Period Of Rapid Economic Growth Research Articles

China's Workers Movement & the End of the Rapid-Growth Era

China's rapid economic growth period was predicated on a development model that exploited the stark divide between its urban and rural citizens. As the workshop of the world, Chinese factories tapped the vast surplus labor of the countryside. Rural workers' expectations were low, but their desire for new employment opportunities was boundless and their numbers seemed limitless. Three decades later, these conditions have changed: workers' expectations are higher and their numbers are diminishing as the population ages. Labor disputes and strikes are endemic as the expectations and aspirations of workers outpace the nation's slowing growth rate. Compared to the anemic labor movements in the West, China's workers are emboldened, though they are still hampered by a repressive political environment and strict constraints on freedom of association. Conflict is spontaneous and settlement is ad-hoc. Like many authoritarian regimes, the Chinese Communist Party has difficulty committing to the institutionalization of labor conflict as it heightens the possibility of social empowerment. The state remains in charge, which also means that labor-capital conflict almost invariably metastasizes into a confrontation between workers and the state.

CHANGES IN CHINA'S WAGE STRUCTURE

Using a national sample of Urban Household Surveys, we document several profound changes in China’s wage structure during a period of rapid economic growth. Between 1992 and 2007, the average real wage increased by 202%, accompanied by a sharp rise in wage inequality. Decomposition analysis reveals 80% of this wage growth to be attributable to higher pay for basic labor, rising returns to human capital, and increases in the state-sector wage premium. By employing an aggregate production function framework, we account for the sources of wage growth and wage inequality amid fast economic growth and transition. We find capital accumulation, skill-biased technological change, and rural–urban migration to be the major forces behind the evolving wage structure in urban China.

Air temperature and suicides in Astana, Kazakhstan: a time-series analysis

Background Seasonal variations in the incidence of suicide have been observed in many industrialized countries. Moreover, it is known that the incidence of suicide increase during both economic crises and periods of rapid economic growth. At the same time, the evidence on the associations between air temperature and suicide in rapidly developing settings is scarce. Objectives To study associations between four different indicators of air …

Kathleen Lynch, Bernie Grummell, and Dympna Devine, New Managerialism in Education: Commercialization, Carelessness and Gender

Kathleen Lynch, Bernie Grummell, and Dympna Devine, New Managerialism in Education: Commercialization, Carelessness and Gender. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 265 pp., $85.00 hardcover (978-0-230-27511-9). In New Managerialism in Education, education scholars Lynch, Grummell, and Devine provide an illuminating empirical account of the effects of new managerial (NM) practices on Ireland's educational sectors and the impact that neoliberal reforms have had on gender relations in senior management circles. The authors are decidedly critical of the influence of NM in Ireland and Irish education in particular. This is not surprising given the authors' prior collective work in the areas of equality studies, critical social justice, and education. The book is divided into four parts. The first section provides a general overview of the development of neoliberalism in Ireland, culminating in the Celtic Tiger period of rapid economic growth in Ireland, followed by its economic collapse in 2008. The authors speak to the unique historical and sociopolitical culture of Ireland that led to the contemporary governance structures that exist within Irish educational sectors. This book offers its most significant contributions through the second and third sections. Here the authors provide rich qualitative data to demonstrate how neoliberal projects and policies are actually accomplished, managed, and interpreted by people through everyday social practices in primary, secondary, and higher education fields. The final section provides critical discourse analysis of various Irish media sources and some interview data of media correspondents and media personnel to consider how national educational agendas get framed. One of the issues motivating the authors' research is the continued prevalence of employment barriers for women in achieving senior management positions within all sectors of education--primary, secondary, vocational, and higher education. The authors speak to the gender imbalances in senior management, with men holding a disproportionate number of positions. One of the stated objectives for this research is to effect policy changes within educational management circles, to create more genuinely inclusive practices and procedures for women and people with care responsibilities (p. 41). In order to investigate the prevalence of NM values within Irish education, the authors focus on the appointment process of 23 senior managers that took place within three different levels of education--primary, secondary, and higher education. Through their investigation, they conducted over 50 in-depth interviews with both the hiring assessors of educational managers as well as successful candidates. Through interviews, textual and critical discourse analysis, the authors focus on the values encoded in the recruitment process and the values directing management at all levels of education. The qualitative data gathered by Lynch, Grummell, and Devine demonstrates that the implementation of NM values within Irish educational circles has been uneven. In primary and secondary education sectors, Irish schools are often small, acting as community hubs particularly within rural Ireland. Principals are deeply integrated into the fabric of these smaller communities and many still have teaching duties. As a result, many principals manage new regulatory responsibilities while attempting to minimize the impact on school staff, students, and families. With primary and secondary schooling more closely associated with care work, school principals, alongside communities, have mounted successful challenges to the competitive pressures placed on schools through various neoliberal policy agendas. The authors speak in detail to the significant role that primary and secondary teacher unions (of which principals are members) have played in challenging neoliberal discourses on educational policy, including the idea that greater accountability measures will improve the quality of Irish education. …

"Home projects" in Japanese Home Economics Education during the Period of Rapid Economic Growth

"Home projects" in Japanese Home Economics Education during the Period of Rapid Economic Growth

The age of equality: the twentieth century in economic perspective

In 1900 the global average life expectancy at birth was thirty-one years. By 2000 it was sixty-six. Yet, alongside unprecedented improvements in longevity and material well-being, the twentieth century also saw the rise of fascism and communism and a second world war followed by a cold war. This book tells the story of the battles between economic systems that defined the last century and created today's world. The nineteenth century was a period of rapid economic growth characterized by relatively open markets and more personal liberty, but it also brought great inequality within and between nations. The following century offered sharp challenges to free-wheeling capitalism from both communism and fascism, whose competing visions of planned economic development attracted millions of people buffeted by the economic storms of the 1930s. The Age of Equality describes the ways in which market-oriented economies eventually overcame the threat of these visions and provided a blueprint for reform in nonmarket economies. This was achieved not through unbridled capitalism but by combining the efficiency and growth potential of markets with government policies to promote greater equality of opportunity and outcome. Following on the heels of economic reform, rapid catch-up growth in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, and Poland helped to reduce global inequality. At a time when inequality is on the rise in nations as disparate as the United States and Egypt, Pomfret's interpretation of how governments of market economies faced the challenges of the twentieth century is both instructive and cautionary.

Changes in China's Wage Structure

Using a national sample of Urban Household Surveys, we document several profound changes in China's wage structure during a period of rapid economic growth. Between 1992 and 2007, the average real wage increased by 202 percent, accompanied by a sharp rise in wage inequality. Decomposition analysis reveals 80 percent of this wage growth to be attributable to higher pay for basic labor, rising returns to human capital, and increases in the state-sector wage premium. Employing an aggregate production function framework, we account for the sources of wage growth and wage inequality in the face of globalization and economic transition. We find capital accumulation, skill-biased technological change, and export expansion to be the major forces behind the evolving wage structure in China.

My Car, My Life: Kuroi Senji’s “Running Family” as Ideology Critique for an Economistic Era

Peter Tillack examines Kuroi Senji’s “Hashiru kazoku” (Running family; 1970) in the context of debates that arose in the 1970s about the so-called “Introspective Generation.” In contrast to the Marxist critic Odagiri Hideo, who charged that Kuroi wrote politically disengaged literature, Tillack interprets “Running Family” as a critique of the middle-class sensibilities that began to predominate during Japan’s period of rapid economic growth (1955–1973). Analyzing the nonrealistic techniques that Kuroi used to represent a suburb-dwelling salaryman’s relationship to his new car, Tillack shows that Kuroi’s language was influenced by the discourse of advertising as well as a perception that objects have assumed an agency at the expense of human subjects. Tillack thus finds evidence in “Running Family” for the reifying effects of a society increasingly tyrannized by economism. Rather than escaping ideology, Tillack concludes, Kuroi confronted it.

Income mobility in Russia (2000–2005)

Using the data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), this paper investigates income mobility in Russia during the period of rapid economic growth (2000–2005). Employing a broad set of mobility indices, we show that there is much mobility in household incomes from one year to the next and over longer periods in Russia. Both relative and absolute mobility in Russia are significantly higher than in Western countries. We demonstrate that income growth in Russia was strongly pro-poor in 2000–2005. Incomes of the relatively poor were growing faster than incomes of the relatively rich. However, this inequality-reducing effect was almost exactly offset by changes in the relative positions of individuals and the overall reduction in cross-sectional inequality was merely modest.

Economic growth and child poverty reduction in Bangladesh and China

This paper analyzes child poverty in Bangladesh and China during periods of rapid economic growth. It compares the extent as well as profile of child poverty in both countries. Comparisons on the extent of child poverty over time and across countries are made using a decomposition framework attributing child poverty differences to differences in three components: mean child income, demographic circumstances and the distribution of child income. Child poverty is found to be more extensive in Bangladesh than in China, and is very much a problem for rural children in both countries. The results show that economic growth can reduce child poverty but does not always do so. For understanding changes over time and across countries in the extent of child poverty, it can be necessary to also consider changes/differences in the distribution of child income as well as in the demographic composition.

From economic development to public health improvement: China faces equity challenges

In the past three decades China has been going through a period of rapid economic growth, which has had profound repercussions for the nation’s public health system. Prior to the current health reforms much of the population was left uninsured and facing high financial risk from inadequate healthcare, with especially deep divisions between the urban and rural populations, which continues to pose a huge challenge to health equity and social justice. This paper explores the relationship between economic development and public health and discusses a series of health disparity issues that are emerging in China. These include: (1) health risk and access to care issues among unregistered urban populations (i.e. migrants); (2) low recognition of mental health, and the stigma associated with people with mental illness or communicable disease; and (3) challenges to the traditional system of family care for the elderly, as younger generations migrate to the cities and the remaining rural population ages. Implications for government policy and action to address these issues and improve public health as well as equity are discussed.

China's innovation policies: Evolution, institutional structure, and trajectory

China has transformed itself from a planning to a market-oriented economy over the past three decades and has sustained a fairly long period of rapid economic growth, to which the contributions from innovation in science and technology (S&T) have become increasingly important. Then, how have China's innovation policies evolved to reflect the changing and supposedly better understanding of innovation by China's policy makers? The paper tries to answer this question through a quantitative analysis of 287 policies issued by China's central government agencies between 1980 and 2005 and of 79 policies introduced between 2006 and 2008 to implement the Medium- and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology (2006–2020). China has shifted its S&T and industrial policy-centered innovation strategy and has pursued a series of better coordinated, innovation-oriented economic and technology initiatives that give greater attention to a portfolio of policies that include critical financial, tax, and fiscal measures. There has been a gradual departure from the pattern in which innovation policies are formulated by one single government agency, therefore steering China to a different and probably more promising innovation trajectory.

Economic Growth and Child Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh and China

This paper analyzes child poverty in Bangladesh and China during periods of rapid economic growth in both countries. It compares the extent as well as profile of child poverty in both countries. Comparisons on the extent of child poverty, over time and across countries, are made using a decomposition framework attributing child poverty differences to differences in the three components mean child income, demographic circumstances and the distribution of child income. Child poverty is found to be more extensive in Bangladesh than in China, and is very much a problem for rural children in both countries. The results show that economic growth can reduce child poverty but does not do so always. For understanding changes over time and across countries in the extent of child poverty, it can be necessary to also consider changes/differences in the distribution of child income as well as in the demographic composition.

Secular trends in growth and nutritional status of Vietnamese adults in rural Red River delta after 30 years (1976-2006).

In order to assess secular trends in growth of the Vietnamese population following a period of rapid economic growth, a follow-up study on physical growth and nutritional status of adults was carried out in a rural section of the Red River delta, Vietnam 30 years after the original study. The initial study in 1976 found that average height and weight of Vietnamese adults was similar to data collected by French experts Huard and Bigot in 1938. Hence, no noticeable secular trends were observed in almost 40 years. However, the 2006 follow-up study revealed a positive secular trend in growth of adults, aged 16-60 years. The average increased rate in height of males was up to 1.1 cm/decade in the age group 26-40 years and up to 2.7 cm/decade in the age group 16-25 years. Nutritional status, as indicated by body mass index, increased in both sexes and in all age groups between 1976 and 2006.were observed. In 2006, average dietary intake of fat and animal protein was higher than that found in 1976. The percentage of energy from fat in the diet increased from 6% in 1976 to 16% in 2006. This study shows that Vietnam is entering the nutrition transition period.

Study on failure rate analysis for water distribution pipelines

Many of the waterworks facilities in Japan were constructed during the rapid economic growth period. Today, the deterioration and renovation of these aged facilities have become a pressing issue. There are approximately 600,000km worth of water pipelines laid out across Japan, accounting for about 70% of the nation's water-related assets (totalling ¥40 trillion). To provide water that is safe to use, it is necessary to improve and innovate water purification technologies; not only that, it is also vital to properly maintain and manage the pipelines. The current research aims to apply reliability engineering in the waterworks field as one possible approach and to show its viability; it will also obtain vital messages revealed within pipeline incident data. In other words, we collected the information concerning water distribution pipeline incidents through questionnaire surveys and then analysed the cumulative failure distribution (unreliability) by pipeline material, the failure probability density and failure rate, among others.

Structural Change and Economic Development in China and India

The comparison of the periods of rapid economic growth in China since 1978 and India since 1992 markedly show different patterns of development and structural change. However, both countries experienced some of the advantages of “relative economic backwardness” and some aspects of the “fordist model of growth”. China had an anticipated and deeper structural change, spurred mainly by economic reforms and the growth of the internal market in the 1980s and since the mid-1990s by a very rapid penetration of its industrial products in the world market. However, a substantial part of its exports in medium and high tech sectors are due to joint- ventures with foreign multinationals. India had a more balanced structural change and a slower insertion in the world market, although some sectors, such as software, steel, automotive and pharmaceuticals are recently increasing their share in the world markets.

The National Immigrant Survey of Spain. A new data source for migration studies in Europe

Abstract Spain has recently become the destination for large numbers of international migrants and now ranks as a key focal point for international migration in Europe. Currently, approximately one in ten residents in Spain are foreigners, up more than tenfold from figures existing at the outset of this century. Migration has now become a major social and political issue in the country. In order to provide reliable data about migrants in Spain for researchers and policy makers, acting on a proposal of a research team working within the context of the Population and Society Research Network (GEPS), the Spanish Statistical Office has recently carried out an extremely ambitious survey of foreign-born persons currently living in Spain. In the course of the survey, nearly 15,500 persons were interviewed regarding a large array of issues pertaining to their migration experience. Important documentation, including the project report, the methodological specifications of the survey, and the anonymized micro data have recently been made available to the scientific community and to policy makers at the website of the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica. The purpose of this paper is to describe this data source, its content, its methodological underpinnings, and the way the fieldwork and data cleaning were carried out. Examples of preliminary results will be presented so as to underscore the potential this survey affords for researchers everywhere. 1. Introduction Since the turn of the century, migration in Spain has become a subject of pressing social concern and the source of considerable public debate. The main reason for this is that in the past decade Spain has become an important destination for international migration, attracting immigrants from North Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and many other areas of the world. The intensity of these flows has increased yearly and has turned Spain into one of the major migration destinations in the world. This situation has been caused by a prolonged period of rapid economic growth, the needs of an increasingly fragmented labor market, and the result of incipient population shortages in key age groups due to the galloping process of aging underway in the country. The reality of migration has become a source of concern and public debate in this country both because of the intensity of the phenomenon and because for the first time in centuries Spain has become a country of immigration rather than one of emigration. The social relevance of this theme has also turned it into a key subject of social and economic research. Most of this research has concentrated on the political dimensions of migration, on the quantification of its main characteristics, on the study of its economic implications and the effects it has on the labor market, and on the social difficulties emerging from this entirely new situation. Less attention has been paid to the way migrants formulate their strategies and how these become operational. Our understanding of the truly social, economic, and cultural dimensions of migrant networks is less than sufficient. These deficiencies have become an important handicap not only for our understanding of migration and migrants themselves, but also for the ability of policy makers to design adequate policies for this new and pressing social phenomenon. The National Immigrant Survey -which will be depicted in this paper3- was originally proposed so as to contribute to alleviating this knowledge gap in our understanding of migration. The survey was originally proposed by a university-based research team working on migration issues within the context of the Population and Society Research Network (Grupo de Estudios Poblacion y Sociedad - GEPS)4 for the Spanish Statistical Office (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica - INE) in July 2004. Preparation took the better part of three years, fieldwork started in late 2006, and the final data were made available to the public in July of 2008. …

Income Mobility in Russia (2000-2005)

Although much research has been conducted on annual income inequality in Russia, little has been know about longer-run measures of income inequality and on income mobility. Using the data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, this paper investigates income mobility in Russia during the period of rapid economic growth. Employing a broad set of mobility indices, we show that there is much mobility in household incomes from one year to the next in Russia. There is some evidence of greater mobility for those in the tails of the income distribution relative to the middle. However, income movements in Russia over this period are largely associated with transitory rather than permanent changes.

Macroeconomic efficiency of use of non-renewable resources in the industrial economy during a period of rapid economic growth in China

The efficiency of using non-renewable resources is an important indicator for assessing sustainable development performance. At present, Chinese national statistical data on this efficiency is deficient in every area of non-renewable resource use, including extraction, manufacturing, consumption, and recovery of waste material. In the present study, we constructed an alternative macroeconomic indicator that represents the ratio of total industrial value added to non-renewable resources input in the industrial economy, and examined trends for this indicator from 1985 to 2001. The input of non-renewable resources in the industrial sector was calculated using both mass and emergy units. The results indicate that the trends for the indicators during the study period were similar for the indicator expressed in mass and emergy units. Compared with 1985, non-renewable resources use efficiency in 2001 increased by 215.8% in mass units, versus 214.3% in emergy units. The average annual (not compounded) increase was 12.7% in mass units and 12.6% in emergy units. The increase in resource use efficiency demonstrates that economic growth was faster than the growth in consumption of non-renewable resources in China during the past 17 years, and that economic growth was accompanied by more efficient use of non-renewable resources. Of course, the continuous increase in the input of non-renewable resources during this period is producing huge environmental pressures for China that are not measured by the indicator developed in this paper, and reliable statistics on extraction, manufacturing, consumption, and recovery of waste material must be obtained in the future to permit more refined analyses.

沿岸防災施設のアセットマネジメントの導入に向けた展望と課題 老朽化する社会資本への対応と今後の展望

In this paper, an approach for asset management of decrepit social infrastructures is proposed. The management system is based on a sequence of inspections. Since Japan is surrounded by sea, coastal revetment is necessary. However, a great number of the coastal facilities were built in the same period of rapid economic growth, and therefore they have aged at the same time. We need to maintain these social infrastructures efficiently in an aging society with a falling birthrate using asset management. It is important to integrate our practical knowledge, develop maintenance skills and produce a road map which indicates how to use this information in the field.