among different villages and even different tubewells within one village.Tubewell costs,regulation and the density of tubewells are the main determinants that affect monopoly level of groundwater market.To make water market benefit more and more farmers of low income,corresponding policies are needed to modify its development in the future.     

The Transition of Thoughts on Grain Control in the Qing Dynasty:A Survey of the Great Debate on the Ever-Normal Granary and Grain Prices in 1748

The ever-normal granary system was an official granary management system in ancient China.Throughout its existence,the system functioned as a major means of adjusting the price of grain and provided disaster relief.Few studies on the system touches upon the relationship between grain price fluctuation and the development of the grain market,or the ever-normal granary system and its related economic school of thoughts.Starting with the development of the grain market and the relationship between the price of grain and grain reserves,and through a systematic review of the debate on the ever-normal granary system and grain prices among high-level officials of the Qing government in the 13th year of Emperor Qianlong’s reign(1748),this paper analyzes the historical process and reasons for the change in thoughts on the ever-normal granary system and discusses the historical path of how economic phenomenon gave rise to the clash of economic thoughts that influenced the evolution of this economic institution.     

CONTENTS

Confucian Ethic and the Cultural Logic in Economic Development
ZHANG Jie （China Financial Policy Research Center, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China）
Abstract： Opinions differ in academic field regarding the relationship between Confucian ethic and economic develop- ment. The research done in the paper suggests that Confucian ethic originated from the practical demand of guaranteeing the smooth operation of family organization. Afterwards, it served as a coordinator between government and individuals, thus bringing about the institutional compromise bet,~een family and bureaucracy which constituted the foundation of market system unique to China. Institutional equilibrium between government and other market forces will be the key el- ement in the successful development of market economy, which, as can be predicted, will have everything to do with Confucian ethic. In the paper, the author holds that Confucianism features internal conflicts on macro-versus micro-lev- els. On the macro-level, it has set a very high threshold for wealth and morals while on the micro-level little attention has been paid to how to create wealth. Thus it is rational and justified for the foregone reform to have put priority on ab- sorbing the merits of the western system which is based on protestant ethic so as to increase wealth accumulation. How- ever, such a process is lack of stability and tolerance and is prone to deviation of wealth from morality. This is where Confucianism steps in to function as a corrector. The paper concludes that the long separation of wealth accumulation from its own cultural tradition has become the biggest obstacle to future growth. In the face of intensifying conflicts in economic society, the only correct choice is to retrieve tradition and have the economic reform rooted in its own cultural soil. Key Words： Confucian Ethic; Institutional Compromise; Endogenous Market Function; Economic Development; Cultural Logic     

基础设施影响农村经济发展的统计分析

Based on statistical analysis, this paper states that four types of rural infrastructure as roads, electrcity,communications, and education have statistically significant effects on agricultural production, nonagricultural production, and farmers‘ income in China. However, the specifics and the degrees of these influences are different.Therefore, different policies have to be implemented respectively to make full use of the limited funds in China.Meanwhile, the maturity level of rural infrastructure as with rural economic development has regional discrepancy.The levels of maturity decrease from east to west. it is urgent that the current weak situation of the rural Infrastructure in western China needs to be improved.     

Effect of total resource allocation effect and economic growth：Chinese experience of 1978-2004

The analytical method of total resource reallocation effect is an evolution of the analytical method of the factors of economic growth. Since the marketization reform in China in 1978, market mechanism has played a more and more important role in resource allocation, and Chinese economy has developed greatly, which is called ＂the Chinese Miracle＂. This paper analyzes the economic growth in China from 1978 to 2004 with the analytical method of total resource reallocation effect. The result shows that the annual growth rate of total resource reallocation effect was 0.2%, which was 5.1% of the comprehensive productivity and 0.21% of the gross output growth, i.e. the total resource allocation played a weak role in the economic growth in China. When analyzing it in Chenery＇s multinational model, we find that Chinese comprehensive productivity growth rate was higher than that in all the income phases of the model, but the total resource allocation effect was obviously lower than that in all the income phases of the model. It indicates that the total resource allocation in China has a great potential, and that to accelerate marketization reform is one of the important issues for Chinese economic development.     

The Way of the Social and Economic Development of China An Attempt of Historical and Synthetic Representation

The issue of social and economic development is an important part of theoretical and empirical research of the contemporary economy. China is an example of an economy which in a short period of time achieved success within this scope. Therefore it seems to be justified to draw the reader＇s attention to the factors and determinants which may be regarded as the key ones for the economy of China, both in the period of 1949-1978, namely, in the period of real socialism, and in the period after 1978, so-called ＂socialist market economy＂ to date. On the basis of an analysis of Polish and foreign reference sources and source materials, the author tried to trace both similarities and differences in China＇s economic development over those two periods, first of all paying attention to the Chinese authorities＇ pragmatism of governing in the other period, accompanied by limiting ideological influences. Maintaining the socialist system, in that period China worked out its own, specific principles, and rules of internal activities and activities in the international arena, which enabled to it the creation of a model, especially for developing countries, the system of economic planning and programming, its constant modernization during the implementation of economic tasks, with the consideration given to changing conditionings in the world economy. It was pointed out that with maintaining the laboriousness of the Chinese and their loyalty to authority, they make up China＇s economic power. The aim of the article is to pay special attention to the circumstances, phenomena, conditionings, and factors which occurred on the way to the social and economic development of China, which enabled it to achieve the economic success in a relatively short period of time. This success can be expressed by such indicators as for instance the poverty rate, the unemployment rate, gross domestic product, the value of export, and the value of foreign direct investment as well as other factors.     

关系对农村收入差距的贡献及其地区差异-一项基于回归的分解分析

Our paper aims at examining the impacts of social networks,the most important category of social capital,on income and income inequality of rural households. Moreover,we intend to understand how these impacts vary across regions with different levels of marketization and economic development. Employing household survey data from rural China,our empirical results demonstrate that social networks contribute 12.1%—13.4% to the income inequality among households in rural China,ranking the fourth after village f...     

The Nature and Avoidance of the ＂Middle Income Trap＂

The ＂middle income trap＂ is a significant theoretical and practical issue closely related to the economic and social transition and sustainable development of a country. This paper explores the essence of the ＂middle income trap＂ and ways to avoid it. It reveals that the inner nature of the ＂middle income trap＂ lies in the institutional transition dilemma, which results essentially from a lack of reasonable and clear definitions of governance boundaries between government and market as well as government and society. This lack of boundaries causes coexistent and interrelated government inefficiency, market distortion/failure and social anomie, leading to a stagnant transition from a factor-driven to an efficiency-driven and further innovation-driven economy. Moreover, this paper proposes that the proper way to avoid the ＂trap＂ can be found in the reconstruction of the state governance mode, that is, to transition from a development-oriented and omnipotent government to a public service-oriented and limited government, from factor-driven to efficiency-driven and further innovation-driven development, and from a traditional society to a modem civil society through defining reasonable and clear boundaries between government and market as well as government and society. Thus, reconstruction can establish a state public governance mode featuring the interactive role of government, market and society, and achieve the modernization of state governance systems and capacity.     

Assessment of the agricultural sustainability of Shaanxi Province,China

It is significant for the study on the sustainable development of regional agriculture to monitor and measurethe trend of agricultural development with an effective method. The sustainable development of regional agricultureshould accord with regional population, rural economic development, social progress, resource and environmentalsupport. This paper establishes the evaluating indicators system of sustainable development of regional agriculture,evaluates the agricultural sustainable development in Shaanxi Province with a comprehensive multi-indicator method,analyzes the support of resource and environment for regional agriculture by the resource-development index and theenvironment-development index, and gets the conclusion that the indicators, such as education level, the income gapbetween urban and rural residents, the per capita area under cultivation and the consumption of pesticides and chemicalfertilizers per hectare, are the main factors to restrict agricultural sustainability, and that the pressure of the developmentof subsystems of population, economy and society on the subsystems of resource and environment turns out to bestronger and stronger. Agricultural environment gets better, but resource becomes one of the important factors to restrictthe development of regional agriculture. In a word, this paper highlights the potentials and limitations of sustainableagriculture of Shaanxi and helps identify the development direction in the future.     

Will Inequality Lead China to the Middle Income Trap？

China has departed from the East Asian development model by letting inequality rise to a high level, which is now contributing to China＇s current problems of macroeconomic imbalance, declining efficiency of capital, and rising social tensions. If inequality persists, China may get caught in the ＂inequality-trap,＂ which may then lead to the middle income trap （MIT）. Fortunately, China still has the levers to pull to reduce inequality and avoid the MIT. Measures along both the ＂wage route＂ and the ＂redistributive route＂ can be adopted for this purpose. In addition, China may pursue the ＂cooperative route＂ to more equitable distribution.     

A model of local labor market regulation of China in the transition period

With the establishment of labor market of China, market is playing a more and mare important role in allocation of human resources. However, with the transition of economy in China and industrial upgrading in recent years, many labor problems have occurred which do harm to the sustainable development of local economy. The paper researches on the labor market issues of China from the perspective of local labor market regulation. Firstly, it reviews the theories of local labor market regulation. And then the main components of local labor market regulation of China are identified and the evaluation index system is established. The results of analysis of the calculated output show that （1） the local labor market regulation of China has an obvious character of gradient distribution geographically and decreases gradually from east to west; （2） of all the regulations, the regulation of the development of human capital has the most significant impact on local economy currently which is followed by the regulation of labor relation and the regulation of market participation. As to the regulation of social security, it has no Significant impact on the development of local economy.     

A study of contract legal issues in Chinese carbon market

Clean Development Mechanism （CDM） has given birth to an international carbon trading market prosperity, which provides developing countries with valuable opportunities to address climate change issues together with economic development and environmental improvement to achieve the sustainable goal. China, as the biggest carbon market, has caught worldwide attention. However, most studies of CDM focus on economics and environmental science, few on its legal problems. Transaction activities are the essence of market mechanism. To protect the benefits of market participators and regulate the market orders, the Contract Law takes this important role along with development of market mechanism. Therefore, this paper only focuses on the carbon market in China, with the assessment of the risks in the CDM development first. The involved contracts will be identified and analyzed to point out the major contract legal issues in Chinese carbon market. In the meantime, this paper further discusses that measurements at both private level and governmental level should be taken to protect and realize the utility and equality of contract in the carbon market.     

Which Type of Urbanization Better Matches China＇s Factor Endowment： A Comparison of Population-Intensive Old Puxi and Land-Capital-Intensive New Pudong

Based on a comparative study of New-Pudong （East Shanghai） and Old-Puxi （West Shanghai） in their respective ability to absorb rural migrants, the very essence of urbanization, this paper finds that, constrained by the current hukou （household registration） system and land tenure system, although New-Pudong has emerged as one of the most modernized urban areas in the world, it did so under an urbanization model that is government-dominant and characterized by high land-intensity and capital-intensity. This model represents a serious mismatch in terms of China＇s factor endowment that is characterized with a large but relatively poor rural population. In sharp contrast, guided by the market mechanism under private land ownership and free migration, Old-Puxi emerged as an urbanization model that was very adaptable to China＇s factor endowment and stage of development. Therefore, as a model of endogenous urbanization, Old-Puxi is more efficient and inclusive, at the same time more sustainable economically and environmentally, and for this reason more applicable to China at a time when China needs to urbanize most of its rural population urgently to avoid the further worsening of the rural/urban divide and income disparity.     

Energy efficiency and economic growth of China： 1953-2006

Energy plays an important role in the economic life. With the rapid development of economy, the constraint of energy on the sustainable development of economy is becoming more and more obvious. This paper just Studies the factors influencing energy efficiency of China and the relationship between energy efficiency and China＇s economic： growth. By using time series multivariable linear regression methods with China＇s relevant data from 1953 to 2006, this paper constructs the regression model to analyze the factors that would impact energy, efficiency. After that, a regression model of China＇s real output to capital, labor and energy e lficiency is conducted to estimate the marginal contribution of every factor to the real output to prove the fundamental influence of energy efficiency to the economic growth. In the end, some policies and recommendations are also put forward in order to improve the energy efficiency; of China.     

Resource constraint,sustainable economic growth pattern and transformation of economic system in China

Over the past 20 years, China has made spectacular achievements in economic growth as well as in thetransformation of economic growth pattern. Industrial structure is being updated, and technology is playing a more andmore important role in economic development. The energy and resource consumption in many industries and enterprisesare reducing. However, we should realize that there are still many problems in changing the economic growth pattern,such as high input, high consumption, high discharge, inharmony, recycling difficulty, and low efficiency, which havegreatly impaired and restrict Chinese economic development. Therefore, the fundamental change of the economic growthpattern is inevitable. Based on the analysis on the status quo and the exploit of resources, this paper suggests that thetransformation from unsustainable to sustainable growth is the only choice in changing the economic growth pattern. Inaddition, the transformation should not completely rely on the fundamental effects of market mechanism. We should makefull use of the power of governments to speed up the transformation of economic system.     

Positive Analysis Of Income Disparity between Towns＇ Residents and Rural Residents in Hebei Province

With the economic development, the income disparity between towns＇ residents and rural residents in China shows an enlarging trend. This phenomenon becomes a hot issue of the whole society. The income disparity between towns＇ residents and rural residents in Hebei province also shows an enlarging trend. The authors study this problem with the positive analysis method from the situation, the developing trend in the future, the reasons of the income disparity between towns＇ residents and rural residents in Hebei, and put forward proposals about how to reduce the income disparity.     

A study of economic development in Tibet of China based on the ecological economic mode

The purpose of this paper is to study the issues on keeping the continuous development of Tibetan economy and the relative stability of its ecosystem. Hence, in order to achieve the object, the study analyzes the status quo of economic development in Tibet and the problems of resource exploitation. It especially discusses frailty of Tibetan eco-environment, and evaluates the contradictions between the traditional economic developing mode and the safety of plateau＇s ecosystem. It concludes that there is an inevitable clash between the development of Tibetan economy and the safety of plateau＇s eco-system; this problem cannot be avoided by any decision maker, Therefore, the character of Tibetan econvironment and the requirement of its economic development strategy determine that ecological economy developing mode is the only choice for Tibet. This paper suggests that it should be compensated by the national government to assure that Tibetan economy can keep a higher developing speed. In accordance with the feature of plateau eco-economy system and demand of Tibetan economic development, this paper also suggests several methods to apply the ecoeconomy developing strategy of Tibet.