Rice vs.Wheat:How Rice Farming Shaped Informal Finance in China

China’s financial system is characterized by the coexistence of both formal and informal finance,and informal finance appears to be more prevalent in the south of the country compared to the north.In this paper,we use the historical demarcation of rice-farming regions and the percentage area of rice sown to ascertain the regional distribution of rice farming in the south and wheat farming in the north in order to analyze the role of rice farming in the evolution of different types of financial institutions in China.We find that rice cultivation has a positive effect on informal financial development,though its impact on formal finance is insignificant.Unlike wheat farming,rice cultivation requires farmers to collaborate during busy farming seasons and necessitates the construction of irrigation systems.Such collaboration helped enhance an acquaintance society,in which both parties to transactions enforced the rules and contract terms of their own initiative,paving the way for informal finance.This paper not only demonstrates the cultural roots of the regional financial disparities in China but also expands the research on the ways in which farming practices from the past have shaped the development of China’s present financial markets.

China’s internal and external economic imbalances and fiscal reform

China’s ballooning current account surplus has caused a plethora of adverse effects on the healthy development of its economy.Based on an in-depth analysis of the contributory factors to the swelling current account surplus,this paper purports to demonstrate theoretically and empirically that while the chronic savings-consumption imbalance is an important contributor to China’s huge trade surplus,the fundamental underlying contributor is the income structure and savings structure imbalance stemming from the disproportionate increase in retained earnings relative to stagnant wage bills.Corporate retained earnings keep growing rapidly because corporate profit margins are"overstated"and state-owned enterprises"do not pay dividends."Only when these issues are resolved at the institutional level can the savings rate be reduced to an appropriate level with domestic demand boosted to eliminate excess trade surpluses and fundamentally fix internal and external economic imbalances.

On the Process of Peasant Workers' Transformation to Urban Residents

The unique two-stage "Chinese path" of China’s ru-ral-urban migration, which cannot be fully explained by classical theories of economic development, makes us to give peasant workers’ transformation to urban residents a top priority. On the basis of fully explaining peasant workers’ transformation to urban residents, a method for measuring its process has been advanced and then confirmed with the data of March in 2005 from surveys to peasant workers in Wuhan. Finally, the suggestions of acceler-ating peasant workers’ transformation to urban residents to pro-mote the construction of a harmonious society have been drawn from the analysis.

The Analytical Expressions for Computing the Minimum Distance between a Point and a Torus

In this paper, we present the analytical expressions for computing the minimum distance between a point and a torus, which is called the orthogonal projection point problem. If the test point is on the outside of the torus and the test point is at the center axis of the torus, we present that the orthogonal projection point set is a circle perpendicular to the center axis of the torus;if not, the analytical expression for the orthogonal projection point problem is also given. Furthermore, if the test point is in the inside of the torus, we also give the corresponding analytical expression for orthogonal projection point for two cases.

Beliefs and Economic Growth： Cross National Evidence Based on the World Values Survey (WVS)

This paper is concerned with the relationship between beliefs and economic performance and explains the differences of country performance in global economic growth over the past two decades based on the composite belief index comprising the beliefs on trust,social justice,competition and work-leisure.By influencing personal motivations,beliefs shape society and the institutions and policies of a country in the form of collective ideology.Beliefs demonstrate great differences across countries and change with time,which helps explain the country and intertemporal differences of growth.This paper also found that China s composite belief index is very high,which helps explain China's economic growth miracle.

SOE Reform: from Corporate System to Ownership System

China’s restructuring of state-owned enterpsies has been a major component of the country’s reform and opening, and a driver of its impressive economic growth of the last two decades. An examination of this restructuring is important not only as a contribution to the general economic development literature, but also for China to best understand how its development has played out so far, and thus how it might best be continued.

Is It Demographic Dividend or Trap for India and China?

The relation between economic growth and population growth is a widely debated topic in economics.The discussioncircles around three main views about demography;(i) Population Neutralism,(ii) Demographic Dividends,and (iii)Demographic Traps.This paper provides a quantitative definition of the demographic trap based on the theoreticaldemographic distribution curve.We then compare the results of the world’s two most populous countries,China and India.The results show that India may fall into a demographic trap while China will not and,hence these two countries exhibittwo distinctly opposite demographic characteristics.Extending the results to include examination of a set of rich and poorcountries,we conclude that there is no evidence of a demographic trap in the U.S.and Canada,while it is highly possiblethat Algeria and Angola will get caught in one.

Conservation Law Classification and Integrability of Generalized Nonlinear Second-Order Equation

This paper is concerned with the generalized nonlinear second-order equation.By the direct construction method,all of the first-order multipliers of the equation are obtained,and the corresponding complete conservation laws(CLs) of such equations are provided.Furthermore,the integrability of the equation is considered in terms of the conservation laws.In addition,the relationship of multipliers and symmetries of the equations is investigated.

Does strict environmental regulation enhance the global value chains position of China's industrial sector?

Given the vital importance of global value chains(GVCs)position for a country's international competitiveness,this paper tries to investigate the impacts of environmental regulation on the GVCs position of China's industrial sector.Using the latest value-added decomposition method,we first measure the GVCs position of China's industrial sector from 2003 to 2014.Subsequently,both two-stage least squares(2 SLS)method with panel data and mediating effect model are employed to empirically examine the effects of environmental regulation on China's position in GVCs.The results indicate that environmental regulation has significantly upgraded the GVCs position of China's industrial sector,and the effect is more evident for the sub-sectors with originally lower GVCs position.The mediation effect test shows that increasing R&D investment is an important channel through which environmental regulation affects the GVCs position of China's industrial sector,which verifies the existence of the Porter hypothesis.Further analysis finds that the enhancement of GVCs position of China's industrial sector caused by environmental regulation is mainly achieved through reducing the backward GVCs position.

Driving factors and spatio-temporal features underlying industrial SO_(2) emissions in“2+26”in North China and extended cities

As one of the largest global emitters of sulfur dioxide(SO_(2)),China faces increasing pressure to achieve sustainable economic and social development.Using panel data of 58 prefecture-level cities in North China between 2003 and 2017,this paper considers the dynamic spatio-temporal characteristics of industrial SO_(2) emissions in the"2+26"in North China and extended cities in North China and decomposes the determinants of industrial SO_(2) emissions into eight effects using the Generalized Divisia Index Model(GDIM).The contributions of each effect on changes in emissions are assessed on regional,provincial,and prefectural levels,as well as according to various stages.The results indicate the following.First,industrial SO2 emissions in the"2+26"cities in North China and extended cities in North China exhibit spatial autocorrelation and agglomeration effects.Cities with high-high(HH)and low-low(LL)agglomeration patterns were concentrated in Shanxi and Henan provinces,respectively.Second,industrialization,energy consumption,and economic development were the main factors that increased industrial SO2 emissions,while technology,energy sulfur intensity,and economic sulfur intensity were the key factors that reduced them.Third,13 cities,induding Tangshan,were the most important regions where further emissions regulations need to be implemented.These cities were divided into three types and different corresponding measures for reducing their emissions are suggested.Based on the conclusions of this study,this paper puts forward some targeted policy recommendations for reducing industrial SO_(2) emissions according to different categories of cities.

Technological Innovation: A Primary Driver to Promote Global Urban Common Prosperity——An Analysis of Factors Influencing the Competitiveness of 1,007 Cities around the World

Common prosperity,an important goal of human development,increasingly has to be achieved through the common prosperity of cities.The research into and discovery of the determinants which create differences in urban economic competitiveness is of great signi ficance as,thereby,the research and expected discovery can help with the formulation of relevant policies for development,competition,and cooperation to promote win-win conditions among cities.However,such research is still rare.Based on the economic competitiveness data of 1,007 cities,this paper uses OLS regression and Shapley-value based decompositions regression to analyze factors affecting the economic competitiveness of global cities and differences that the cities made.Combined with quantile regression,studying the law of changing of each factor's effect on cities with different levels of economic competitiveness is of theoretical and practical signi ficance.The study findings are as follows.(1)The variability of global urban economic competitiveness is quite large.Cities in North America and Europe are still the benchmarks of global urban economic prosperity.(2)Financial services,technological innovation,industrial system,business environment,institutional environment,infrastructure,among other factors,have signi ficant impacts on the economic competitiveness of cities.(3)The primary factor that in fluenced the variability in economic competitiveness is technological innovation.(4)The ranking of the main in fluencing factors varied slightly between cities at different levels of economic competitiveness.These indicate that the international community should promote innovation in and diffusion of science and technology to achieve common prosperity by narrowing the gap between cities.The relevant decision-making departments,e.g.urban planning departments with strong economic and finance expertise of the cities in different development zones should adopt different measures in accordance with their actual situations.

Urbanization,unemployment rate and China' rising divorce rate

This paper analyzes the impacts of urbanization and unemployment rate on China's divorce rate with the panel data of 31Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2011.The study manifests as follows.First,the significant influence of urbanization cannot be observed on the rising breakdown since the latter is not the inevitable result of the former.In the second place,unemployment rate has a significant negative influence on divorce rate,namely,with the former increasing,the latter will decrease,which echoes the perspective of divorce cost.And finally,this paper also finds positive effects of per capita fixed investment,old-age dependency rate,average household size,the proportion of floating population and population density,and negative correlation of average education attainment on divorce rate.

Evolution of China's Financial Asset Mix from 1991 to 2007

In 1996,the first author of this essay manifested that financial assets structure of China,which was then dominated by indirect financing,had led to many problems in the economy.After more than ten years of financial reform,has the financial assets structure been improved?Can the existing financial assets structure accommodate the development of Chinese economy?This paper tries to answer the above questions by reanalyzing the current financial structure in China.It is found that the financial asset structure of China has experienced obvious improvement.Meanwhile the new structure has brought some new problems which ought to be resolved by further improvement of monetary market and capital market.In the coming ten years,the optimal path for the development of China’s financial market is through twoway opening.

The Dynamic Process of Economic Takeoff and Industrial Transformation

This paper studies the patterns and key determinants of staged economic development. We construct a two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model popu- lated with one-period lived non-overlapping generations, feasting endogenous en- hancement in modern technology and endogenous accumulation of labor skills and capital funds. We consider preference biases toward the traditional sector of necessi- ties, capital barriers to the modern sector, and imperfect substitution between skilled and unskilled workers. By calibrating the model to fit historic U.S. development, we find that modern technologies, saving incentives and capital scales/barriers are the most important determinants of the takeoff time. By evaluating the process of eco- nomic development, we identify that what shapes saving incentives is most crucial for the speed of modernization after taking off. We further establish that labor, capital and output are most responsive to the initial state of modern technologies, but least responsive to skill endowments, along the dynamic transition path.

Application of Tradable Emission Permits in Europe

The purpose of this study is merely to review the current situation in the designing and implementation of the emission trading programs in Europe. Historical data show that although there is a series of shortcomings in their current functioning, employing such instruments for GHG reduction policy making is strongly expected to be efficient and effective. The European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) are just a few examples of the ambitious EU initiative that heavily relies on such instruments. We dwell on their operations and achievements by far and all the content in this article is expected to convince the Chinese government and regional public authorities to take positive actions and attitudes in promoting these instruments.

ON WEAK MINIMUM ABERRATION AND NUMBER OF CLEAR TWO-FACTOR INTERACTION COMPONENTS IN s_Ⅳ～(m-p) DESIGNS

This article obtains some theoretical results on the number of clear two-factor interaction components and weak minimum aberration in an sm-pIVdesign, by considering the number of not clear two-factor interaction components of the design.

Does Family Planning Increase Children's Income?

Whether the generation affected by the family planning will benefi t directly is the key to test whether the policy implications are the same to collective and individual.There are researches on the family planning's consequences are usually in the macro-level.In order to discovery how family planning directly affects the individual,this paper use micro data from China Family Panel Studies(CFPS) 2010 to test the impact of family planning on children's personal income.The results shows that"quantity-quality tradeoff"hypothesis holds on human capital levels in China,and the implementation of family planning policy effectively increases children's education level,but the social capital effect of siblings is also reduced by the family planning policy.Considering the two kinds of effects,the family planning policy has not signifi cantly affect children's personal income.

Changing Prices in a Weak—Housing Market

Since November 2007,the trade volume of commercial housing has witnessed a drop across China.With the downturn of real estate,there have been numerous reports that housing prices are headed down.Headlines in newspapers have read'House Prices Falling Faster in Shenzhen'or'Are Housing Prices in Guangzhou Reaching the Inflection Point?'It is even reported that a guest on CCTV's Half-Hour Economy de- clared a 20 percent drop in housing prices in Guangzhou.

Time Series Econometrics: A Critique

This is a critical note regarding the currently established econometrics of time series. The criticism involves commonly practiced mechanistic modeling and testing of relationships, taking econometrics away from economics. Among others, modeling economic trends as simple functions of time is extremely naive and testing for cointegration lacks a proper economic foundation.