The incentives of China's urban land finance

Land grant premiums and land tax revenues have become two major sources of fiscal revenue for city governments in China. This type of fiscal revenue strategy for city governments is generally referred to as “land finance”, and it has drawn increasing research attention in recent years. This paper explores the institutional causes of the “land finance” strategy of city governments in China. We first analyze the institutional foundation of “land finance” (including China's urban land use system and land expropriation system). We then propose two hypotheses about the institutional causes of “land finance”. The first hypothesis is that the current system of fiscal decentralization is a major reason city governments choose the “land finance” fiscal strategy. The second hypothesis is that under the current personnel control system, which uses local economic performance as the most important indicator for evaluating local government officials, the competition between city governments to promote local economic growth is another major reason city governments choose the “land finance” fiscal strategy. We test the hypotheses by estimating econometric models using data for 31 provincial-level regions for the period 1999–2008. The empirical results suggest that fiscal decentralization and competition between city governments to promote economic growth are two major causes of “land finance”.     

The Tunisian Revolution: Neoliberalism,Urban Contentious Politics and the Right to the City

This article engages in the debate on urban contentious politics by returning to the Tunisian revolution. In the article, I chart movements provoked by neoliberal restructurings, and show how these ultimately came together to form a mass movement demanding radical political change. I first describe the socio‐spatial roots of the Tunisian revolution to understand its dynamics. Based on the chronology of the unfolding events I sketch the classes, social groups and movements that coalesced against authoritarian rule in early 2011. Although the Tunisian revolution started in rural environments, I focus more specifically on the role of urban social movements in the uprising to link questions of urbanism to what were clearly national revolts. Secondly, I outline the scope of neoliberal reforms in Tunisia by looking at the impact of these reforms to chart the resulting emergence of contentious politics in response to the increasing violence that characterized all levels of economic life during this period. I also consider the resulting uneven development and the changing relations between the state and the different social classes. This enables me to reflect on the politicization of the city with the aim of opening up new opportunities for engaging with a more comparative and cosmopolitan theory about cities around the world.     

我国城市公关现状：理论、问题与策略研究

城市公关已经逐渐替代城市营销,成为塑造城市形象提升城市竞争力的新手段。本文针对目前国内关于城市公关理论及实践存在的问题进行了分析与整理,发现除了意识上与制度上的缺陷以外,理论上的不足与活动缺乏监督也是影响公关效果的因素。然后本文结合了我国城市公关的实际情况提出了强化城市公关意识、完善城市公关制度保障与科学化公关等相应的建议,并指出了未来城市公关更多依赖于第三方公关服务机构的可能性。     

基于“世界城市”定位的绿色商业发展研究——以北京市为例

绿色商业是绿色经济中重要的组成部分。随着北京世界城市定位的确立,发展绿色商业已成为北京发展经济、提升产业、满足消费需求的迫切要求。但是,目前还缺乏绿色商业相关的系统理论,因而难以对绿色商业建设进行系统的指导;相应的绿色行业组织与机构还没有成立,政策与法规有待完善,绿色商业的规范和标准仍比较缺失。所以,需要加强绿色商业制度建设,并做好绿色商业发展规划与计划:时间上细化到各个阶段或年度;空间上细化到各个区域;要求上落实到不同的商业企业,这样才能有助于世界城市的建设。     

宁波城市社区文化建设的发展研究

社区建设的核心内容是社区文化建设.改革开放以来,宁波城市社区文化建设实践卓越成效,积极支撑了城市的发展.本文对社区文化的内涵、功能、作用等问题进行了探讨,总结宁波城市社区文化的经验,思考当前社区文化建设中存在的问题,并就可持续发展提出建设性意见.     

充分发挥城市在流通中的重要作用

流通在国民经济发展中具有重要作用，而城市又在流通中扮演重要的角色，充分发挥城市在流通中的重要作用，对于发展城市和流通业都具有重要意义。商品流通对生产具有促进作用；对消费具有引导作用；对分配和再分配乃至整个国民经济的总体运行产生巨大影响。城镇化过程是现代商品流通发展与变革的直接推动力量之一，而现代商品流通发展与变革的过程也是构成城镇化过程的重要内容。城市和流通的互动作用极大促进了二者的积极发展。做好不同城市的定位、充分利用各城市的优势、发挥城市作为连接点和集散地的重要作用等措施都会使城市和流通业得以更好发展。     

The Newly Revised Process for Trade Dispute Settlement in GATT

Abstract

Trade dispute settlement has long been one of the weaknesses and ambiguities of GATT. Critics led by the U.S. have now succeeded in the Uruguay Round in formalizing some previously uncodified areas and in providing further detail in some existing formal procedures. The resulting process introduces more structure, clarity, and predictability and gives more attention to scheduling. The revision has the potential to facilitate and expedite resolution of trade disputes.     

Campus,City, Networks and Nation: Student‐Migrant Activism as Socio‐spatial Experience in Melbourne,Australia

‘Education–migration nexus’ policies in Australia between 1998 and 2010 linked international education with different forms of temporary and permanent migration. This resulted in a blurring of boundaries around student, worker, consumer, migrant and ethnic identities. While the exploitation, marginalization and vulnerability of international students in Australia has gained a great deal of media and scholarly attention, less consideration has been given to the varied forms of subsequent protest undertaken by student migrants in Australian cities. This article analyses three case studies of protests involving student migrants in Melbourne: a protest against unfair assessment; a fight for a campus prayer room; and labour protests within the retail service and taxi industries. It draws on theoretical work on new social movements and social transformation in urban spaces to find ways to conceptualize this activism in relation to the scales of campus, city and nation. In doing so, it argues primarily that these sites of protest are socio‐spatial experiences that encompass shifting and socially produced spatial scales, as well as complex networks of association across different communities, which in turn reflect different student‐migrant identities.     

城市商业银行转型及发展趋势探析——基于负债及资产结构变化视角

后金融危机时代，中国宏观经济环境及监管政策的变化成为国内城市商业银行经营转型的重要契机。本文通过对国内70余家城商行的研究发现：规模扩张过程中伴随着负债及资产结构的显著变化，主动负债占比明显提升；信贷资产占比稳步下降，部分代表性城商行在金融市场业务领域确立了一定的竞争优势。只有形成具有自身特色和竞争力的客户、业务及盈利结构才能在未来国内银行业竞争中抢占先机。     

Intra-Provincial Financial Disparity,Economic Disparity,and Regional Development in China: Evidence from Prefecture-Level City Data

The uneven spatial distribution of economic and financial activities in China has long been a concern of both researchers and policy makers. While most previous research focuses on China’s regional disparities measured using provincial data, this article investigates intra-provincial disparities which reflect the dispersion among cities within a given province. Using data on 282 prefecture-level cities in 25 provinces from 2003 to 2012, the relationship between economic disparity and financial disparity is investigated, after which the effects of the intra-provincial disparities on provincial economic growth are examined. It is found that intra-provincial financial disparity and economic disparity are positively correlated. The results also show that intra-provincial economic disparity has no effect on provincial economic growth. The intra-provincial financial disparity, however, has a negative effect on the local economic growth rate. Therefore, developing financial inclusion and narrowing financial disparity are important measures to maintain sustainable and inclusive economic growth.