Round Of Reform Research Articles

Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of Electricity Grid Corporations Employing a Novel MCDM Model

Under the new round reform of electricity market in China, a large amount of electricity sales companies has emerged in some provinces, and the reform of transmission and distribution tariffs is also in progress. Electricity grid corporations are required to update their operational strategies and improve comprehensive performance to adapt to the fierce competition in the electricity market. Considering this, a novel MCDM (multi-criteria decision making) model integrating Fuzzy-Delphi, the best-worst method (BWM), the entropy weight calculation approach, and the VIKOR method is established in this investigation to assess the comprehensive performances of five selected provincial electricity grid corporations. The comprehensive performance assessment indicator system is constructed in accordance with Fuzzy-Delphi approach, composed of 21 significant sub-criteria from the aspects of profitability capacity, development capacity, safety production capacity, electricity supply reliability, outstanding service provision, energy conservation, and environmental protection. The sub-criteria weights are computed by combining subjective weights determined by BWM and objective weights computed by the entropy weight calculation approach. The comprehensive performance evaluation model is established based on VIKOR. As the electricity grid corporation A is superior in profitability capacity (especially in electricity sales amount) and safety production capacity criterion, it is superior over other four electricity grid corporations. The established novel MCDM is practical and rational, which is applicable for electricity grid corporations’ comprehensive performance evaluation.

Electricity Market Creation in China: Policy Options from Political Economics Perspective

In 2015, a new round reform of the marketization for the electricity sales in China is launched. This paper investigates the policy selection for this reform in China, from the perspective of political economics. We analyze the policy selection of the 2015 reform from two aspects of market structure and pricing mechanism. According to the policy of the 2015 reform, China’s power industry is of great potential to develop the market structures of “integration of generation and retail services while integrating transmission and distribution” versus “integration of generation, distribution and retail services while independent of transmission”. Those two market structures have advantages on competition efficiency and political practicability. For the pricing mechanisms, the power exchange market of China can take bilateral contracts for the long-term trading and double-sided auctions for the short-term trading, as well as for the spot market. In addition, electricity financial market can be set up as a supplement for the power exchange market, which is of potential contribution to manage the risk and discover the effective price. The 2015, reform assigns two state-owned grid companies the responsibility of the demand side management. The intelligent system to improve the information management of energy consumption can be established. Utilization of renewable energy is also emphasized in the 2015 reform for energy sustainability in China. Effective policy instruments, such as the efficient subsidy policy, an independent exchange market, and a quota system, for the promotion of renewable energy utilization, can be implemented.

Application of Role Playing Method in Physical Education Teaching in Colleges and Universities

With the deepening of teaching reform, various new teaching ideas and teaching modes have been spawned in our country. Physical education curriculum, as an important part of school education in China, has undergone many rounds of reforms. By combing the reform of school sports in our country, it is not difficult to find that the reform of school physical education curriculum is the key to the reform of the whole school sports. As an important part of school physical education curriculum reform, teaching method reform has always been the focus of reform and innovation in school sports field. The role playing method has made some progress in the teaching of some disciplines. Although the research in the field of physical education is not large and systematic, it shows the advantages and strengths of role playing. In order to better introduce the teaching method of role playing into the physical education process of Chinese universities, we must strengthen the research of the theory and practice of the role playing method.

Local Content Policy and Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Automobile Component Manufacturing

Is industrial policy effective? This issue has been a hot topic in academic circle. This paper focuses on local content policy in Chinese automobile industry in 2005 and combines tax holiday in the same period to empirically analyze their impacts on firm TFP and answer the question above by using micro data of component manufacturing and vehicle manufacturing in Chinese automobile industry from 2002 to 2007. It comes to the following conclusions:firstly, the main mechanism of the TFP improvement of automobile component manufacturers lies in vertical technology spillover effect of vehicle manufacturers on automobile component manufacturers, but the rise in market size and short-term market monopoly degree also leads to the inertia of these component manufacturers in terms of productivity improvement; secondly, there is heterogeneity among the impact of local content policy on firm TFP with different ownership structure; domestic and nonstate-owned firms take more advantages of technology spillover from vehicle manufacturers, and foreign-invested firms benefit more from the rise in market size, while productivity of state-owned firms is not significantly influenced by local content policy; thirdly, the relationship between local content policy and tax holiday shows two sides; under local content policy, FDI that enjoys tax holiday offers more technology spillover to domestic component manufacturers; however, firms that enjoy tax holiday lack the motive for self-improvement on their efficiency. These conclusions above bring some implication to a new round reform in Chinese industry:local content policy is effective to a certain extent, especially for China's strategic emerging industries like high-end equipment manufacturing industry, and the policy orientation is conductive to laying the foundation of the construction of new industries; however, industry policy should not be overused, and its policy-making should place more emphasis on organic combination and complementation of different policy instruments, which can help different policies work together to ensure the efficiency improvement of firms.

商业银行债转股改革的模式与创新

作为降杠杆、推动经济转型的重要举措，债转股改革自重启之日起便受到广泛关注。本轮改革不仅对第三方机构持股这一90年代后期主导模式进行完善，突出市场作用、放宽主体限制、引入社会资本，更创新提出银行新设子公司持股模式，但同样兼具利弊。在对两种模式分别进行阐述后，本文结合国外先行改革、国内经济动态，按照不同主体进行划分，对债转股的未来发展提出建议。 As an important measure to reduce the leverage and promote the economic transformation, the reform of the debt-to-equity swap has received wide attention since its reopening. This round of reform not only improves the third party ownership mode which used to be the dominant in the late 1990s by highlighting the role market plays, relaxing the restrictions about subjects and in-troducing social capital, but also puts forward the creative bank’s subsidiary ownership mode having both advantages and disadvantages. After introducing and explaining these two modes respectively, combined with foreign previous reforms and domestic economic dynamics, this paper provides some suggestions for the future developments of the debt-to-equity swap reform based on different subjects.

Analysis on the Mode and Competitive Strategy of Electricity Sales in the Background of Electric Power System Reform

A new round of reform of the power system conforms to the national development of the energy revolution and the reform of the electricity market system. As an important promoter of the energy revolution and power reform, a new round of power system reform has brought profound changes to the energy industry and the power industry and the electricity market system has changed dramatically. With the release of the electricity market, market competition intensified. This paper analyzes the competition strategy of electricity sales market, analyzes the characteristics of market participants such as power generation enterprises, power grid enterprises, electricity sales companies and users, and puts forward the corresponding coping strategies to help the market participants to deal with the opportunities and challenges brought by power system reform, provide guidance and reference for the market participants.

Roadmap of retail electricity market reform in China: assisting in mitigating wind energy curtailment

Among the renewable energies, wind energy has gained the rapidest development in China. Moreover wind power generation has been penetrated into power system in a large scale. However, the high level wind curtailment also indicates a low efficiency of wind energy utilization over the last decade in China. One of the primary constraints on the utilization of wind energy is the lack of an electricity market, in which renewable energies can compete equally with traditional fossil fuel generation. Thus the new round electric power industry reform is essential in China. The reform involves implementing new pricing mechanism, introducing retail-side competition, promoting the consumption of renewable energy. The new round reform can be a promising solution for promoting the development and consumption of wind energy generation in China. Based on proposed reform policies of electric power industry, this paper suggests a roadmap for retail electricity market reform of China, which consists of three stages. Barriers to the efficient utilization of wind energy are also analysed. Finally, this paper introduces several efficient measures for mitigating wind curtailment in each stage of reform.

Indian mining reform—a second perspective

Reforms of the Indian mining sector go back as far as 1991. The present round of reforms, however, fails to address the most important part of the mining sector: coal mining. A big reform has to be introduced to allow the coexistence of both public and private sectors in commercial exploitation of coal resources for the energy needs of the country. It is important to at least attempt to quantify the tangible financial benefits of the present reform accruing to the mining industry directly or indirectly. These aspects cannot be bye-passed as they strengthen the arguments for a true overhaul of the entire legal system governing the mining sector. In order for the mining sector to realize its full potential, more steps than those in the reform need to be undertaken to create a conducive environment for the industry to flourish.

Spain in the Wake of the Crisis: Reforms or Adjustment?

This paper examines how a set of economic indicators have changed in Spain before and after the last round of reforms were passed. This analysis provides some stylized facts of the Spanish recovery. The current account balance and the main competitiveness indicators started to improve in 2009 before any major reform had been adopted. The robust growth of the Spanish economy depends, just as before the crisis, virtually on domestic demand alone. In the labour market, net jobs have been created after the reform but by substituting permanent for temporary contracts. Unemployment is increasingly becoming a longer, and more vulnerable condition. Innovation activity in firms is in free fall. Part of all this is not attributable to the reforms, but rather to deeper limitations of the Spanish economy. All in all, the case for a private sector-led, automatic adjustment after 2008 is stronger than the one to be made for recovery through reform.

The “state-led-economy” issue in the BIT negotiations and its policy implications for China

The state-led-economy provisions in the U.S. model BIT, which was released in April 2012, aims to impose strict regulations on the SOEs and exert great influence on state-led economy model. China and the U.S. are now in the midst of negotiating a BIT, and the U.S. government insists on negotiating on the basis of its 2012 model BIT. If China is to accept the 2012 U.S. model for the proposed BIT between the two nations, unprecedented international obligations will be placed in the field of international investment. In this context, in order to provide a reference for the BIT negotiation, the author will analyze, from the perspective of normative jurisprudence, which economic activities are included in the scope of state-led economy provisions, whether China should accept the clauses and the possible impact of accepting it. China’s economy has indivisible relationship with State-owned enterprises (SOEs). At present, most of these SOEs have clustered in those sectors that play crucial roles in the national economy such as energy, telecommunication and finances. Despite several rounds of reform on the SOEs aiming at a separation of governmental functions from corporate management, and a modern market-oriented governance structure, Chinese SOEs remain monopolies or de facto monopolies with exclusive access to many important industries relevant to national economy and people’s livelihood. Further, SOEs can enjoy a lot of privileges in their operation, some even have certain regulatory authority which is supposed to be exercised by the government. This kind of economic model is called State-led economy. The 2012 U.S. model for bilateral investment treaties (BIT) is characterized by the inclusion of the state-led economy provisions, which means that there are more restrictive regulations governing SOEs and their special treatment, and countervailing their competition implication in the host country and their home country. Apart from creating a fair and impartial environment for the investors, this international investment regime, represented by 2012 U.S. BIT model, is in some way, intended to alter the host country’s economic governance regime. In accordance with the decision of the 5th round of the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, both parties are dedicated to proceeding the BIT negotiations (The 5th Round of the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue: broad consensus achieved and positive progress made, People’s Daily, p 3, 2013). The U.S. government has insisted that they would base its 2012 model as a blueprint of BIT text negotiation. Seemingly to illustrate, the 6th round of the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue has reached a consensus that an earlier launch of negotiation on the negative list will be expected in 2015 (The 6th Round of the U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue: broad consensus achieved and positive progress made, People’s Daily, p 3, 2014; Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, The 14th Round of the U.S.–China Investment Treaty Negotiation is Held in Washington, D.C., 2014). If China is to accept the new BIT model, it will bring China a bundle of increasing obligations under this system and an unprecedented impact on China’s mode for economic development. As a contracting party, China will have to carry out a comprehensively economic reform to comply with the disciplines specified in the BIT. It is also understandable that the incorporation of the state-led economy provision in the China–U.S. BIT will in turn accelerate the domestic economic reforms. In this context, research on the issue of state-led economy in the BIT negotiation will be of significance to China’s dealing with the core issue in the BIT, China’s fulfillment of treaty obligations and its promotion of domestic economic reform via BIT negotiations. In order to provide a reference for the BIT negotiation, the author will identify from the perspective of normative jurisprudence, the economic activities that fall within the scope of state-led economy provisions, project the possible impact of state-led economy provisions and how China should handle negotiation surrounding the state-led economy issue.

A Review of Institutional Reform over the Past 30 Years from the Perspective of Change Management

The Leading Group for Deepening Reform Comprehensively has been set up on the decision of the CPC Central Committee to be in charge of the overall planning of reform, taking a balanced and coordinated approach, advancing reform as a whole and supervising its implementation. This means that change management has become an important item on the agenda. Systematically reviewing and examining the course of the seven rounds of institutional reform introduced by the State Council since 1978 from the perspective of change management, we find that the reforms have advanced gradually and steadily, with functional transformation as the core feature and key to each round of reform. The transformation of government functions exhibits a marked two-phase character. The first phase focuses on change in government functions relating to economic management, while the second focuses on enhancing and improving macro-control systems to strengthen social management and public service functions. However, in terms of program design, the goals and measures of the past 10 years’ functional transformation have clearly not been specific enough to establish a clear relationship between the three rounds of institutional reform programs and the concrete measures and their effects. Therefore, the question of whether institutional reform itself needs reform has become a new proposition for practice, one that needs to be reviewed in terms of strategic orientation, mode of implementation, public responsibilities and overall design.

INCREASING WORK OPPORTUNITIES AND REDUCING POVERTY TWO DECADES AFTER WELFARE REFORM

Our opening piece and that of Ron Haskins reflect general agreement about the consequences of TANF and the strengths and weaknesses of the safety net. For example, we agree that TANF has significant and growing problems—many working single mothers remain poor and those disconnected from both work and TANF are worse off than they were before welfare reform. These problems are also greater in the postrecession labor market than during the economic boom of the 1990s. We endorse his subtitle, “Work Still Works” and his concluding sentence, “The next round of reforms should be based on improving, not scrapping, the current system.” We accepted his challenge and proposed safety-net reforms including increased subsidies for work opportunities and for child care; changes in the block grant to make TANF benefits more accessible, particularly during recessions; and the provision of disability benefits for those with significant employment barriers. In this counterpoint, we agree with Haskins regarding much of the evidence, but interpret TANF’s performance more negatively. We reframe his subtitle as “work still works, but TANF does not.” We offer suggestions for additional reforms that would make the safety net more effective for both the working and nonworking poor.

The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone: Background, Developments and Preliminary Assessment of Initial Impacts

AbstractThe China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (SPFTZ) founded one year ago is a trial for China's new round of reform and opening up, which has promised liberalisation on the capital account and trade facilitation as its main objectives. Here, we discuss why China adopted such a pilot zone after three decades of economic development, and explore what the differences are between the SPFTZ and other free trade areas, and developments of the SPFTZ in the past year. We also make a preliminary assessment of the SPFTZ's initial impacts, especially of its impact on China's capital account opening and financial liberalisation. It is possible that the successful practice of the SPFTZ and more pilot policies replicated in China will give rise to a more balanced Chinese economy in the following decade.

Railway Sector Reform in China: controversy and problems

The railway sector in China has undergone several major rounds of reform and institutional restructuring since 1986. These reform initiatives have largely been unsuccessful due to strong resistance from vested interest groups. The development of China's railway sector has raised some challenging issues that include the centralization of power in the Ministry of Railways (MOR), state monopoly control, rampant corruption and the accumulation of a huge debt burden. The 2013 railway reform initiatives have provided very little in the way of concrete measures to deal with these thorny issues but have instead created more controversy and problems in an already crisis-ridden sector. For the railway industry, the transformation from the mixed-function MOR to a monopolistic China Railway Corporation (CRC) will not necessarily lead to better railway management.

Philosophy and Methods for China’s Vocational Education Curriculum Reforms in the Early Twenty-First Century

:Curriculum reform is an important aspect of progress in China’s vocational education in the twenty-first century. The past decade’s round of reforms were unprecedented in China in terms of both the scope and depth of their impact. They have and will continue to dramatically alter the nation’s vocational education curriculum and teaching methods. This article addresses the objectives, philosophy, and design of these curriculum reforms.

Evaluation of the effects of comprehensive reform on primary healthcare institutions in Anhui Province.

BackgroundIn 2009, the Chinese Central Communist Party and the China State Council started to implement comprehensive healthcare reforms. The first round of reforms, involving Anhui province, was from 2009 to 2011, and focused on primary healthcare institutions. This study conducts an initial assessment of the effects of specific parts of the reforms in Anhui.MethodsMixed quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted for data collection. Seven hundred and three health institutions from 15 counties were randomly chosen. The practices, development, effects, problems, and other relevant information related to the reform were classified into four aspects: medicine management; personnel systems and income distribution mechanisms; compensation mechanisms for primary healthcare institutions; and strengthening the primary healthcare system. The effects of reform were analyzed by evaluating changes in compensation channels, visit costs, diagnosis and treatment structure, hardware, structures, efficiency, and behavior.ResultsA new system for authorizing drugs resulted in a total of 857 new drugs being accessible at agreed prices through primary healthcare institutions in Anhui. The cost of the average outpatient visit decreased from 35.29 RMB to 31.64 RMB, although for inpatients, the average cost increased from 799.05 RMB to 992.60 RMB. The number of healthcare personnel decreased, but their workloads increased. The total revenue from government sources increased by 41.09%, and the proportion of revenue from drugs decreased by 25.19%. The rate of diagnosis and treatment visits and outpatient visits to primary healthcare institutions increased. Finally, between 2008 and 2010, 1,195 standardized township hospitals, 14,134 village clinics, and 1,234 community health service institutions were constructed.ConclusionThe reform of primary healthcare institutions in Anhui has improved the personnel structures surrounding frontline healthcare workers, increased their incomes, improved work efficiency, and changed the compensation patterns of primary healthcare institutions, improved hardware, reduced drug prices, and, to some extent, improved the diagnosis and treatment structure. However, the reforms have not radically changed the behavior of medical workers or the visit patterns of patients. Approaches such as strengthening performance evaluation, and carrying out initiatives to further mobilize frontline healthcare workers, enhance rational drug use through improved training and educate patients, should be undertaken in the future.

Bottlenecks and Countermeasures in Shale Gas Exploration and Development of China

With the furthering of China’s all round reform, there will be greater economic growth and more urgent demands for energy. And the achievements of shale gas exploration and development in the United States provide a lot of lessons for domestic gas and oil exploration and development [Figure. 1]. However, the introduction of the matured foreign exploration and development technologies also suffers a great challenge. This paper aims to analyzing the problems in the exploration and development in China’s typical exploration areas and the measures that have been taken. Also, it sums up the emerging technologies and methods in the world, hoping to boost the future exploration and development of shale gas in China in a certain way. Fig. 1 U.S. dry natural gas production ( drawn from EIA)

The path-dependent design of international organizations: Federalism in the World Health Organization

The article puts forward a historical institutionalist account of how international organizations are ‘designed.’ I argue that deliberate institutional design is circumscribed by path-dependent power dynamics within international organizations. Power-driven path dependence is used to explain that organizations lock in and reinforce historical privileges of international organization subunits. Early winners in the international organization lock in their privileges with the support of member-state allies, and reap increasing returns from their positions over rounds of reform. They thereby amplify features of international organization design that reformers would otherwise change later on. The argument is illustrated with a historical case study of the World Health Organization’s unique federal design, which grants the regional offices near autonomy from headquarter oversight. Vocal criticisms of the World Health Organization’s regionalization and repeated centralization attempts notwithstanding, the powers of the regions have increased over time. The case study retraces the path-dependent struggles over the World Health Organization’s federal design since its creation in the 1940s. While the literature on international organizations tends to reserve inertia and path dependence for constructivist analysis, this article offers a rationalist account of inertia in international institutions.

John Dewey and education outdoors: Making sense of the “educational situation” through more than a century of progressive reforms

John Dewey and education outdoors: Making sense of the 'educational situation' through more than a century of progressive reformsQuay, J., & Seaman, J. (2013). John Dewey and education outdoors: Making sense of the 'educational situation' through more than a century of progressive reforms. The Netherlands: Sense Publishers ISBN: 978-94-6209-213-6 (paperback), 103 pagesLike many who work in outdoor education, my introduction to John Dewey was through the idea that an experience only becomes educative when it is reflected upon. As I learnt how to be an outdoor educator I learnt I had a responsibility to provide students with a good quality experience in the outdoors, which had to be followed by some form of reflection if they were to learn from that experience. This Deweyian "fact" was presented as a given. Over the years working with groups I did begin to think the relationship between experience, reflection and learning was more complex and nuanced than the "do and reflect cycle" that underpins outdoor education. It was not until I started to read the work of John Dewey that it became clear that "do and reflect" was a highly distilled and oversimplified version of one small component of his educational philosophy.Given Dewey is heralded as one of the founding fathers of outdoor education, it continues to surprise me that there is not more work in the field that engages directly with Dewey's ideas. John Dewey and education outdoors is a very welcome addition to the small body of work on Dewey in outdoor education.The premise of this book is that outdoor education, as with education generally, suffers from what Dewey called educational confusion. This is the persistent dichotomies between subject matter and method, or as Dewey referred to it, between curriculum and the child. In addressing this confusion the authors do three things. First they "explain how Dewey's theory has been approached wrongly" (p. 63). Second they "discuss how Dewey situated his theory in recent human history" (p. 63), and finally they "describe the educational program Dewey developed on the back of these ideas, in which experience and education are unified" (p. 63). They do this through Dewey's concept of occupation.Quay and Seaman start the book by locating outdoor education in recent human history. They confine their discussion to the development of outdoor education in the USA, profiling key reformers and the ideas they promulgated from the 1900s. Outdoor education or, open-air or out-door schools were opened in response to the health needs of children. The potential that these out-door schools held for bringing alive the curriculum, particularly with regard to nature studies, was seen as self-evident by early reformers. Nature study was outside the norms of education at this time, which focused on memorization and spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. But nature study was "gradually subsumed within the system" (p. 16), transforming into botany; subject matter that could be chunked for sequential delivery and assessment.In another round of reform where there was an attempt to put the interests of the child ahead of the curriculum Cap'n Bill Vinal advocated for nature-lore; knowledge gained through experience in the outdoors. He promoted camps as an appropriate setting for this type of education. But as the camp movement grew, Quay and Seaman point out similar conflicts between the perceived needs of the child and the curriculum emerged. It is here that the authors delve into the outdoor education as method or as subject matter tension that has bedevilled the field in detail. The emergence of adventure-based education in the latter part of the 20th Century only exacerbated this tension.In the following chapter the authors chart how the environmental crisis has been mobilised in outdoor education and how this intersects with a desire for adventure. As with the previous chapter the argument turns on the tensions between outdoor education as subject or as method. …

Policy and politics behind Shanghai’s Free Trade Zone Program

China launched the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Program on September 29, 2013 in a bid to reduce administrative interventions, ease restrictions on investments, further open up its financial system, and internationalize its currency to booster shipping, logistics, and commerce. This article aims to present a background of the Shanghai FTZ and some reflections on it. China’s economic reconstruction has made a major impact on its port cities. Competitions between ports are gradually evolving into competitions between supply chains, with ports no longer considered as isolated links in the transport chain but rather as integral links in the supply chain. Ports are transitioning into fourth-generation ports with the establishment of logistics and value-added activities, which are developed in conjunction with local industrial and service businesses. In this trend, China’s port cities can provide a wide range of value-added services and become centers of commodity flow, capital flow, and information flow. Specifically, the combined effects of driving the development of peripheral industries and actively coordinating the activities of relevant parties help regulate the operations of the entire supply chain to obtain potential value-added benefits. The implementation of the Shanghai FTZ will not only stimulate trade but will also bring increased shipping and finance opportunities to the city. With free trade as the new direction and focus of the country’s economic initiatives, the Shanghai FTZ will hopefully lay the groundwork for a new round of reforms and restructuring of the Chinese economy.