The impact of China's WTO accession on Hong Kong textiles,clothing and its supporting industries

China's accession to the WTO and the ‘Agreement on Textiles and Clothing’ (ATC) which gradually ban the use of quota, will have profound impacts on the textile industry in China. This article attempts to examine such impacts on all textile firms of Hong Kong origin. It briefly examines the impact of WTO on the textile industries in general, the participation of Hong Kong based firms in China's textiles industry, and the competitors from foreign countries. It examines in detail the practice of obtaining Hong Kong quota for textile products that are made in the Mainland by Hong Kong firms. The article argues that there are positive and negative effects of China–s WTO accession for all textile firms of Hong Kong origin. It concludes that the shifting of the targeted market to high-end, high-value-added is the only way of survival for the textile firms of Hong Kong.     

Subnational managerial transformation and the post‐WTO‐accession business environment in China: Shanghai perspectives

The market‐oriented perspectives held by managers of China's municipal government agencies and urban enterprises constitute critical variables in the business environment encountered by foreign investors. A study of 426 predominantly subnational managers in Shanghai found most study participants generally positively inclined toward implementing accession‐related reforms and toward marketoriented developments. The study also revealed a surging interest in careers with foreign‐affiliated entities and widespread preference for incentives that give foreign‐invested firms a competitive hiring and retention advantage over domestic, especially state, establishments. The overall results suggest the transformation of subnational managerial orientations in a direction that is conducive for foreign participation in Shanghai's postaccession economy. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

中国移动通信双寡头市场结构及企业行为的博弈分析

随着移动通信业务在整个电信业务中所占的比重日益增加,移动通信业的发展状况也倍受世人关注。运用博弈论的相关基本原理,对中国移动通信市场的双寡头垄断结构以及企业的行为进行微观分析,从而为其培育竞争优势、提高核心竞争力提供理论依据,同时为应对加入世贸过渡期后国际移动通信业巨头的竞争提供政策建议。     

Input tariff liberalisation and servitisation in manufacturing: Evidence from China's WTO accession

This paper links the sharp drop in China's manufacturing servitisation (MS) in early 21st century to China's accession to WTO featured by conspicuous input trade liberalisation (ITL). The results show that manufacturing industries exposed to higher degree of ITL suffer more MS declines after China's accession to the WTO. Heterogeneous analysis shows that industries with high import intensity, capital intensity or technology intensity suffer more MS declines following input trade liberalisation. Further analysis shows that input trade liberalisation increases the import of intermediate inputs while significantly reduces the proportion of service imports for manufacturing industries. The results are robust to a series of robustness checks.     

Firm R&D,Processing Trade and Input Trade Liberalisation: Evidence from Chinese Firms

This paper examines the impact of input trade liberalisation on firm R&D activity by taking China's accession to the WTO as a quasi‐natural experiment. Different from ordinary imports, processing imports in China enjoy zero tariffs and are not affected by input trade liberalisation due to the WTO accession. The paper uses disaggregated firm‐level production data and transaction‐level trade data to perform difference‐in‐difference analysis by taking processing import firms as a control group. An intensive empirical search shows that after China's accession to the WTO, input trade liberalisation fostered firm R&D significantly. The findings are robust to different measures and various empirical specifications.     

Does foreign investment liberalisation enhance women's economic status? Micro‐evidence from urban China

This paper analyses the effects of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on female earnings and women's economic status in households using Chinese Urban Household Survey data from 1997 to 2008. The identification exploits the substantial relaxation of foreign investment regulations immediately after China's accession to the WTO in 2002. The difference‐in‐differences estimation results show that FDI liberalisation has improved women's economic status significantly by increasing female earnings in sectors more exposed to FDI. Further analyses indicate that foreign investment liberalisation facilitates the promotion of female employees in their career ladders and increases their skill premium, which are two important channels through which women enhance their economic independence.     

China and the WTO: The implications of membership in historical context

China's accession to the WTO can be seen as the culmination of not just a 15‐year negotiation but also of a process that actually began 150 years ago with the projection of Western imperialist power into the Chinese mainland. China now appears to have joined the global community on mutually agreeable terms. The commitments China has made are significant and, if implemented, will facilitate continued change in the nation's legal/regulatory structure for economic growth. WTO accession has many implications, both economic and political, for China and the rest of the world; it is important not to forget historical context and current realities in assessing them. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

WTO subsidy rules and tariff liberalization: evidence from accession of China

Countries increasingly rely on subsidies to assist their producers leading to concerns about their potential misuse. The WTO regulates its members’ subsidies by defining subsidies that are permissible, as well as by providing means to retaliate against subsidies of partner countries if these subsidies hurt one's interest. However, these subsidy rules might have an unintended effect. As both subsidies and tariffs are substitute instruments of protection, tighter subsidy rules might lead to a decrease in the pace of tariff liberalization. In this paper, we present first empirical evidence in support of this prediction. Using China's accession to the WTO in 2001 as a case study, we show that China's accession to the WTO was associated with a relative increase in its tariffs for products that faced a higher threat of retaliation against subsidies. More importantly, we also show that increases in tariff were larger in products with higher potential costs imposed by retaliation. Finally, we include several robustness tests as well as conduct two counterfactual exercises to verify that the results we obtain are indeed due to perceived threat of retaliation against subsidies.     

Trade liberalisation and labour shares in China

We estimate the extent to which firms responded to tariff reductions associated with China's WTO entry by altering labour's share of value. Firm‐level regressions indicate that firms in industries subject to tariff cuts raised labour's share relative to economy‐wide trends, both through input choices and rent sharing. Our estimates suggest that, on average, an industry that experienced no reductions in output or input tariffs would have a 15.7% lower labour share of value in 2007 than it actually did, assuming the same economy‐wide trends. There is significant variation across firms: the impact attenuates with geographic remoteness and union presence and strengthens with foreign ownership.     

入世后中国电信服务业面临的法律上的挑战

加入世贸组织后中国电信服务业将面临机遇和挑战 ,中国电信服务业将承担以下义务 :《服务贸易总协定》规定的一般义务主要是最惠国待遇、国民待遇、市场准入和透明度等 ;中国与WTO的成员国达成的具体承诺。同时中国政府应采取积极的应对措施     

Foreign investors in Taiwan: Their roles and government perspectives

This article describes the financial liberalization process in Taiwan and evaluates the effects of foreign institutional investors on Taiwan's stock market. Gradual liberalization allowed Taiwan to reap the benefits while reducing the harmful impacts of foreign participation during the Asian financial crisis. Overall, the liberalization policies proved to be effective as the stock market has become more stable and efficient. Foreign institutional investors contribute significant growth to the Taiwan stock market, and will continue to play a sizeable role in its future development.     

Globalization and wage inequality: Evidence from urban China

This paper examines the impact of globalization on wage inequality using Chinese Urban Household Survey data from 1988 to 2008. Exploring two trade liberalization shocks, Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour in 1992 and China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, we analyze whether regions more exposed to globalization experienced larger changes in wage inequality than less-exposed regions. Contrary to the predictions of the Heckscher–Ohlin model, we find that the WTO accession was significantly associated with rising wage inequality. We further show that both trade liberalizations contributed to within-region inequality by raising the returns to education (the returns to high school after 1992 and the returns to college after 2001).     

Restructuring in Telecommunications and its Market Impacts: An Event-Study Analysis

This study presents an assessment of the changes in the telecommunications industry and their impact on market returns. Events were identified from a sample of global telecom companies and assessed in terms of their favorable or unfavorable impacts. Based on event-study analysis with generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic specification, the impact was tested after incorporating dummy variables of different lengths. The results show interesting patterns in how the market views restructuring in the business model of telecom companies, organizational structure, alliances and mergers, and technological platform changes. Countries differ in how they view telecoms restructuring and what changes are considered beneficial by investors.     

我国电气自动化行业的改革与发展研究

随着中国入世,国外自动化企业将加快抢滩中国市场的步伐,自动化行业将进一步面临市场的分割、融合、变迁和深化等变化,同时,由于技术和相关产业的高速发展,市场竞争日趋激烈,自动化产品价格呈大幅降低趋势,这无疑也是摆在自动化企业面前的巨大挑战。在巨大机遇与挑战并存面前,多数企业将面临一个重新认识环境和自我重新定位的过程。文章分析了我国电气自动化行业的改革与发展。     

Advertising Research in the Post-WTO Decade in China

This paper reviews advertising studies on China published in 13 advertising, marketing, and business journals during the decade after joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) (2002-2011). Since its WTO entry, China's advertising industry (including regulatory environment and advertising practices) has fundamentally changed, turning it into the world's fastest-growing advertising market and the country with the largest pool of netizens. We adopt the "glocalization" framework to selectively highlight five themes in our review: (1) diversified/shifting cultural values, (2) language and brand names, (3) acceptable/offensive advertising, (4) media growth and control, and (5) agency management. Our discussion follows Taylor's (2005) suggested agenda for international advertising research and focuses on the implications for academic researchers and advertising professionals that these papers collectively provide. In the transitional market in China, insights from past studies are relevant for its future development in advertising both locally and globally.     

Rapid rise of China's semiconductor industry: What are the implications for Singapore?

Lately, there has been a rush of foreign investment commitments in China's semiconductor industry, giving rise to predictions of a semiconductor revolution in the world's most populous country. Pull factors include China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which would clarify trading and investment rules, government incentives, and, of course, burgeoning domestic demand. For the moment, because of U.S. export restrictions, China's chip industry will be kept behind the technology curve by around five years. However, its ample supply of engineers and low labor costs will aid in the development of the assembly & test and design sectors, which are labor‐intensive. But given strong government commitment, the industry is likely to continue to progress upward, gaining from the diffusion of high‐tech know‐how through its alliances with multinational corporations and tier‐one foundries. In the industry's value chain, there is potential for Taiwan and China to complement each other in both domestic and global markets, across both high‐ and low‐end technology segments, and across the entire chain of activities. To meet the challenges, Singapore needs to further leverage on its competencies in infrastructure and logistics, as well as the well‐established ASEAN production network for greater economies of scale. For Singapore's semiconductor industry to remain competitive, there is a need to strengthen the full value chain, from integrated circuit (IC) design to wafer fabrication to packaging & test, by attracting and building up companies specializing in different competencies. Singapore semiconductor manufacturers should continuously strive to stay at the technology forefront and provide competitive customer services. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Input trade liberalisation,institution and markup: Evidence from China's accession to the WTO

This paper investigates the effects of input trade liberalisation on firm markups and assesses how institutional environment affects such impacts by using Chinese firm‐level data. To identify the causal effects, we exploit the quasi‐natural experiment of China's WTO accession in 2001 and perform difference‐in‐differences estimation. The results show that input tariff liberalisation leads to a substantial increase in firm markups, and institutional environment significantly strengthens such an impact. We further uncover the underlying mechanisms through which input tariff liberalisation boosts firm markups, and show that both price and cost channels work for the input tariff cut effect on firm markups, of which the latter is much more important. In addition, we also demonstrate that input tariff cut significantly fosters aggregate markup growth, and the reallocation effect is found to be an important channel through which input tariff liberalisation boosts aggregate markup growth.     

Chinese trade price and Yuan's valuation

This paper studies how the major economic events would have affected Chinese yuan's nominal exchange rate against US dollar from 1989 to 2013. The traditional average treatment effect estimation methods cannot be used to consistently estimate yuan's pegged exchange rate. We develop a new estimation strategy by combining a novel panel data method (proposed by Hisao, Ching and Wan) and the purchasing power parity theory. Based on this new estimation strategy, we find that during the period of pegging to US dollar, Chinese yuan were undervalued. Before the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the pegged exchange rate regime starting from January 1994 made the yuan undervalued by 2.62%. China's accession to WTO caused yuan undervalued by 36.60%. After the reform of Chinese exchange rate policy in July 2005, the undervaluation of the yuan was reduced to only 0.76%. Yuan was undervalued again by 20.43% because of 2008 China's economy stimulus package. The policy reform in June 2010 made yuan overvalued by 14.40%. We conclude that Chinese fixed exchange rate policy indeed undervalued the yuan, especially after its accession to WTO. The recent reforms of Chinese exchange rate policy made progresses in re‐evaluating the yuan.     

The interaction between foreigners' trading and emerging stock returns: Evidence from Turkey

Using monthly foreign flows data on Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) and employing a structural VAR model, we analyze the interaction between foreigners' trading and emerging stock returns. In contrast to most of the available theory and repeated previous findings on other markets, foreign investors negative-feedback-trade with respect to past local returns in ISE, however only in rising markets and especially under macroeconomic instability. Net foreign flows forecast future market returns, but not individual stock returns. Price impacts are permanent, suggesting that foreigners' trading incorporates information. Overall, results reject previous conclusions that foreigners are uninformed positive feedback traders: rather, they are a heterogeneous group dominated by sophisticated investors able to rationally adjust their trading style in line with the market's prevailing characteristics.