Period Of Economic Transition Research Articles

Analysis on the Path and Mechanism of Anti-corruption Influencing Corporate Investment

At present, China is in a period of economic transition. Due to the imperfect system and supervision mechanism, the government's control over key resources has led to corporate corruption. In this article, we study the path and mechanism of anti-corruption influencing corporate investment through combing the literature and empirical research. Anti-corruption may influence corporate investment by the cost of capital and expected cash flow. The empirical results show that the influence of anti-corruption on enterprise investment is heterogeneous in property right, region and industry. Under different levels of intervention and control, private corporations are negatively affected by the anti-corruption movement. Under high intervention and control, state-owned enterprises are positively affected by the anti-corruption movement.

Financial development, energy consumption and China's economic growth: New evidence from provincial panel data

In recent years, China has experienced a period of rapid economic transition to the sustainable style of economic development, which is termed as the “new normal”. Although the extant literature has verified that investment and foreign business are two main growth engines of China's economy, investigations on the impacts of financial development and energy consumption on economic growth using a comprehensive framework are still scarce. This paper examines the dynamic interrelationship between financial development, energy consumption and economic development using the data on 29 Chinese provinces covering the period from 1995 to 2014. The empirical results indicate that energy consumption is the Granger cause of GDP, while financial development is not the Granger cause of GDP. Additionally, according to the estimation results of the impulse response function, financial development has a negative effect on GDP, while energy consumption could foster economic growth. Among the control variables, capital stock contributes significantly to economic growth. Further reforming the financial system and accelerating the transition of the economic structure are vital for China's sustainable economic growth as the pressure of controlling the excessive growth of energy consumption and improving environmental quality accumulates over time.

Research on electricity consumption forecast in Anhui Province

Electricity consumption forecasting has drawn more and more attention after that China has entered a period of energy structure adjustment and economic transition. Therefore, forecasting electricity accurately is indispensable. In this paper, based on the analysis of Anhui province economic development and electric load, tendency fitting, cubic exponential smoothing and multiple linear regression models are employed to predict the electricity consumption from 2015 to 2020 in Anhui province.

Myanmar's fisheries in transition: Current status and opportunities for policy reform

Myanmar's fisheries are among the most important globally but remain some of the least documented. The fisheries sector occupies an important place in Myanmar's economy and culture, and is set to change rapidly as the country enters a period of unprecedented political and economic transition. Building on a unique set of information sources, this article presents a broad view of the current state of knowledge on governance, livelihoods, production and supply chains across Myanmar's three main fishery sub-sectors (marine capture, inland capture, and aquaculture). The analysis is contextualized with a review of major changes in the country's policy history affecting fisheries. It is argued that Myanmar's fisheries now sit at a potential cross-road in terms of their governance. Taking advantage of Myanmar's latecomer position in its current transition, this article draws parallels with regional experiences to outline sectoral recommendations for policy reform.

Impact of Globalization on Transforming India's Economy: A Post Reforms Analysis

Globalization is basically a socio-economic term where people think locally and act globally. It referred to a strategy of economic development where borders of the countries do not matter for movement of commodities, services, capital, finance, labour, technology, ideas, and information. This strategy generates a process of increasing economic integration and growing interdependence between countries of the world economy. Indeed, it isn't only associated with a phenomenal of spread and volume of cross-border economic transactions but also with an organization of economic activities which straddle national boundaries of the world. Indian economy had experienced major policy changes in July, 1991s. The new economic reforms were popularly known as Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG), aimed at making the Indian economy as the fastest growing economy and globally competitive. The series of reforms has been undertaken with respect to the industrial sector, trade as well as financial sector. This period of economic transition has not only had the tremendous impact on the overall economic development but also on the mindset of Indian people who could get rid of traditional, stubborn thinking, superstition, and illiteracy. As every coin has two sides, similarly, there are both positive and negative aspects of globalization on Indian Economy and this paper analyze the relation between globalization and Indian Economy its implications after post-reform period.

Suicide attempts and self-harm during a dramatic national economic transition: a population-based study in Iceland.

Macroeconomic downturns have been associated with increased suicide rates. This study examined potential changes in suicide attempts and self-harm in Iceland during a period of major economic transition (2003-12). Data were retrieved from the National University Hospital in Reykjavik (population size: 204.725), containing all ICD-10 diagnoses connected to potential suicidal behaviour. Poisson regression models were used to compare attendance rates before and after the 2008 economic collapse. During the study period, a total of 4537 attendances of 2816 individuals were recorded due to suicide attempts or self-harm. We noted a significant change in total attendance rates among men, characterized by an annual increase in attendance rate pre-collapse of 1.83 per 100.000 inhabitants and a decrease of 3.06 per 100.000 inhabitants post-collapse ( P = 0.0067). Such pattern was not observed among women. When restricting to first attendances only, we found a reduced incidence post-crisis among both men (RR: 0.85; 0.76-0.96) and women (RR: 0.86; 0.79-0.92). We further found 1% increase in unemployment rate and balance of trade to be associated with reduced attendance rates among men (RR: 0.84; 0.76-0.93 and RR: 0.81; 0.75-0.88, respectively) but not among women. These data suggest no overall increase in attendance rates due to suicide attempts or self-harm following the 2008 Icelandic economic collapse. In fact, a high-point in self-harm and suicide attempts was observed among men at the height of the economic boom and a decrease in new attendances among both men and women after the economic collapse.

Industrial restructuring and downsizing: Case study of Central Croatia

The collapse of socialist economic system in Croatia was followed by a period of economic transition during which the industry sector was affected by major changes. This study, on an example of Central Croatia, analyzes the spatial aspect of these changes between 1990 and 2011. The used data were taken from the National Bureau of Statistics and studies in which the transition period industry is researched from economic and geographical point of view. Calculations of most indicators referred to a county level while some indicators were calculated at the level of administrative cities and municipalities. It was found that, in Central Croatia, there had come to a process of deindustrialization, and in some rare cases a process of reindustrialization, an increase in importance of tertiary and quaternary activities, and calculation of some indicators such as degree of industrialization, location quotient, regional factor and index of specialization indicated on the existence of significant differences between individual parts of Central Croatia.

Film or Flick?: Bundit Rittakol’s Youth Films as a Reflection of Resistance to Socio-cultural Transition in Thailand

Based on the theory that the film medium is of high value in reflecting socio-cultural matters, this research studied ten youth films directed by Bundit Rittakol during the 1980s-2000s in order to provide an understanding of how his films can be associated with the socio-cultural changes occurring at that time. During the 1980s-2000s, Thai society went through a period of economic and social transition with the adoption of a liberalized economy, influenced by globalization and democratization.

Education and fertility decline in China during transitional times: A cohort approach

We examine the effect of education on birth outcomes in China during the period of economic transition and large-scale changes in mass education and population control measures. Retrospective micro data from the 2008 Chinese General Social Survey and discrete time event history analysis are used to examine the fertility history of several cohorts of women born between 1945 and 1968. We observed births at different parities, distinguishing the education effect across cohorts and rural/urban sectors. We found differences across cohorts consistent with unique features of the Chinese context, such as the radical egalitarian era of educational expansion, and the Reform Era. We also found that despite the increase in some education levels across cohorts (e.g., junior high school in rural areas), birth chances were more likely to be concentrated among less educated women, suggesting the impact of factors related to returns to education and hence the desire for children.

Food security and nutrition in the Russian Federation – a health policy analysis

BackgroundIn the Russian Federation (Russia), an elevated burden of premature mortality attributable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) has been observed since the country's economic transition. NCDs are largely related to preventable risk factors such as unhealthy diets.ObjectiveThis health policy study's aim was to analyze past and current food production and nutritional trends in Russia and their policy implications for Russia's NCD burden.DesignWe examined food security and nutrition in Russia using an analytical framework of food availability, access to food, and consumption.ResultsAgricultural production declined during the period of economic transition, and nutritional habits changed from high-fat animal products to starches. However, per-capita energy consumption remained stable due to increased private expenditures on food and use of private land. Paradoxically, the prevalence of obesity still increased because of an excess consumption of unsaturated fat, sugar, and salt on one side, and insufficient intake of fruit and vegetables on the other.ConclusionsPolicy and economic reforms in Russia were not accompanied by a food security crisis or macronutrient deprivation of the population. Yet, unhealthy diets in contemporary Russia contribute to the burden of NCDs and related avoidable mortality. Food and nutrition policies in Russia need to specifically address nutritional shortcomings and food-insecure vulnerable populations. Appropriate, evidence-informed food and nutrition policies might help address Russia's burden of NCDs on a population level.

Artists, employment and the Great Recession: A cross-sectional analysis using US Current Population Survey data

This paper uses cross-sectional data from the US Current Population Survey to examine employment behavior among artists before and after a major period of economic transition – the Great Recession. The analysis looks at employment behavior among artists as an occupational group compared to other creative class workers and analyzes trends in periods before, during and after the recession. The results suggest that as a result of the downturn, many artists changed occupations to non-arts-related work or left the workforce altogether; artists became self-employed, and new artists opted for self-employment over wage/salary work; artists were disproportionately adversely impacted – either unemployed or underemployed – than other types of workers. Level of educational attainment was a significant determinant of whether an artist maintained quality employment and stayed in the occupation of his choice; and gender and marital status had a bearing on artists' ability to remain employed as an artist and maintain quality employment. The analysis emphasizes the importance of examining specific occupations within the creative class before drawing broad conclusions pertaining to all occupations with this title. Future work will test the conclusions in this study by using longitudinal data on artists.

Financial distress of Chinese firms: Microeconomic, macroeconomic and institutional influences

We study the impact of both microeconomic factors and the macroeconomy on the financial distress of Chinese listed companies over a period of massive economic transition, 1995 to 2006. Based on an economic model of financial distress under the institutional setting of state protection against exit, and using our own firm-level measure of distress, we find important impacts of firm characteristics, macroeconomic instability and institutional factors on the hazard rate of financial distress. The results are robust to unobserved heterogeneity at the firm level, as well as those shared by firms in similar macroeconomic founding conditions. Comparison with related studies for China and other economies highlights important policy implications.

Fiscal Behavior Volatility, Economic Growth, and Urban-Rural Income Disparity

AbstractFiscal behavior of local governments has great volatility in China, especially in the period of economic transition. This paper estimates fiscal behavior volatility by making regression analysis of panel data of 30 provinces from 1994 to 2011. Then we establish a dynamic panel model to study the direct and indirect impact of the fiscal behavior volatility on the urban-rural income disparity. Empirical results show that urban-rural income disparity has nonlinear relationship with economic growth and financial development and that fiscal behavior volatility expands the urban-rural income disparity directly and indirectly. The larger fiscal behavior volatility comes greater urban-rural income disparity. We also find that the urban-rural income disparity is further enlarged through dual economic structure. If one of the economic growth and financial development is fixed, the other one has an inverted U-shaped relationship with urban-rural income disparity.

Regulating China's Power Sector: Creating an Independent Regulator without Autonomy

AbstractThroughout its period of economic transition, the Chinese state has readjusted its relationship with industry and developed new regulatory schemes. China's first industry-specific independent regulatory agency, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC), was created in 2003. Its operation does not follow Western practice which adopts the best institutional arrangement for autonomous regulators. This article will examine the failings and regulatory capture of SERC. I argue that because the process of creating a new regulator involves resource reallocation and power redistribution, SERC has suffered both endogenous and exogenous disadvantages since its inception. The compromised institutional design, along with insufficient resources and fragmented authority, has considerably weakened SERC's regulatory capacity. Moreover, SERC was not designed as part of the reform schedule, but rather emerged later as a response to institutional necessities, which also contributes to its vulnerability. As a result, the state has exposed SERC to potential capture by both government entities and regulated enterprises.

Combining forecasts of electricity consumption in China with time-varying weights updated by a high-order Markov chain model

Electricity consumption forecasting has been always playing a vital role in power system management and planning. Inaccurate prediction may cause wastes of scarce energy resource or electricity shortages. However, forecasting electricity consumption has proven to be a challenging task due to various unstable factors. Especially, China is undergoing a period of economic transition, which highlights this difficulty. This paper proposes a time-varying-weight combining method, i.e. High-order Markov chain based Time-varying Weighted Average (HM-TWA) method to predict the monthly electricity consumption in China. HM-TWA first calculates the in-sample time-varying combining weights by quadratic programming for the individual forecasts. Then it predicts the out-of-sample time-varying adaptive weights through extrapolating these in-sample weights using a high-order Markov chain model. Finally, the combined forecasts can be obtained. In addition, to ensure that the sample data have the same properties as the required forecasts, a reasonable multi-step-ahead forecasting scheme is designed for HM-TWA. The out-of-sample forecasting performance evaluation shows that HM-TWA outperforms the component models and traditional combining methods, and its effectiveness is further verified by comparing it with some other existing models.

Board turnover in Taiwan’s public firms: An empirical study

Using a data set of 220 Taiwanese public firms with 2,200 observations over a ten-year period representing Taiwan’s economic takeoff period in the late 1990s, as well as six follow-up interviews conducted with top managers several years hence, this research examines the propensity of an important change variable for firms: the turnover of boards of directors. Specifically, it examines the relationship between board turnover and the organization’s environment, firm performance, and the largest shareholder’s control during a key period of economic transition and growth for Taiwan. The results show that substantial changes in board composition, though still not especially common in Taiwan, do occur, even in closely held companies. Turnover in the board is negatively related to the largest shareholder’s control power as well as firm performance. Board changes however, are not related to the environmental munificence and dynamism. These results are rather consistent with related research on firms in ethnic Chinese communities which suggests that top management and board turnover while not common, does sometimes occur, and more recent institutional and industrial change in Taiwan is likely encouraging further governance reform. This has implications for important facets of firm governance and change, as well as expanding our knowledge about firms domiciled in an ethnic Chinese community, particularly during times of economic transition and growth. Follow-up interviews with four top managers from our sample, along with one consultant and one government official in Taiwan provided additional confirmation and clarification of our results.

WHAT HAS 20 YEARS OF PUBLIC–PRIVATE PAY GAP LITERATURE TOLD US? EASTERN EUROPEAN TRANSITIONING vs. DEVELOPED ECONOMIES

AbstractThis paper surveys the literature on public–private sector pay differentials based on 20 years of research in transitioning countries of Eastern Europe (EE) and compares the results with estimates obtained from developed market economies. The majority of empirical studies from EE economies found evidence of public sector pay penalties during the period of economic transition from a communist to market‐based economy. In developed economies, however, the average differential is usually around zero or positive. The public sector pay inequality reducing effect relative to the private sector is greater in transitioning economies than in developed economies. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the sign of the public sector pay gap as well as the relative public sector pay distribution change with the progress of economic transition towards those usually observed in developed economies. Different pay‐setting arrangements between private and public sectors and competition for workers seem to be major arguments for the existence of systematic pay differences between the two sectors.

Accreditation as a Benchmark of Quality Sustenance in Higher Education: A Review of Quality Assurance in Indian University System

Economic globalisation has increased cross border transactions in every sphere of economic activity and the trend is more pronounced in higher education field. In a period of intensifying international interconnectivity and economic transition, there is a paradigm shift by knowledge becoming the key factor for economic growth. Universities and colleges are motors of development in an increasingly knowledge based society and it is the quality and size of the higher education that differentiates an emerging economy from others. The need for some kind of higher educational qualification for better prospects is increasingly recognised and growing enrolment in tertiary education sector and increasing rates of returns on it only make a case for the wider reach of higher education. Higher educational institutions face huge expectations from society. With geographical boundaries no longer apply to educational access, the traditional educational hierarchies like physical attendance, contact hours, formal academic credentials for academic instructors, library holdings etc are dissolved and the present challenges for quality assurance were unimaginable just a quarter century ago. This is not unique to any one country but has emerged as a global trend. Worldwide, students, educators, and all stakeholders are interested in knowing about the importance of obtaining a college degree from a college, university, or other institution of higher education with accreditation. Accreditation is considered across the globe as a benchmark in this context to quantify the effective educational practices towards qualitative achievements.

"You Must Know Where You Come From": South African Youths' Perceptions of Religion in Time of Social Change.

This study examined South African youths' perceptions of religion during a period of social and economic transition. In-depth interviews were conducted with 55 Black South African youth (age 18) living in the Johannesburg-Soweto metropolitan area. Data were analyzed in a manner consistent with grounded theory methodology and structural coding. Beliefs about the function of religion were captured by the following themes: provides support, connection to the past, moral compass, promotes healthy development, and intersections between African traditional practices and Christian beliefs. Themes are discussed and directions for future research are presented. In addition, applications of the current research and implications for promoting youths' resilience are offered.

International Comparisons of Population Mobility in Russia

The population of Russia is regarded as being quite immobile compared to other countries. There have been some recent methodological advances and new datasets on internal migration which make cross-national comparisons, though these do not extend to Russia. This paper adds comparisons of levels of mobility in Russia with other countries. The study finds that the population of Russia is not significantly less mobile than other large countries and that part of the myth of immobility stems from a deterioration of the migration registration system in the post-Soviet period. There are inconsistencies between lifetime mobility derived from population censuses and annual mobility from a population register which originated during the central-planning period. Given changes in the economic structure at both national and regional levels during the period of economic transition, migration theory predicted significant migration movements, and it seems as if many were not captured by the statistical system.