China Provincial Research Articles

Evaluation of China's Provincial Regional Innovation Performance as Exemplified by Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang

Evaluation of China's Provincial Regional Innovation Performance as Exemplified by Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang

Comments by Laura Solanko, on Great Turning: How Has the Chinese Economy Been Trapped in an Efficiency-and-Balance Tradeoff?

Laura Solanko: The paper examines China's regional development policies designed to improve the standard of living in its central and western provinces. These policies have been associated with increasing GDP per capita but also with decreases in productivity growth and increases in public debt in inland provinces. The authors conclude that relaxing restrictions on labor mobility would be essential in unlocking further growth and improving the overall efficiency of the Chinese economy. They further raise the concern, correctly in my mind, of rising debt levels for future economic growth.In a country as vast as China, regional disparities are bound to be remarkable if only due to historical, cultural, and geographical reasons. Moreover, the rapid growth from the early 1990s to the early 2000s greatly widened differences in income levels between the coastal provinces and the inland regions. The share of the cost in national GDP increased from 44 percent in 1978 to 51 percent in 1998 and 56 percent in 2006. Since the early 2000s a series of policy initiatives designed to stimulate economic growth in the central, northwestern, and western regions have been announced. A combination of the effects of these targeted policies and a tightening of labor markets in the coastal provinces have helped in achieving a reversal in the trend. Since the mid 2000s the inland provinces have started to converge in terms of GDP per capita, wage levels, and labor productivity (Lemoine, Poncet, and Ünal 2015).Empirical evidence on the relationship between inequality and growth as well as between efficiency and growth is mixed and data on China's provincial and county levels may greatly improve our understanding on these issues. For example, using provincial level data from 1979–2004 and a vector autoregressive model, Chen (2010) argues that in the long run economic growth and reduction in inequality are not conflicting goals. Chen and Groenewold (2010) introduce a two-region model calibrated to Chinese data to evaluate policies aimed at inter-regional income redistribution. They conclude that policies reducing the migration costs (hukou system) would greatly even out income disparities, but that it would mostly be achieved at the cost of the rich region (the coast). Policies that would equalize economic welfare and make both regions better off should focus on improving productivity in the poor region. For example, policies promoting agricultural productivity or infrastructure investments could potentially help. There is evidence based on European Union Structural Funds that transfers targeted on infrastructure investments can indeed foster growth in recipient regions, but the relation may be nonlinear (Becker, Egger, and von Ehrlich 2012).Therefore, there clearly exists plenty of room for further research about these topics and the authors’ choice of using firm-level data to analyze the effects of China's regional policies is welcome. Although I find their conclusions plausible, however, the authors should focus on providing evidence on causal relations instead of mere eyeballing two-way graphs. The reader is given only vague hints on why the results in the current paper differ from those of Brandt, van Biesebroeck and Zhang (2012), who use exactly the same data set. A clear focus, detailed discussion with the recent literature, and outlining the empirical methodology used would be an improvement.

Research on the Spatial Distribution and Its Influencing Factors of China Provincial Innovation Output

In recent years, due to the development of spatial econometrics, to study the innovation agglomeration with the view of space angle is attracting more attention. Based on 31 provinces in mainland China in 2004-2013 of the patent grant data using spatial econometric knowledge to analyze spatial agglomeration of innovation output, the results showed that: The innovation output is imbalance, the eastern coastal region innovation level is far greater than the Midwest, and the polarization phenomenon aggravates gradually; from the Moran’s I index, innovation output is positive related in the space, and the geographical agglomeration phenomenon is not a random distribution, but there are specific rules; Durbin model shows that the area around the region has a significant impact on innovation output, and further calculates the strength of the influence of space effect. At last, this paper puts forward policy suggestions to improve innovation ability and make the balanced development of regional innovation.

Transportation and Regional Economic Development: Analysis of Spatial Spillovers in China Provincial Regions

The role of spillover effect of transportation endowment on regional economic development is analyzed in this paper. We adopt the reduced form from the Solow growth model to estimate spillover effect from transportation. The panel database in use incorporates provincial gross regional product (GRP), labor and capital supply, and transportation investment information from 1985 to 2012 in China. The results confirm positive and significant spillover effect in Chinese provinces. In this paper, non-homogeneous spillover effects are captured in the empirical regression by the use of spatial weighing methods based on provincial economics and similarity as well as geographic connection. Highly positive spillovers are observed between economically similar provinces. However, for those under-developed provinces, high network connectivity often results in low or negative spillovers. The mobility and migration of production factors are believed to be the sources of the negative spillovers, while the industrial reallocation and market expansion contribute to the positive spillovers.

Research on the Evaluating Method of Non-Renewable Energy Efficiency Based on China's Provincial Data: Green Growth Perspective

This paper integrated systematically the method of MFA, DEA, and the evaluation method of eco-efficiency, constructed a method of evaluating total factor non-renewable energy efficiency based on the perspective of green growth. And it defined the indicators system of evaluating total factor non-renewable energy efficiency. This paper gave an empirical research of total factor non-renewable energy efficiency, economic efficiency of non-renewable energy, environmental efficiency of non-renewable energy, and eco-efficiency of non-renewable energy, of Chinese provincial regions for the year 2012.Study results confirms: the method of evaluating total factor non-renewable energy efficiency of this paper, not only discussed the evaluating problem of total factor non-renewable energy efficiency of the process of non-renewable energy using, but also brought economic value, environmental influence and ecological cost into evaluating framework of total factor non-renewable energy efficiency; so it is a scientific and comprehensive tool of evaluating non-renewable energy efficiency, and is in conformity with the idea of green growth.

The Research on Coupling Coordination Development between China's Provincial Financial Agglomeration and International Trade

On the analysis of the interaction effect between financial agglomeration and international trade and by borrowing coupling theory in physics, we use the improved entropy method to construct the coupled evaluation model about the system of financial agglomeration and international trade, which spans a period from the year of 2005 to the year of 2013 of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of mainland China. The results of clustering analysis indicate that there exists coupling relationship of interaction and mutual constraints between financial agglomeration and international trade. In these 31 regions, coupling coordination development type spans six grades, and the coupling coordination degree of the eastern regions is much higher than that of the mid-western regions. With the deduction of time, the provincial general trend is transforming to a higher type of coupling coordination development. Especially, the coupling coordination degree of the middle regions (Jiangxi, Anhui, Henan, Hunan and Hubei) and the western regions (Sichuan, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guangxi and Xinjiang) has a clear upward trend.

Research on Functional Orientation of China's Provincial Public Library Service

Research on Functional Orientation of China's Provincial Public Library Service

China's provincial industrial pollution: the role of technical efficiency, pollution levy and pollution quantity control

AbstractUsing China's provincial economic and pollution data from 1992 to 2008, we employ data envelope analysis and econometric analyses to explicitly estimate technical efficiency and examine the role of technical efficiency, pollution control instruments (pollution levy and pollution quantity control) and prices of production inputs on pollution intensity. We find that an increase of labor wage and a decrease of capital cost are associated with an improvement in technical efficiency. The levy rates of air pollution improve technical efficiency but pollution quantity control targets have no statistically significant effect on technical efficiency. On the other hand, technical efficiency, the effective levy rates, pollution quantity control targets and capital cost have a negative effect but wage has a positive effect on pollution intensity. The importance of production input prices in pollution intensity and technical efficiency suggests alternative channels for industrial pollution control as well as cautions for the unintended consequence on the environment if any policy changes are made relating to labor and capital costs.

PHP93 Does Public Health Spending Matter? Evidence from China Provincial Panel Data

PHP93 Does Public Health Spending Matter? Evidence from China Provincial Panel Data

A Spatial Interpretation of the Persistency of China's Provincial Inequality

China's rapid economic growth in recent decades has not led to balanced income distribution: inter- and intra-provincial income inequality have been increasing and their respective contribution to the total income inequality remains relatively stable. Based on a new set of prefectural database during a relatively longer period from 1994 to 2008 on Chinese economic development, this paper investigates the nexus between the spatial dependence and income inequality in China on a prefectural level. Using the decomposition results of the inequality and spatial dependence of inter- and intra-provincial groups, and also the choropleth maps of clusters in China, this paper reaches the conclusion that clusters of prefectures and provinces with high positive spatial association are persistent over years in China, and the resulting highly correlated income disparity on both inter- and intra-provincial levels might be lasting for a relatively longer period, implying that spatial dependence is a contributing factor to the regional income inequality in a spatial context.

Crustal and uppermost mantle velocity structure beneath northwestern China from seismic ambient noise tomography

SUMMARY In this paper, we conduct ambient noise seismic tomography of northwestern China and adjacent regions. The data include 9 months (2009 January to 2009 September) three-component continuous data recorded at 146 seismic stations of newly upgraded China Provincial Digital Seismic Networks and regional Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan networks. Empirical Rayleigh and Love wave Green's functions are obtained from interstation cross-correlations. Group velocity dispersion curves for both Rayleigh and Love waves between 7 and 50 s periods were measured for each interstation path by applying the multiple-filter analysis method with phase-matched processing. The group velocity maps show clear lateral variations which correlate well with major geological structures and tectonic units in the study region. Shear wave velocity structures are inverted from Rayleigh wave and love wave dispersion maps. The results show that the Tibetan Plateau has a very thick crust with a low-velocity zone in its mid-lower crust. Along the northern margin of the plateau where a steep topographic gradient is present, the low-velocity zone does not extend to the Tarim basin which may indicate that crustal materials beneath the Tarim basin are colder and stronger than beneath the plateau, therefore inhibit the extension of mid-lower crustal flow and deformation of the Tibetan Plateau, resulting in very sharp topography contrasts. In the northeastern margin with a gentle topographic gradient toward the Ordos platform, the low-velocity zone diminishes around the eastern KunLun fault. Meanwhile, our results reveal obvious lateral velocity changes in the crust beneath the Tarim basin. In the upper crust, the Manjaer depression in the eastern Tarim basin is featured with very low velocities and the Bachu uplift in the western Tarim basin with high velocities; in the mid-lower crust, the northern Tarim basin in general displays lower velocities than the southern part along latitude ∼40° N with an east–west striking, which is consistent with the high magnetic anomaly zone and may be related to the central suture belt connecting the south and north of Tarim basement blocks together in Pre-Sinian.

Nominal level and actual strength of China's intellectual property protection under TRIPS agreement

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to improve the measurement of nominal level and actual strength of China's intellectual property protection (IPP), and examine whether the increase of actual protection strength (APS) is positive or negative impact on China's provincial economic growth.Design/methodology/approachA modified approach, based on Ginarte‐Park's (GP's) and HL's approaches, is used to measure nominal level and APS of China's intellectual property rights (IPR) from 1995 to 2007. The pooled EGLS method (cross‐section fixed effect) is used to estimate the effect of China's IPP and other variables on provincial economic growth.FindingsThe paper proves that China's APS appears an increase with a phase. China's IPP level by GP approach is on the high side, whereas China's IPP level by HL approach is slightly on the low side. Nominal level of China's IPP is largely influenced by the legislation level, whereas APS mostly embodies the effect of implementing law level. The increase of China's APS has significant positive impact on provincial economic growth. However, at the outset of building an independent innovation country, too strong IPP is bad for the development of innovation capability, and bad for provincial economic growth.Research limitations/implicationsBecause the APS is unknown, it is impossible to use APS as the dependent variable to estimate the weights of the main influencing factors. The method that the paper assumes three main factors the same weights is second best choice. Thus, several different weights are supplemented to measure the distribution values of China's APS.Practical implicationsChina's APS quantified by a modified approach and strong evidences can be used to estimate the effect on economic growth. Policy effectiveness could be maximized at seeking the endogenous benefit balance between strengthening IPP and promoting economic development.Originality/valueThe paper proposes a modified approach to measure the APS of China's IPR, and proves that the reinforcement of China's APS is beneficial to promoting provincial economic growth. However, at the outset, too strong IPP is harmful.

Governmental Strategic Arrangement, Second Nature Advantage, and China's Provincial Export Disparity

This paper studies the cause of China’s provincial export disparity, especially the difference among coastal provinces. Both time-invariant and time-variant factors are studied. The paper estimates the effects of time-invariant factors on the export orientation of the economy. It argues that the China’s central government’s strategic arrangement in choosing open cities in the 1980’s begets a “second nature” advantage for agglomeration of export-oriented economy. The estimated effects of the governmental strategic arrangement provide the key explanation for provincial export disparity among coastal provinces and a quantitative evaluation of the effectiveness of such arrangement. The impact of time-variant factors is estimated as elasticity. The yearly effects show that initially export from coastal provinces substituted export from inland provides and then penetration occurred to take advantage cheap resources and labor in inland.

China's Provincial Identities: Reviving Regionalism and Reinventing “Chineseness”

In His Science-Fiction NovelThe Diamond Age(1995), Neal Stephenson envisions a post—nation-state world of the future, where countless fragmentations of cultural identity differentiate humanity into spatially discrete tribal zones. Identity has become entirely spatialized, rendering its historical basis—that is, the experiences that generate a “collective memory” for a community—into a decontextualized montage of nostalgia. Stephenson writes a world where modernist notions of progress and development through linear time have been replaced by cultural differentiation across space: history has been conquered by geography. History has become little more than a resource for borrowed cultural traits that are mapped onto discrete territories, and identity is self-consciously constructed by adopting the ready-made form of a particular cultural group. As Stephenson allows us to observe the excesses of this kind of postmodern tribalism, China comes to represent the ultimate form of spatialized cultural identity. InThe Diamond Age, China is represented more as an organic cultural system than a historically progressing nation. But it is only China's interior that is represented as such. The People's Republic has been splintered into an extremely wealthy coastal strip—essentially one big export processing zone—and an increasingly impoverished interior, which, in a self-orientalizing twist, now calls itself the “Celestial Kingdom,” and is ruled not by a Communist Party leader (Marxism having long since been denounced as a Western plot to undermine Chinese values) but by a self-proclaimed “Chamberlain to the Throneless King,” that is, a minister representing Confucius himself. Whereas the coast has rich and cosmopolitan cities that are among the finest in the world, the interior claims a moral superiority that comes only from its assertion of cultural purity; the interior is the “true” organic China.

Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans (review)

128 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1995 need to be copied for any intensive use ofthe data. The adjustments to the data, which have been made to correct, for example, for provincial boundary changes, are not explained in detail. There are no indications of the dates when definitions and methods ofcollecting and compiling particular variables were changed, and so on. For such information, the critical user may have to turn to the referenced sources or to the editors and their institutions: the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the Department of Statistics on National Economic Balances of the State Statistical Bureau. For those who plan to make extensive use of the data, it would be even more helpful if the data were also made available on computer diskettes. And for everyone it would be a welcome gift indeed ifthe series were updated periodically. What greater compliment can one pay than to ask for revised, enlarged, and improved editions of China's Provincial Statistics, 1949-1994 and 1949-1999? Please? Peter Schran University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Hu Wenzhong and Cornelius L. Grove. Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans. Yarmouth, Maine: Intercultural Press, 1991. xviii, 192 pp. Paperback $16.95. With the world's largest population—more than one-fifth ofhumanity—China, the one remaining strong socialist country, is conducting the most rapid economic development during the current slump in the world economy. With these facts and with its policy of openness in mind, we see China attracting the attention of the rest ofworld, particularly the West. However, with the world's oldest civilization , China has also exhibited a remarkable ability to resist as well as to assimilate foreign cultures. Christian missionaries have for more than a thousand years attempted to convert the Chinese with only negligible success. To understand the Chinese, an outsider must associate with the Chinese; to associate with the Chinese , however, one must understand the Chinese. Encountering the Chinese: A , GuideforAmericans has been published with this purpose in mind: to help Westerners associate with the Chinese. As a handbook, it systematically describes what encountering the Chinese involves , and how a Westerner ought to behave in this encounter. There are eight ofHawai'i Press Reviews 129 chapters that introduce the outsider to "Chinese Titles and Forms ofAddress," "Greetings, Conversations, and Farewells," "Chinese-Style Dining," "Appointments, Visiting, and Time Use," "Chinese Modesty and Humility," "Making Friends with the Chinese," "Teaching and Learning among the Chinese," and "Negotiating and Institutional Decision Making." The chapters contain basic and necessary information that non-Chinese need to know. The authors provide not only general knowledge on such topics as "Chinesestyle dining," about which any foreigner who has been in China for a reasonable time will have some knowledge, but also some useful information which a foreigner may not easily obtain through superficial impressions obtained during an ordinary visit. The book points out that "Chinese institutional representatives expect that negotiations will lead to a partnership characterized by trust, obligations ofmutual support, and permanence. For them, negotiations are important social occasions, a basic purpose ofwhich is to foster a relationship between the two sides that will take root, grow, and flower during the present and (more importantly ) long into the future" (page 97). This kind ofsubtlety, well understood by Chinese negotiators, may not easily be understood by a newly arrived foreign negotiator . On "the seesaw battle" of exchanging gifts in China, the author advises: "Ifyou sense that continued refusal is ritualistic, one alternative is to simply leave the gift on a table" (p. 144). This is an extremely wise, skillful, and typically Chinese solution to the problem of giving or receiving gifts without losing face. As Jan Carol Berris points out, another characteristic ofthe book is that it is "coauthored by a Chinese and an American. Hu Wenzhong [has] brought to this project his innate knowledge ofChinese culture; Cornelius Grove [has] brought an American's perspective and insightful questions; both [have] brought cultural sensitivity born ofyears of study and living abroad" (p. xvii). The following is an example of...

China's Provincial Leaders 1949-1985, Volume 1: Directory. By D. S. G. Goodman. [Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1986. 297 pp. £60.00.

China's Provincial Leaders 1949-1985, Volume 1: Directory. By D. S. G. Goodman. [Cardiff: University College Cardiff Press, 1986. 297 pp. £60.00.

The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market

The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market