Does the Environmental Kuznets Curve Exist in the Chinese Regions?

ABSTRACT

This paper disentangles the existence of Environmental Kuznets Curve across the Chinese regions as autonomous areas. First it makes use of the time-varying method to measure that strand for thirty Chinese regions over the period 1997–2012. The influence of income on CO₂ emissions diminishes steadily from Western regions to Middle and Eastern regions. Lastly, we can observe that the validity of Environmental Kuznets Curve is exerted for one region, whilst the N-shaped curve is valid for the majority of the rest of the Chinese regions.     

China's Competitive Performance: A Threat to East Asian Manufactured Exports?

We examine China's competitive threat to East Asian neighbors in the 1990s, benchmarking performance by technology and market. Market share losses are mainly in low-technology products; Japan is the most vulnerable market. China and its neighbors are raising high-technology exports in tandem: international production systems here are leading to complementarity rather than confrontation. In direct trade with its neighbors, China is acting as an engine of export growth, with imports outpacing exports. This may change, however, as China climbs the value chain and takes over activities that have driven East Asian export growth even within integrated production systems.     

Does the Group Leader Affect Repayment Performance Differently?

Theoretical models of group lending assume that all group members are identical in terms of their effect on repayment performance. In practice, however, this may not be true. We use a unique data set obtained from a survey of 160 borrowing groups in Jordan to investigate the impact of joint liability, screening and monitoring activities, and social ties of the group leader and other group members on repayment performance as measured by the intensity of default using a negative binomial II model. Our results suggest that the joint liability and screening activities of the leader are more strongly related to repayment performance than the same variables for the rest of the group members. Social ties of all members have a significant effect on repayment, while monitoring activities have no effect.     

Do Stringent Environmental Regulations Reduce the International Competitiveness of Environmentally Sensitive Goods? A Global Perspective

In this paper I examine whether stringent environmental standards reduce the international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive industries using a comprehensive dataset of trade flows of environmentally sensitive goods (ESGs) disaggregated at the four-digit level of the Standard International Trade Classification. The data relate 1965–95 and cover 34 countries, accounting for nearly 80% of world exports of ESGs in 1995. I find that export performance of ESGs for most countries remained unchanged between the 1960s and 1990s, despite the introduction of stringent environmental standards in most developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s.     

Does Chinese Environmental Policy Affect Income Inequality? Evidence from the Central Environmental Protection Inspection

This paper investigates the effect of environmental policy on income inequality. It focuses on the central environmental protection inspection led by the central government in China. Using a difference-in-differences approach, it finds evidence that environmental regulation decreased the per capita income and enlarged the gap between urban and rural income while showing an insignificant effect on employment. Although the policy can reduce pollution levels and bring environmental benefits in aggregate, the findings of this study suggest that the regulations appear to have reduced the proportion of manufacturing industry and hindered general innovation and investment from entrepreneurs, which resulted in greater inequality. Rural residents suffered more from environmental regulation due to relatively high migration costs and their disadvantaged human resources on the aspects of health, education level, and skills. The local government's execution incentive can also play a key role in the effectiveness of environmental policy. Regions with lower GDP growth targets and younger government leaders were affected significantly with regard to the income growth of local residents and the urban–rural income gap.     

Climbing the Technology Ladder Too Fast? New Evidence on Comparative Productivity Performance in Asian Manufacturing

This paper attempts to shed new light on the debate about the sources of rapid growth in Asian manufacturing. For the period from 1963 to 1997, a comparison of productivity levels in India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan with the United States as the reference country is provided. Using the industry-of-origin approach to international comparisons, varying development patterns are found for seven major manufacturing branches. Nevertheless, for all branches gaps in relative labor productivity and total factor productivity with the United States appeared to be big. Based on a technology ladder model, it is argued that low productivity might be due to rapid introduction of new technologies, leaving little time for efficient assimilation. J. Japan. Int. Econ., March 2002, 16(1) pp. 50–72. Groningen Growth and Development Center, Faculty of Economics, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: N15, 047, 057.     

Does integrated area development work? Insights from the Bicol River Basin Development Program

The Bicol Rivel Basin Development Program is the Philippines' first experience implementing an integrated area development program. The organization, strategy and impacts of the Program are reviewed. Integrated development as anticipated is not happening, in part due to characteristics of the Program and in part due to broader development trends affecting the Bicol area. Two major issues raised by the Program's experience are examined: integration as a continuing and evolving challenge for development management, and sustaining the positive benefits of a Program's investments as a challenge for institutional development. The suggestion is made that only now, after infrastructure has been completed, does the possibility of integrated area development occur.     

Does Central Bank Financial Strength Really Matter for Inflation? The Key Role of the Fiscal Support

This paper examines whether weak central bank finances affect inflation by scrutinizing the key rationale for such a relationship: that the absence of Treasury support makes central bank finances relevant for price stability. Specifically, I ask whether central banks which are not likely to enjoy fiscal support when needed experience higher inflation as their financial situation deteriorates. I find this to be true among a large sample of 82 countries between 1998 and 2008. De facto potential fiscal support appears relevant, while de jure fiscal support, which I survey analyzing 82 central bank laws, does not appear to matter. The results also bring forward an explanation for the conflicting results of the previous empirical studies, which neglected this key component.     

Which Method Should the Central Bank Choose to Estimate the Model Economy? A Korean Monetary Policy Example

Abstract

To understand how the macro economy evolves, the central bank has two options in choosing how to estimate the economic model against actual data: one is to estimate each sector of the model piece-by-piece, and the other is to estimate the whole model altogether. This paper demonstrates the advantage for the central bank of estimating the whole model in terms of the estimation accuracy and the robustness of the resulting policy recommendations. For that aim, we construct a macro model for the monetary policy analysis of the Korean economy and estimate the model via the system approach and single-equation approach. We evaluate the data fits of the two estimation results and show that the fit of the system approach is far better than the other and comparable to other methods such as vector autoregressions. It is also shown that, if the two estimated models are equally likely, conducting the policy tailored for the model estimated by the system approach delivers better stabilization results for the Korean economy.     

Were Information Intermediaries Sensitive to the Financial Statement‐Based Leading Indicators of Bank Distress Prior to the Financial Crisis?

In this paper, we address two questions that emerged in the aftermath of the 2008 financial/banking crisis. First, did the financial statements of bank holding companies provide an early warning of their impending distress? Second, were the actions of four key financial intermediaries (short sellers, equity analysts, Standard and Poor's credit ratings, and auditors) sensitive to the information in the banks’ financial statements about their increased risk and potential distress? We find a significant cross‐sectional association between banks’ 2006 Q4 financial information and bank failures over 2008–2010, suggesting that the financial statements reflected at least some of the increased risk of bank distress in advance. The mean abnormal short interest in our sample of banks increased from 0.66 percent in March 2005 to 2.4 percent in March 2007 and the association between short interest and leading financial statement indicators also increased. In contrast, we observe neither a meaningful change in analysts’ recommendations, Standard and Poor's credit ratings, and audit fees nor an increased sensitivity of these actions to financial indicators of bank distress over this time period. Our results suggest that actions of short sellers likely provided an early warning of the banks’ upcoming distress prior to the 2008 financial crisis.     

Corporate Governance Reforms in the Post-1997 Asian Crisis: Is There Really a Convergence to the Anglo-American Model?

Abstract

Following the 1997-Asian crisis, a number of crisis-hit countries were committed to the rapid transformation of the corporate governance system to one that is modeled after the Anglo-American system. This, as the article argues, is based on a false premise, that what may have worked in the United States/United Kingdom can also be applied in East Asia. In this regard, the convergence at the firm level is seen to be more in “form” rather than in “substance”. This study assesses Singapore's corporate system in terms of its recognition of the merits of the Western model. It then details the corporate governance style of Temasek Holdings Limited (THL), a state- owned enterprise (SOE) in charge of monitoring government investments in companies. The choice of THL as a case study is based on the premise that THL operates very much like a private sector corporation. In addition, it has the ability to influence the standard of corporate governance of Singaporean SOEs. Because the SOEs are large players in their respective industries, the corporate governance of SOEs establish the standards and expectations for monitoring in non-SOEs. There are indications to suggest that the THL has taken into consideration certain aspects of corporate governance practices that may not necessarily be in line with those advocated by the Singapore government. The article argues that selective adaptation such as the style adopted in the THL more realistically portrays the corporate governance practices of East Asian corporations.     

Impact of International Remittances on Schooling in the Philippines: Does the Relationship to the Household Head Matter?

We study the impact of international remittances on schooling in the Philippines, taking into account the school‐age individual's relationship to the household head. This consideration is important because employment opportunities abroad may be taken at the expense of the quality of child rearing. Our estimation results indicate that there are, indeed, significant negative guardian effects on school attendance and education expenditures when children with overseas parents are looked after by a relative other than a parent or grandparent. However, these negative effects tend to be outweighed by the positive impact of remittance flows from overseas.     

Exchange Rates and the Trade Balance for Dynamic Asian Economies—Does the J-Curve Exist for Singapore,Malaysia, and Korea?

The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between the real trade balance and the real exchange rate for bilateral trade in merchandise goods between Singapore, Korea, and Malaysia and the USA and Japan on a quarterly basis over the period 1970 to 1996 using the partial reduced form model of Rose and Yellen (1989) derived from the two-country imperfect substitutes model. With the exception of Korean trade with the USA, and in line with recent work using a similar methodology, our findings suggest that the real exchange rate does not have a significant impact on the real trade balance, and for Singapore and Malaysia we can find no persuasive evidence for J-curves. For Korea, however, the data were consistent with some J-curve effects with respect to both Japan and the USA. Moreover, it is possible that for Korea these effects were being masked or muted by small country pricing of exports in foreign currency, but there was no evidence that imports subsequently fell as the lag length on the real exchange rate increased, which would be required to support a strict interpretation of the J-curve.     

An Assessment of the Singapore Skills Development System: Does it Constitute a Viable Model for Other Developing Countries?

In this paper, we briefly describe the institutional background of Singapore's successful national skills development model. We devise a tentative framework to evaluate national level skills development efforts, and we use it to assess the Singapore model. We argue that the model has the potential to move constantly toward higher skills equilibria. We question however, the long-term sustainability of the model, and whether it is transferable to other developing countries. We conclude with some principles that other countries might use in organizing their own skills development systems.     

What Does Behavioral Economics Mean for Policy? Challenges to Savings and Health Policies in the Netherlands

Key findings in behavioral economics are that people’s behavior (revealed preferences) is often not in line with their intentions (normative preferences), that they are sensitive to the way choices are presented to them, and that their cognitive abilities are limited. This is manifest in particular in areas of intertemporal choice, like personal finance and health-related behavior. Policy makers can develop policies that help citizens to make choices that are more in line with their normative preferences. In this paper we summarize the behavioral evidence, discuss the motivations for interventions, and show how recent behavioral insights can help to improve upon existing policies. These new policies could be described as libertarian paternalism, and include setting defaults thoughtfully and using unorthodox commitment mechanisms.     

Discussion of “Were Information Intermediaries Sensitive to the Financial Statement‐Based Leading Indicators of Bank Distress Prior to the Financial Crisis?”

I discuss Desai, Rajgopal, and Yu ( 2016 ) with the goal of helping readers think carefully about which implications of the study are likely to generalize to future economic downturns and which are likely to be specific to the facts and circumstances of the recent financial crisis, given that the crisis was driven by the expectation and then the realization of a single market variable, national house price depreciation.     

What Does a High School Diploma Get You? Employment, Race, and the Transition to Adulthood

We compare the employment of African American and white youth as they transition to adulthood from age 18 to 22, focusing on high school graduates and high school dropouts who did not attend college. Using OLS and hazard models, we analyze the relative employment rates, and employment consistency, stability, and timing, controlling for a number of factors including family income, academic aptitude, prior work experience, and neighborhood poverty. We find white high school graduates work significantly more than all other youth on most measures; African American high school graduates work as much and sometimes less than white high school dropouts; African American dropouts work significantly less than all other youth. Findings further suggest that the improved labor market participation associated with a high school diploma is higher over time for African Americans than for white youth.     

Does Ethnicity Matter for Access to Childhoodand Adolescent Health Capital in China? Evidence from the Wage-Height Relationship in the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey

This paper considers whether ethnicity conditions the return and access to health capital in China. Given that the wage-height relationship reflects the labor market earnings returns to childhood and adolescent health capital, differences in the labor market returns to height by ethnicity reflect ethnic differences in access to health capital during childhood and adolescence. We theoretically motivate the role of height in earnings by providing a Bioeconomic rationale for stature and height determining individual wages, and estimate height-augmented Mincerian earnings functions with data from the 2006 China Health and Nutrition Survey. Our results show that when the effects of unobserved genetic influences on adult height are accounted for, the labor market return on height is higher for Chinese ethnics. This suggests that in China there are ethnic disparities in access to the inputs that produce childhood and adolescent health capital.