Perspective Of New Structural Economics Research Articles

Towards sustainable prosperity? Policy evaluation of Jiangsu advanced manufacturing clusters

The government of China, to hone manufacturing's competitive edge, has adopted a series of regional industrial policies to stimulate advanced manufacturing clusters as facilitators of agglomeration effects, utilisers of factor endowments, and implementers of innovation solutions, by playing the role of facilitating state. Focusing on advanced manufacturing cluster policies in East China's Jiangsu Province, the research employs a mixed data analysis methodology on a sample of 52 documents collected from the Jiangsu government and affiliated units. The policy orientations and priorities are examined under the triple analytical framework in terms of themes, instruments, and controls, applying textual mining and the PMC index model. The results reveal the alignment of policy themes with high-quality development strategy, the government preferences for the supply dimension in policy instruments, the emphasis on planning directive in policy controls, together with the relatively high internal consistency of the AMC policy toolkit by Jiangsu. Therefore, the research spotlights the importance of leveraging comparative strengths based upon the facilitating state institution, and of deploying internally coherent, scientific, and efficient initiatives that exploit more potential of advanced manufacturing clusters to foster sustainable prosperity from the perspective of New Structural Economics.

Transforming capital: The role of human capital structure in modulating environmental outcomes across economic transitions

Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this study builds a theoretical framework of human capital structure and environmental pollution. Human capital structure on pollution has different manifestations at different stages of development, the effect of pollution based on human capital structure follows the environmental Kuznets curve. Using multinational panel data (1990–2015) and provincial panel data for China (2004–2020), examined the dynamic relationship between human capital structure upgrading and pollution by introducing an interaction term between human capital and economic development level, applying random-effect, fixed-effect models, and a dynamic model test. The results support our theoretical analysis.

Research on the Optimization Path of Agricultural Factor Endowment Structure under the Perspective of Rural Revitalization

The strategy of rural revitalization is to adhere to the priority development of agriculture and rural areas, further adjust the urban-rural relationship between agriculture and industry, and accelerate the development of agriculture and rural economy, while optimizing the structure of China's agricultural factor endowment is the key to achieve rapid agricultural development and rural revitalization. Through the perspective of new structural economics, this paper discusses the relationship between agricultural factor endowment structure and agricultural institutional arrangement, agricultural industrialization and upgrading of agricultural factor endowment structure, as well as changes in agricultural factor prices and changes in agricultural factor inputs, and specifically researches how to optimize the existing structure of agricultural factor endowment and puts forward relevant suggestions.

China’s Road towards Decarbonization: Unrealistic Promise or a Credible Commitment?

This article argues that in low- and middle-income countries, market forces alone are structurally inadequate to spark the rapid development of renewable energy resources and initiate the replacement of obsolete technologies with cleaner technologies. Using the theoretical perspective of new structural economics as a point of departure, the examination of system-level constraints to the transformation of renewable energy reveals that active state participation in the energy sector can, on the one hand, play a key role in limiting fossil fuel consumption and, on the other, accelerate the development of renewable energy technologies. Analysis of the structural characteristics that underlie the gradual deceleration of fossil fuel extraction and the acceleration of renewable energy deployment suggests that China has laid the necessary prerequisites to reconcile policy objectives of promoting energy transformation and ensuring long-term economic growth.

Discussion on the design of compensation standards for regional environmental pollution from the perspective of new structural economics

How to effectively protect the ecological environment while socio-economic development, to achieve the harmonious and sustainable development of human society and the natural ecological environment, has been paid more and more attention by governments and academic circles around the world. Therefore, the design of compensation standards for regional environmental pollution is proposed from the perspective of new structural economics. Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this paper provides a new explanation of the impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental pollution, according to the economic and technical indicators related to ecological environmental pollution, with the help of the subjective and objective empowerment method combined with the analysis of hierarchy method and entropy method, the weight of each ecological environment pollution evaluation index in the evaluation and division of ecological environmental pollution level is studied, and the comprehensive evaluation method is used to construct the ecological environment pollution technology rating evaluation model, and the compensation value of regional environmental pollution is finally obtained by combining the panel regression model. The method of this paper has wide applicability and significant advantages. The experimental results show that the COD emission of the North Water Source Area (QZ) of the Qingzhang River is 208t/a, and the upstream of the drinking water source area needs to compensate 3.88 million yuan downstream for water quality and water ecological restoration.

Foreign direct investment, development strategy, and green innovation

In developing countries, foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a significant role in industrial catch-up concerning knowledge acquisition and technological innovation. The Chinese government's development strategy is vital in attracting FDI and green innovation (GI). This article investigates the moderating role of development strategy in the causal relationship between FDI and GI from the perspective of new structural economics. We find a U-shaped association between FDI and GI. Specifically, FDI inhibits GI at its low level, and FDI promotes GI with the accumulation of FDI capital. Therefore, cities with moderate catch-up strategies can maximize the impact of FDI on GI. Development strategies can also hinder the effects of FDI-driven GI in cities with a perfect market system while promoting them in cities with relatively backward, cleaner production technology. The development strategy not only has an impact on the FDI-driven GI effects in the region but also on the FDI-driven GI effects in the surrounding regions through the spatial spillover effect. These findings provide references on what type of FDI the government should introduce and how to guide the market to bring the GI effect of FDI into play.

Moderately diversified gaming industry and economy in Macau: From the perspective of new structural economics 澳門博彩業和經濟適度多元:基於 新結構經濟學的視角

Moderately diversified gaming industry and economy in Macau: From the perspective of new structural economics 澳門博彩業和經濟適度多元:基於 新結構經濟學的視角

Does the porter hypothesis work well in the emission trading schema pilot? Exploring moderating effects of institutional settings

Using a dataset of Chinese private firms from 2002 to 2014, this study examines the impact of China’s SO2 emission trading schema pilot on industrial innovation. In particular, this study explores the moderating effects of institutional settings from the perspective of new structural economics. Our finding shows positive support for the Porter Hypothesis (Porter and Linde, 1995), demonstrating that institutional regulation may enhance its impact on industrial innovation. Furthermore, both regulatory system and regulation enforcement may positively moderate the policy effect of emission trading schema on industrial innovation. Our findings indicate that market-oriented environmental regulation should be enforced in the aid of institutional settings.

The carbon emissions trading scheme and green technology innovation in China: A new structural economics perspective

Carbon emissions trading schemes are an essential market-oriented mechanism for carbon reduction. This study assumes China’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) policy as a quasi-natural experiment to examine its impact on green technology innovation using panel data of cities in China from 2008 to 2018. The moderating effects of effective governance and enterprise viability are further investigated from the perspective of new structural economics. The results indicate that China’s ETS policy can significantly promote green technology innovation in pilot cities. Further findings demonstrate that environmental regulation and development strategy can substantially enhance this positive effect, confirming the effectiveness of Chinese policies. A lower proportion of state-owned enterprises and higher total factor productivity is also found to strengthen such impact, indicating that viability can advance the effectiveness of market environmental regulations. Moreover, we identify significant regional heterogeneities indicating that the cities in the western region or old industrial bases do not fully leverage the advantages of the green innovation effect of ETS. Our findings provide insights for policymakers in developing countries regarding the role of efficient markets and effective government interventions for advancing carbon reduction and green technology innovation through policy optimization.

The Logic and Test of the Industrial Policy of "Active Government" in Towns: The Perspective of New Structural Economics

The Logic and Test of the Industrial Policy of "Active Government" in Towns: The Perspective of New Structural Economics

Structural Transformation and High-Quality Development during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period from the Perspective of New Structural Economics

Structural Transformation and High-Quality Development during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period from the Perspective of New Structural Economics

State-owned enterprise reform in China: The new structural economics perspective

Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this paper reviews each stage of China's state-owned enterprise reform, summarizes their main features, and argues that the root of state-owned enterprise's low efficiency and soft budget constraints is their strategic and social policy burdens. According to the state-owned enterprise's existing situation, the paper provides suggestions for deepening its reform.

Development Strategy and Environmental Governance

Based on the perspective of new structural economics, this paper makes a theoretical analysis of the relationship between development strategy and environmental governance, identifies its main mechanisms, namely the viability mechanism and the fiscal deficit mechanism, and then proposes research hypotheses. And based on the provincial panel data from 1997 to 2016, the paper conducts an empirical test on the relationship between them and its mechanisms.The research finds that: （1） The more the region’s development strategy violates the comparative advantage, the weaker its environmental governance level will be. This conclusion is effectively identified after selecting the shortest distance from threatened areas” and the number of old industrial bases” as exogenous instrumental variables of development strategy. （2） From the sub-indicators of environmental governance, there are differences in the impact of development strategy on all dimensions of environmental governance. In contrast, the development strategy has less impact on the number of local environmental laws and administrative rules and regulations, and more impact on sewage fees, the number of administrative penalties, the number of environmental protection personnel, the total investment in environmental governance and the structure of environmental governance. This difference in influence explains environmental governance in the real world in a more comprehensive way. （3） After considering the regional and temporal heterogeneity, the research hypotheses are still robust. It is also found that compared with the haze environmental event in 2013, the economic event of the financial crisis in 2008 has a more obvious impact on the development strategy and environmental governance. （4） The mechanism test shows that the development strategy violating the comparative advantage makes enterprises lack viability, weakens environmental constraints, and leads to more serious fiscal deficit, thus reducing the level of environmental governance.The policy enlightenment is that the optimal environmental governance is the endogenous result of the development strategy following the comparative advantage. The quality of environmental governance in a region does not depend on purely administrative and sporty environmental law enforcement, but on the viability of enterprises in its comparatively advantageous industries. Only when the company has viability, the government’s environmental governance policy can be effectively implemented and become a hard constraint. At the same time, when formulating fiscal policies and subsidy policies, the state needs to consider the externalities of environmental governance and the distortion of fiscal expenditures in environmental governance, and establish a regulatory mechanism to eliminate distortions.

To upgrade or to relocate? Explaining heterogeneous responses of Chinese light manufacturing firms to rising labor costs

This paper studies the heterogeneous responses of Chinese light manufacturing firms to rising labor costs from the perspective of New Structural Economics. Using the first-hand pilot survey data, we find that rising labor costs have been the number one challenge facing firms, and that despite the dominant strategy of technological upgrading, there is a substantial difference in responses across different firms. In addition, we discover that industrial and firm-specific labor intensity are key determinants of the heterogeneous strategies across firms in response to rising labor costs. We conclude that intrinsically more labor-intensive industries and firms are more likely to choose relocation instead of upgrading as a strategy to cope with the rising labor costs.

Factor Endowment, Institutional Constraints and Regional Economic Development Potential—Empirical Analysis Based on the Perspective of New Structural Economics

The new structural economic theory holds that the factor endowment structure has an important relationship with economic development, but a country must be accompanied by institutional constraints in the process of industrial upgrading and economic restructuring. Therefore, this paper divides the factors affecting China's regional economic development into two parts: factor endowment and institutional constraint. By constructing a panel stochastic frontier model, this paper explores the impact of factor endowment and institutional factors on China's regional economic development. The empirical results show that: (1) China's economy cannot exert its maximum development potential in the presence of institutional constraints, and foreign direct investment, infrastructure construction, marketization and foreign trade can alleviate the inherent constraints of China's current economic development to a certain extent. (2) There are great differences in the economic development patterns among the eastern, central and western regions. The western regions depend on government expenditure to some extent, while the eastern regions pay more attention to the role of foreign trade in promoting economic development.

Industrial Policy and China’s Economic Development: From the Perspective of New Structural Economics

Although industrial policies in many countries have failed, a country’s economic development is bound to be unsuccessful without industrial policy. The responsibility of an economist is not to object to any kind of industrial policy for fear of failure, nor unconditionally support all kinds of industrial policies because industrial policy is a necessary condition for the success of economic development. An economist should explore the causes behind the success or failure of industrial policies so as to help government reduce the chance of failure and improve the probabilities of success in applying industrial policies. This paper analyzes why industrial policy is necessary for successful economic development. This paper notes that synergy of “efficient market” and “facilitating state” is indispensable for economic development, and also analyzes why developed and developing countries failed in applying industrial policies. From the perspective of New Structural Economics, in this paper industries in China are divided into five types: catching-up industries, leading-edge industries, comparative advantage-losing industries, short innovation cycle industries and comparative advantage-defying strategic industries. The paper also analyzes how to formulate effective industrial policy in China. It is noted that, based on the characteristics of each industry, “efficient market” and “facilitating state” should both play their respective roles in promoting China’s industrial transformation and upgrading.