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on China |
| By: | Feng Huang; Li Gan |
| Abstract: | At the end of 1998, China launched a government-run mandatory insurance program, the Urban Employee Basic Medical Insurance (UEBMI), to replace the previous medical insurance system. Using the UEBMI reform in China as a natural experiment, this study identify variations in patient cost sharing that were imposed by the UEBMI reform and examine their effects on the demand for health-care services. Using data from the 1991-2006 waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that the increased cost sharing is associated with decreased outpatient medical care utilization and expenditures but not with decreased inpatient care utilization and expenditures. Patients from low- and middle-income households, or in less-serious medical situations are found to be more sensitive to prices. We observe little impact on patient health, as measured by self-reported poor health status. |
| JEL: | I11 I13 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:20873&r=cna |
| By: | Patrick O'Brien; Kent Deng |
| Abstract: | Since the publication of Kenneth Pomeranz’s seminal book The Great Divergence, the landscape of world and global history has changed dramatically. For the first time, living standards, instead of labour, land and capital productivities, have become the prime concern among historians in various parts of the world. The key to this decade-long debate hinges on quantity and quality of information for transnational and cross-regional comparisons. But due to the obvious constraints we historians constantly face, genuinely good data are frustratingly hard to obtain and thus set the upper limits for what we can possibly achieve. The task of the present study is to put some currently circulated nominal wages for the Ming-Qing Period (1368-1911) under the microscope to check their feasibility. Our main findings from Chinese sources suggest that published cash wages did not reflect the actual living wages needed in reality to support a worker and his family of the average size. This means that we may have been barking at the wrong tree. |
| Keywords: | great divergence; Ming-Qing China; wages |
| JEL: | O53 N0 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:wpaper:60798&r=cna |
| By: | Alex Bryson; John Forth; Minghai Zhou |
| Abstract: | Despite their theoretical value in tackling principal–agent problems at low cost to firms there is almost no empirical literature on the prevalence and correlates of performance bonds posted by corporate executives. We show that they are an important feature in today's CEO labour market in China: around one-tenth of corporations deploy performance bonds and they are equivalent to around 14% of CEO cash compensation. Consistent with principal–agent theory bonds are negatively associated with firm sales volatility. The complementarity between bonds and other incentive mechanisms such as bonuses and stock holding is consistent with optimal reward structures for multi-tasking agents. Those CEOs posting bonds are higher in the Communist Party ranks, were promoted via tournaments, and run larger firms, findings consistent with using bonds as an incentive to attract and retain the most able workers. Although state-owned enterprises are just as likely as privately owned ones to use bonds in CEO contracts, some of the theoretical predictions which assume profit-maximising firms do not hold where the state has an ownership stake. |
| Keywords: | performance bonds; security deposits; executive compensation; state-ownership; agency theory |
| JEL: | G34 J31 J33 M12 M52 O16 P31 |
| Date: | 2014–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:56360&r=cna |
| By: | Alex Bryson; John Forth; Minghai Zhou |
| Abstract: | Using linked employer-employee data for all China's public listed firms over the period 2001-10, we find top executive compensation exhibits many of the traits familiar in the Western literature, although sometimes in a more muted way, and with some clear exceptions. We also find a role for managerial power in executive pay setting which may reflect the recency of the stock market and regulations underpinning corporate governance. Nevertheless, there appear to be some elements of executive compensation which transcend national economic, political and cultural differences. The implication is that the Western model is not as idiosyncratic as critics suggest. |
| JEL: | O1 |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:56054&r=cna |
| By: | Hombert , Johan; Matray , Adrien |
| Abstract: | The authors study whether R&D-intensive firms are more resilient to trade shocks. They correct for the endogeneity of R&D using tax-induced changes to the cost of R&D. On average across US manufacturing firms, rising imports from China lead to slower sales growth and lower profitability. These effects are, however, significantly smaller for firms with a larger stock of R&D -- by about half when moving from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile of the R&D stock distribution. As a result, while the average firm in import-competing industries cuts capital expenditures and employment, R&D-intensive firms downsize considerably less. |
| Keywords: | R&D; Innovation; Product Market Competition; Trade Shocks |
| JEL: | F14 G31 O33 |
| Date: | 2014–12–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ebg:heccah:1075&r=cna |
| By: | Jude Howell |
| Abstract: | State-labour NGOs relations in China have been particularly fraught. In 2012 these took an interesting twist, as some local governments made overtures to labour NGOs to co-operate in providing services to migrant workers. This article argues that this shift is part of a broader strategy of `welfarist incorporation’ to redraw the social contract between state and labour. There are two key elements to this: first, relaxation of the registration regulations for social organisations; second, governmental purchasing of services from social organisations. These overtures have both a state and market logic to maintain social control and stabilise relations of production. |
| JEL: | E6 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:60219&r=cna |
| By: | Zheng, Xinye; Song, Feng; Yu, Yihua; Song, Shunfeng |
| Abstract: | Using a dataset for 31 Chinese provinces from 1998 to 2006, this paper provides a spatial Durbin panel analysis to test for fiscal interactions among China's provinces in their public spending on infrastructure. We find significant positive interactions across Chinese provincial governments. Further analysis attempting to distinguish between the possible sources of such fiscal interactions reveals evidence of expenditure competition instead of yardstick competition. |
| Keywords: | Infrastructure expenditure, Fiscal interactions, Spatial Durbin panel model, Two-stage least squares |
| JEL: | C23 H54 H7 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:61615&r=cna |
| By: | Pang, Ke (BOFIT); Siklos, Pierre L. (BOFIT) |
| Abstract: | Relying on quarterly data since 1998 we estimate, for China and the U.S., small scale econometric models that economize on the number of variables employed and yet are rich enough to provide useful insights about spillover effects between the two countries under different maintained assumptions about the exogeneity of the macroeconomic relationship between them. We conclude that inflation in China responds to credit shocks. Indeed, the monetary transmission mechanism in China resembles that of the US even if the channels through which monetary policy affects their respective economies differ. We also find that the monetary policy stance of the PBOC was helpful in mitigating the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008-9. Finally, spillovers from the US to China are significant and originate from both through the real and financial sectors of the US economy. |
| Keywords: | spillovers; monetary policy in China; dynamic factor models; credit |
| JEL: | C32 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2015–01–18 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:bofitp:2015_002&r=cna |
| By: | Zhou, De; Yu, Xiaohua; Herzfeld, Thomas |
| Abstract: | PURPOSE – The purpose of this paper is to investigate dynamic food demand in urban China, with use of a complete dynamic demand system - DLES-LA/DAIDS, which pushes forward the techniques of demand analysis. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – We employ a transitionary demand process and develop a new approach of complete demand system with a two-stage dynamic budgeting: an additively separable dynamic linear expenditure system (DLES) in the first stage and a linear approximate dynamic almost ideal demand system (LA/DAIDS). Employing provincial aggregate data (1995-2010) from the China urban household surveys (UHS), we estimated the demand elasticities for primary food products in urban China. FINDINGS – Our results indicate that most primary food products are necessities and price-inelastic for urban households in China. We also found that the dynamic model tends to yield relatively smaller expenditure elasticities in magnitude than the static models do due to dynamic adjusting costs, such as habit formation, switching costs, and learning process. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS – The research contributes to the demand analysis methodologically, and can be used for better projections in policy simulation models. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – This paper methodologically releases the restrictive assumption of instant adjustment in static models and allows consumers to make a dynamic decision in food consumption. Empirically, we introduce a new complete dynamic demand model and carry out a case study with the use of urban household data in China. |
| Keywords: | two-stage budgeting, food, demand model, DLES-LA/DAIDS, China, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, D21, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:168527&r=cna |
| By: | Limin DU; Aoife Hanley; Chu WEI |
| Abstract: | This paper estimates the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve (MACC) of CO2 emissions in China based on a provincial panel for the period of 2001-2010. The provincial marginal abatement cost (MAC) of CO2 emissions is estimated using a parameterized directional output distance function. Four types of model specifications are applied to fit the MAC-carbon intensity pairs. The optimal specification controlling for various covariates is identified econometrically. A scenario simulation of China’s 40-45 percent carbon intensity reduction based on our MACC is illustrated. Our simulation results show that China would incur a 559-623 Yuan/ton (roughly 51-57 percent) increase in marginal abatement cost to achieve a corresponding 40-45 percent reduction in carbon intensity compared to its 2005 level |
| Keywords: | CO2 Emissions; Marginal Abatement Cost Curve; Model Selection; China |
| JEL: | Q52 Q54 Q58 |
| Date: | 2015–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:kie:kieliw:1985&r=cna |
| By: | Xiaohua, Yu; Binjian, Yan; Zhifeng, Gao |
| Abstract: | Human behaviours are driven by two different types of motives: implicit and explicit motives. Psychologists have developed two main tools, namely time pressure and cognitive load, to disentangle the two motives. It implies that the values of willingness to pay (WTP) are sensitive to time pressure and cognitive load levels in practice. An experiment with 233 students is conducted in China to study the willingness to pay for organic food with consideration of different time pressures and cognitive load levels. Results show that (1) increasing cognitive load could significantly reduce consumers’ WTP for organic food; and (2) time pressure does not have significant impact on WTP values. Such results remind us of being particularly cautious about the cognitive load situations of respondents during a WTP survey. Otherwise, the WTP results are unstable and inconvincible. |
| Keywords: | Motives, Time Pressure, Cognitive Load, WTP, Organic Food, Experiments, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Marketing, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, C91, Q13, |
| Date: | 2014–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:gagfdp:169402&r=cna |
| By: | Stephen B. Kaplan (Department of Economics/Institute for International Economic Policy, George Washington University) |
| Abstract: | How does a shifting economic power balance between the United States and China affect the strategic choices of Latin American governments? During the last several decades, Latin America has often relied on a Western development model that aimed to attract global market capital. After excessive borrowing led to financial busts, however, many countries have sought to insulate themselves from market volatility. Rising terms of trade and a commodity boom, driven in part by China, helped buttress economic growth during much of the 2000s. But, what accounts for the growing variation in national policy approaches, ranging from ongoing market orthodoxy to heavy government intervention? I argue that governments that tap new Chinese income streams – both non-conditional lending and taxable commodity flows – have reduced their reliance on conditionality-linked Western financing, giving them more autonomy to use budget deficits to intervene in their economies. Employing a systematic comparative analysis of three Latin American countries – Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela – I find that Chinese non-conditional funding endows governments with greater budgetary discretion, making austerity less likely. These findings offer important new insights for the study of globalization, the Latin American left, and China-Latin American relations, by helping explain the structural conditions that enable nations to veer from Western governance models. |
| Keywords: | Economic Policy, Latin America, China, Investment, Lending, Fiscal Policy, Economic Governance |
| JEL: | F00 F30 F40 H00 H30 H60 N10 N20 N16 N26 O10 O54 P50 P51 |
| Date: | 2014–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwi:wpaper:2014-19&r=cna |