Payment In China Research Articles

Medical insurance system evolution in China

Healthcare financing and payment in China are mainly based on medical insurance. This paper examines the key issues of the Chinese medical insurance system, with a particular emphasis on basic social medical insurance, which has the broadest coverage in China. It reviews the evolution of the basic social medical insurance system, describes how the system functions, and analyzes the existing and emerging problems with the system. The paper concludes with a discussion of some suggestions for the future development of the system.

Urban employee health insurance reform and the impact on out‐of‐pocket payment in China

Since the middle of the 1990s, China has undertaken a significant reform in urban employee health insurance programs. Using data from the pilot experiment conducted in Zhenjiang, this study examines changes in the pre- and post-reform distributions of out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures across four representative groups by chronic disease, income, education, and job status. Major findings suggested increased OOP expenditures for all groups after the reform. However, the redistributions in OOP appear to be in favor of the disadvantaged groups, suggesting a more equitable change led by the reform. This study concludes that the post-reform insurance model did not compromise equity in cost-sharing while containing cost inflation and increasing insurance coverage for the urban population.

Cash Dividends and Large Shareholder Expropriation in China

This paper finds several interesting pattern of cash dividend paying behavior in China. First, despite of low benefit of cash dividend to investors, listed companies pay cash dividends regularly. Second, there is an inertial pattern of paying cash dividend; those who pay do so regularly and those who do regularly offer lower payout ratio. Third, the inertia pattern weakens as time moves on. Fourth, the level of cash dividends declines and their paying pattern weakens as time moves on. We show that the common theories in the literature, the clientele effect theory, the signaling theory and the agency theory, cannot explain these phenomenon. The behavior of cash dividends payment in China is primarily driven by the market imperfection and the motive of large shareholder expropriation. The paper shows that firms with low shareholder concentration act more like a U.S. firm that pays dividend to convey information. Firms with intermediate shareholder concentration balance between expropriation by related party transaction and expropriation by cash dividend strategy. Firms with large shareholder concentration tend to expropriate small shareholders by cash dividend strategy.

Guarantees for Contractor’s Performance and Owner’s Payment in China

This paper first analyzes the problem of default risk that contractors and owners often face in China, then stresses that establishing a construction contract guarantee system is a necessary and effective measure for solving this problem. Policy choice for establishing a construction contract guarantee system in China is presented in this paper by using the experience of developed countries for reference and taking Chinese domestic circumstances into account. Further discussion is included about how to protect contractors from default of payment of owners by exercising the right of legal mortgage in accordance with Chinese contract law.

The Culture of Guanxi in a North China Village

The Culture of Guanxi in a North China Village