Resource integration of regional economic development in northwest China

Northwestern area is the most arid and underdeveloped area in China. Lots of researches have been doneto find the approaches to alleviate poverty. But there are some problems, for example, how to invest, how to use capital,and why the utilization rate is ambiguous. Water, capital and human resources are analyzed in this paper to be comparedwith their Utilization rates. As a result, according to the dependences of economic growth on those resources, a newapproach has been selected to organize the integration ways among these resources for economic development innorthwestern China. The efficient ways to develop northwestern China are： firstly, use the wanting resources mosteffectively to make an efficient integration model of multiple resources. For example, enhance the utilization rate of waterto raise the value of other resources. Secondly, invest more in basic factors for economic development to upgrade thecompetitiveness in the western China. For example, invest more in primary education and sustainable development ofbasic natural resources in order to have more power for sustainable development.     

The decomposition of disturbances to national output of China–the evidence of sectoral and regional shocks

Diversities and similarities in international consumption patterns are highlighted. A large body of data is used to identify cross-country consumption differences and to understand these in terms of the familiar utility-maximizing framework, in which observed differences in prices and incomes play the key role. Taken as a whole, the results reveal a surprising degree of similarity in international consumption patterns and support the idea that tastes are constant, at least with respect to broad commodity groups.     

Analysis on regional disparity of economic development in China based on DEA

The economy of China has been developing fast after the beginning of the new century, but the 31 provinces or municipalities （excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao） develop disparately. So, finding an appropriate way to analyze and compare the economic situations of various regions is of great significance for the balanced development of the east coastal area and the hinterland. With the DEA method, on the basis of regionalism, this paper analyzes various regions of China, and gets the conclusion that the effective proportion of DEA of the coastal developed areas is relatively higher, and the extremely tittle foreign investment makes the relative efficiency of DEA of frontier areas pretty high. In addition, through the analysis parameters of the regions where DEA is relatively ineffective, this paper points out that the surplus labor force is the most influential factor, and the spare foreign investment is the main reason for the lack of efficiency of relatively developed regions.     

Can domestication of wildlife lead to conservation? The economics of tiger farming in China

Tigers are a threatened species that might soon disappear in the wild. Not only are tigers threatened by deteriorating and declining habitat, but poachers continue to kill tigers for traditional medicine, decoration pieces and so on. Although international trade in tiger products has been banned since 1987 and domestic trade within China since 1993, tigers continue to be poached and Chinese entrepreneurs have established tiger farms in anticipation of their demise. While China desires to permit sale of tiger products from captive-bred tigers, this is opposed on the grounds that it likely encourages illegal killing. Instead, wildlife conservationists lobby for more spending on anti-poaching and trade-ban enforcement. In this study, a mathematical bioeconomic model is used to investigate the issue. Simulation results indicate that, unless range states are characterized by institutions (rule of law and low corruption) similar to those found in the richest countries, reliance on enforcement alone is insufficient to guarantee survival of wild tigers. Likewise, even though conservation payments could protect wild tigers, the inability to enforce contracts militates against this. Our model indicates that wild tigers can be protected by permitting sale of products from tiger farms, although this likely requires the granting of an exclusive license to sellers. Finally, it is possible to tradeoff enforcement effort and sale of products from captive-bred animals, but such tradeoffs are worsened by deteriorating tiger habitat.     

An empirical test of the regional innovation paradox: can smart specialisation overcome the paradox in Central and Eastern Europe?

The regional innovation paradox is the greater need of lagging regions to invest in innovation and their relatively lower capacity to absorb funding compared to more advanced regions. Using data on regional public spending, industry composition and economic performance, we test empirically whether there is a differential impact of European funding on regional economic growth between Eastern and Western European regions. We conclude that the paradox is proven and consider the extent to which smart specialisation strategies may help to improve the quality of governance of regional innovation systems.     

Does branch network size influence positively the management performance of Japanese regional banks?

This article investigates whether branch network expansions by Japanese regional banks influence their management performances positively at a time when management environments surrounding regional financial institutions have become increasingly severe due to the population decreases and shrinkage of regional economies. Specifically, the effects of numbers of regional bank branches on their credit businesses and profits are empirically examined. The results indicated that regional banks with more branches can increase their loans and bills discounted as well as their small and mid-sized enterprises loans and bills discounted. Thus, establishing more branches is effective in increasing the total sum of loans and bills discounted by each bank because regional banks with many branches can make contact with more customers. On the other hand, return on assets and return on equity of regional banks with more branches were found to be lower. Therefore, regarding the cost performance of regional banks, establishing too many branches and maintaining branch networks that are too large can have negative effects on regional banks.     

Circular economy indicators to evaluate regional development： A case study of Tianjin municipality

With the aim of the harmonious development of economy-environment system in Tianjin Municipality, an index system used to evaluate the circular economy （CE） is presented in this paper. The index system consists of the index of economy development, green development, human and culture development. According to the evaluation results, this paper brings forward the countermeasures including industry structure adjustment, improving city infrastructure system, increasing the level of habitation environment, establishing the system of green social consumption to improve the development of circular economy in Tianjin.     

Is the Allais paradox due to appeal of certainty or aversion to zero?

Experimental Economics - We provide a novel but intuitive explanation for expected utility violations found in the Allais paradox: individuals are commonly averse to receiving nothing. We call this...     

The appointment of celebrities to corporate boards in China: sword or shield?

This study examines whether reputation mechanism works for celebrity independent directors in China. We find that firms with celebrity independent directors experience higher multiple agency costs and worse performance, indicating that managers and/or large shareholders take celebrity-independent directors as a shield for facilitating grabbing private benefits. In addition, this effect varies between state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises.     

Aiding violence or peace? The impact of foreign aid on the risk of civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper considers the impact of foreign aid flows on the risk of civil conflict. We improve on earlier studies on this topic by addressing the problem of the endogenous aid allocation using GDP levels of donor countries as instruments. A more structural addition to the literature is that we efficiently control for unobserved country specific effects in typical conflict onset and conflict continuation models by first differencing. The literature often overlooks the dynamic nature of these types of models, thereby forcing unlikely i.i.d. structures on the error terms implicitly.¹ As a consequence, malfunctioning institutions, deep-rooted political grievances, or any other obvious, yet unobserved and time persistent determinants of war are simply assumed away. We find a statistically significant and economically important negative effect of foreign aid flows on the probability of ongoing civil conflicts to continue (the continuation probability), such that increasing aid flows tends to decrease civil conflict duration. We do not find a significant relationship between aid flows and the probability of civil conflicts to start (the onset probability).     

Parasitical cultures? The cultural origins of institutions and development

Do cultural attitudes affect institutions and economic performance? This paper suggests they do. To measure the impact of cultural attitudes we use prevalence rates of the common parasite Toxoplasma gondii which is known to affect individual attitudes and societal values in predictable ways. By using prevalence rates of Toxoplasma as instrument for cultural variation, we are able to isolate the effects of cultural attitudes on institutions, distinguishing them from effects of institutions and economic outcomes on culture. We find that our indicators of cultural attitudes are significant determinants of institutional quality, and strong predictors of long-run economic performance.     

From compensation to development： the application and progress of RwD in China

Involuntary resettlenment caused by project construction is a difficult problem over world. In the past, therestoration of livelihoods in the event of involuntary resettlementhas been based purely on providing compensation to those who are displaced. Evidence has shown that compensation-based involuntary resettlement can not realize the objective of restoring and improving resettlers＇ living standard. With a view to improve this outcome, the concept of Resettlement with Development （RwD） was envisaged and is now generally heralded as the means to mitigate catastrophic failures of the past. However, few developing countries have included the concept of RwD into th, ational policies and China is one of them. The Chinese government has taken resettlement as an opportunity to help resettlers restore and improve their living standards and develop economy in reservoir areas by implementing RwD olicy including giving compensation and subsidies at early stage and offering production assistance at late stage, citing up reservoir construction fund, initiating partnership programs and preferential policy as well as enhanc infrastruture construction. The preliminary experience from the TGP resettlement has verified that the transformation from compensation-based resettlement to RwD is a right policy, choice. Meanwhile. because ofthe changing political environment and the complexity of involuntary resettlement there is still room for china to improve its RwD policy.     

Restricting factors of the development of SEA in China

＂Environmental Impact Assessment Law of P. R. China＂ was promulgated on Oct. 28^th, 2002 and has been put into effect on Sep 1^th, 2003. This paper puts forward some important factors which restrict the development of Strategic Environmental Assessment according to the preliminary practices of SEA in China. These restricting factors are： （1） potential resistance from some departments; （2） poor cooperation between different departments; （3） limited availability of information resources （4） lack of well-developed SEA methods; （5） difficulties in public participation. The primary thought to solve these problems were proposed at policy and technique level.     

The Beginning of the Road to Recovery?

In this most convulsive and confus- ing time in modern American finance, one point stands out: Credit market fail- ure has pushed the economy to the edge, and policymakers are scrambling to pull it back. When investors began to flee the heretofore safe harbor of money-market funds in favor of Treasury bills that guar- anteed a mere 0.04% return, it was plain that confidence in the financial system was breaking down. The government's ad hoc approach, intended to prevent failing institutions from collapsin...     

The impact of regional trade policy uncertainty on the productivity of Chinese export enterprises: The case of China–ASEAN Free Trade Area

Reduction of regional trade policy uncertainty is critical for promoting Chinese export enterprise productivity and will help the economy enter the high-quality development stage. We use the case of the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area to empirically tests the impact of the reduction of regional trade policy uncertainty on the productivity of Chinese export enterprises. We apply the difference-in-difference method to micro-enterprise level data from the “China industrial enterprise database” and “China Customs enterprise database” for 2007–2013. Our analysis and results show that establishing the China–ASEAN Free Trade Area has dramatically reduced regional trade policy uncertainty, significantly impacting the productivity of Chinese enterprises exporting to ASEAN. The results also show that enterprises with different ownership types, regions, factor density, and pollution emission intensity show significant heterogeneity in the level of productivity improvement. Applying a mechanism test, we found that the promotion of productivity from a reduction of regional trade policy uncertainty is achieved through the learning effect, the competition effect, and improving the trade environment of imported intermediate goods. The learning effect mechanism has the highest contribution, accounting for 39.01% of the net effect. The empirical results provide novel insight into promoting the productivity of Chinese enterprises exporting to ASEAN from the perspective of reducing regional trade policy uncertainty.     

Do regional house prices converge or diverge in China?

This paper aims to test whether the regional house prices are convergent or divergent in China using a monthly panel data set of China’s 70 large and medium-sized cities from July 2005 to December 2010. This issue is closely related to understanding the efficiency of the country-level housing policies made by China’s central government. The test results suggest that the regional house prices in China are generally divergent, and thereby the country-level policies may be inefficient since they do not explicitly take the strong heterogeneity of China’s regional housing markets into consideration. As a consequence, it may be better for China’s central government to further decentralize and devolve its governance toward the housing market to the local governments.     

Evaluation of regional tourism competitiveness：a case study of southwest China

Evaluation of regional tourism competitiveness has been a hot issue of tourism geography and regional economics in recent years. This study introduces system theory and Professor Porter＇s National Diamond Model into constructing the evaluation index system of regional tourism competitiveness, which includes four decisive factors, namely production factor, market, industry and support competitiveness. And by comprehensive use of subjective and objective methods like Principal Component Analysis （PCA） and Analysis Hierarchy Process （AHP） the appraised values were calculated. At the same time, the method was applied to dynamic demonstration analysis of the tourism competitiveness of the provinces in Southwest China from 2001 to 2005. The result shows that their tourism comprehensive competitiveness has distinct differences. The comprehensive competitiveness of Sichuan and Yunnan are better, Chongqing and Guangxi are in the middle, and Guizhou and Tibet are weak. According to the competitiveness ranks in 2001-2005, comprehensive, production factor, industry and support competitiveness changed a little and market competitiveness changed a lot. This competitive pattern has been made mostly because natural resource conditions and economic development levels of the provinces are very different and are difficult to be changed in a short period.     

How fast can China grow? The Middle Kingdom's prospects to 2030

Given its size and importance for global commodity markets, the question of how fast China can grow over the medium term is an important one. Using a Cobb–Douglas production function, we decompose the growth of trend GDP into those of the capital stock, labour, human capital and total factor productivity (TFP) and then forecast trend output growth out to 2030 using a bottom‐up approach based on forecasts that we build for each one of these factors. Our paper distinguishes itself from existing work in that we construct a forecast of Chinese TFP growth based on the aggregation of forecasts of its key determinants. In addition, our analysis is based on a carefully constructed estimate of the Chinese productive capital stock and a measure of human capital (based on Chinese wage survey data) that better reflects the returns to education in China. Our results suggest that Chinese GDP growth will slow from around 7% currently to approximately 5% by 2030, consistent with a gradual rebalancing of the Chinese economy characterized by a decline in the investment rate. Moreover, our findings underscore the growing importance of TFP growth as a driver of Chinese growth.