Measurement and Decomposition of Multi-Dimensional Poverty in China

Based on China Family Panel Studies(CFPS) data and global MPI standard,this paper measures and analyzes multi-dimensional poverty in China. The study finds that the level of multi-dimensional poverty in China is not high and tends to decrease over time.Uneven regional development significantly affects multi-dimensional poverty. The poor are deprived in health, education and other aspects, but indicator contributions vary among specific groups of people. Overlap between economic poverty and multi-dimensional poverty has a trend of inter-temporal reduction. China's development-centered poverty reduction policy has achieved great results and significantly improved the development capabilities of the poor. Development-oriented approach is China's important experience in poverty reduction, and forebodes China's bright prospect of achieving its goal to complete building a moderately prosperous society by 2020.

A study on the design of a hybrid policy for carbon abatement

A necessary way to mitigate global warming is carbon reduction, which the international community is now actively promoting. China has committed a target goal for carbon reduction to the international society, and has devoted a great effort toward researching the impact of related policies. Carbon taxation and carbon trading are the two main mechanisms to advocate carbon abatement, which many countries have been using. Each of these two mechanisms possesses advantages and disadvantages, and an appropriate combination of them can make best use of their advantages while bypassing their disadvantages, creating a superior mechanism. In our opinion, the main differences between these two mechanisms are that carbon taxation has a lower institution cost(consisting of the related infrastructural investment and the regulation cost,etc), and is easier to operate, but lacks the flexibility in response to variations of market conditions. However, this flexibility is just the origin of risk, which increases the difficulty for firms in their decision of carbon abatement and is an indirect way to incentivize carbon abatement, compared to carbon trading, which has a more direct effect in carbon reduction. Based on the above observation, we present a hybrid mechanism of carbon abatement, which is an organized combination of carbon taxation and carbon trading. It consists of two parts: first, the carbon taxation, which has a progressive tax rate, second, the carbon trading. Small firms will only pay the carbon tax, while large firms, will first need to get the initial carbon emission quotas by some way, and then trade it in the carbon market if necessary. For firms with extra emissions,they will receive a punishment according to a high carbon tax rate. This hybrid policy considers the equity between different firms in carbon emission rights as well as the efficiency of the mechanism while decreasing the risk level for firms in the carbon emission decision, making it superior to the two previous policies. We also analyze the feasibility of this hybrid policy in China,address some important issues in the implementation of this hybrid policy in China and present the relevant suggestions. The discussion in this paper can serve as a reference to the government in the decision of carbon policies.

An Empirical Study of the Influence of Migrant Workers' Individual Decisions concerning "Change from Rural Residents to Urban Residents" in Chongqing City

This paper,from the city integration perspective,analyzes the main beneficiaries who benefit from the household registration system reform,and studies the influence of individual decisions about the transfer from agriculture to non-agriculture. Based on it,this paper makes an empirical research by using the survey data about migrant workers in Chongqing. The research findings are as follows:( i) The urban employment,the living condition and the rural connection have a significant impact on migrant workers' transfer decision;( ii) If the value of those factors( such as the working stability,the family income,the urban house condition and the urban social security) is higher,then the migrant workers who have no economic interest in rural areas are better able to integrate into the urban areas,therefore the inclination to transfer the household registration from agriculture to non-agriculture will be much stronger. It is proposed that we should do some significant things,such as enhancing the investment of security housing,bringing the migrant workers into the city housing accumulation fund system and giving them prior allocation right,perfecting land elastic exit mechanism,creating a harmonious employment environment,which are important strategies promoting migrant workers to integrate into the urban areas and affecting their individual decision about transferring from agriculture to nonagriculture.

Multidimensional Poverty and Poverty Reduction Policies in Rural China during 1995-2013

Using the multidimensional poverty index(MPI), this paper measures the intertemporal change in poverty in China's rural areas during 1995-2013, decomposes major poverty reduction factors, and creates a correlation between poverty reduction factors and national pro-farmer and poverty reduction policies. Our findings suggest that multidimensional poverty has been greatly alleviated in rural China on all fronts beyond the income dimension. Specifically, the burden of out-of-pocket medical expenses contributed the most to the overall poverty of farmers in the 1990s; this gap was subsequently mitigated by the New Rural Cooperative Medical Insurance System. Lack of economic empowerment-the second most prominent manifestation of poverty two decades ago-has been alleviated with public welfare improvements. In the present stage, health and healthcare are the primary difficulties facing poor farmers multidimensionally. Sub-groups such as elders,those less educated and those living in western China or in poor counties suffer from a high degree of poverty. This implies that multidimensional poverty is concentrated among the underprivileged groups and in less developed regions, whom should be policy priorities.Robustness tests suggest that the paper's conclusion still holds after changing the proxy variables of the subdimensions, revising weights or removing some dimensions.

Do the RMB exchange rate and global commodity prices have asymmetric or symmetric effects on China’s stock prices?

With the rapid expansion of the RMB exchange rate’s floating range,the effects of the RMB exchange rate and global commodity price changes on China’s stock prices are likely to increase.This study uses both auto regressive distributed lag(ARDL)and nonlinear ARDL(NARDL)approaches to explore the symmetric and asymmetric effects of the RMB exchange rate and global commodity prices on China’s stock prices.Our findings show that without considering the critical variable of global commodity prices,there is no cointegration relationship between the RMB exchange rate and China’s stock prices,and the coefficient of the RMB exchange rate is not statistically significant.However,when we introduce global commodity prices into the NARDL model,the result shows that the RMB exchange rate has a negative effect on China’s stock prices,that there indeed exists a long-run cointegration relationship among the RMB exchange rate,global commodity prices,and stock prices in the NARDL model,and that global commodity price changes have an asymmetric effect on China’s stock prices in the long run.Specifically,China’s stock prices are more sensitive to increases than decreases in global commodity prices.Thus,increases in global commodity prices cause China’s stock prices to decline sharply.In contrast,the same magnitude of decline in global commodity prices induces a smaller increase in China’s stock prices.

Scientific Connotation,Intrinsic Relationship,and Strategic Key Points for Rural Revitalization under the Goal of Common Prosperity

This paper analyzes rural revitalization under the goal of common prosperity.Firstly,on the basis of making clear what common prosperity is in the new era along with its connotation,the connotation of rural revitalization under the goal of common prosperity is systematically delved into six dimensions:subject,motivation,content,path,process,and goal.Secondly,the intrinsic relationship between common prosperity and rural revitalization is examined from the perspectives of rural revitalization,common prosperity,and development.Thirdly,grounded on theoretical analysis,this paper outlines strategic key points for rural revitalization under the goal of common prosperity upon applying designing principles to practice.

Synergetic roadmap of carbon neutrality and clean air for China

It is well recognized that carbon dioxide and air pollutants share similar emission sources so that synergetic policies on climate change mitigation and air pollution control can lead to remarkable co-benefits on greenhouse gas reduction,air quality improvement,and improved health.In the context of carbon peak,carbon neutrality,and clean air policies,this perspective tracks and analyzes the process of the synergetic governance of air pollution and climate change in China by developing and monitoring 18 indicators.The 18 indicators cover the following five aspects:air pollution and associated weather-climate conditions,progress in structural transition,sources,inks,and mitigation pathway of atmospheric composition,health impacts and benefits of coordinated control,and synergetic governance system and practices.By tracking the progress in each indicator,this perspective presents the major accomplishment of coordinated control,identifies the emerging challenges toward the synergetic governance,and provides policy recommendations for designing a synergetic roadmap of Carbon Neutrality and Clean Air for China.

Does the Belt and Road Initiative Increase the Carbon Emission Intensity of Paticipating Countries?

The impact that the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI)has had on carbon emissions is a hotly debated issue.Using a panel dataset of 178 countries from 2002 to 2017,and applying the quantile difference-in-difference method in different industries,this study finds that,first,the BRI overall tends to reduce the carbon emission intensity of BRI countries.Second,the impact of BRI on reducing the carbon emission intensity is significant for BRI countries at higher(0.8 and 0.9)and lower(0.2 and 0.3)carbon emission intensity quantiles but it is insignificant for those at medium levels.Third,the BRI has significant impacts on reducing carbon emission intensity in the energy-intensive industries,and this effect is the highest at the quantile level of 0.9 for all three industries considered here:transportation,electric and heating,and manufacturing and construction.These results indicate that establishing BRI cooperation with China will improve the environment and enhance the sustainable development ability of BRI countries.

Technological innovation paths toward green industry in China

With the environmental carrying capacity reaching its limits and the decreasing margin benefits of traditional production factors, the green transformation and green development through technological innovations has been a major direction for the future development of Chinese industries. However, the characteristics and heterogeneities of various types of industries call for different approaches regarding technological innovations. How to choose the most effective mode of technological innovation according to the characteristics of a certain industry has been a key issue. This paper measures the green total factor productivity of 32 industrial trades using the Slacks Based Measure(SBM)-DDF method. The effects of three innovation modes in the green transformation of industrial industry, including the independent innovation(Ⅱ), the technology introduction(TI), and the government support(GS), are empirically analyzed based on industry heterogeneity. Results indicate that the green total factor productivities of different industries show significant differences if taking into account the energy input and the undesirable output of pollutant emissions. The green total factor productivities of traditional high input,high pollution, and high energy consumption industrial trades were significantly lower than those with obvious green features. The year of 2009 is a leap year for the industrial green transformation in China. For resource-intensive industries, the II and the GS are the important ways to achieve green transformation. For labor-intensive industries, the TI is the best path to achieve green transformation, while for technology-intensive industries, the II is the primary driving force for the promotion of green developments. In addition, the innovation-compensating effect of the current Chinese environmental regulations to the resource-intensive industries has been revealed. Improving the overall scale and the industrial concentration of the industries is also beneficial for the green transformation of the industries.

Impacts of Two Tax Reforms on Inequality and Welfare in China

This paper takes stock of the existing literature on taxation and presents a framework to evaluate the impacts of tax policy reforms from the perspectives of progressivity and social welfare.It applies this framework to examine two tax reforms in China and finds that(i)the abolition of the regressive agricultural tax in 2005 has significantly improved the social welfare of rural residents;(ii)the increase in the income tax thresholds in 2011 increased progressivity but reduced the overall income tax share of total taxation.When the majority of the taxpayers are in the lower tax bracket,progressivity has little real impact in improving income distribution.

Eliminating poverty through development:The dynamic evolution of multidimensional poverty in rural China

This paper measures intertemporal multidimensional poverty in rural China from 1988 to 2018 based on the China Household Income Project(CHIP)data and for that time period has the following findings.First,multidimensional poverty in rural China declines steadily when measured through the income poverty approach.Second,multidimensional poverty in rural areas presents demographic and regional heterogeneity,among which elderly poverty,child poverty,and poverty in the western Chinese region are the most prominent ones.Third,income poverty and multidimensional poverty have a low overlap ratio and show intertemporal synchronisation over time.Although increases in income can alleviate multidimensional poverty,this effect is very limited.This paper suggests that a suitable multidimensional poverty identification framework should be developed in the era of poverty alleviation after 2020 and that in the new poverty alleviation governance system of China,targeted development strategies should be formulated with an increased focus on the poverty of special groups such as children and the elderly.

Enhancing the green efficiency of fundamental sectors in China’s industrial system:A spatial-temporal analysis

Due to sectoral interactions in the economy,the overall green efficiency(GE)of China’s industrial system relies heavily on fundamental sectors that contribute substantial energy to the supply chain production of other sectors but shows low sectoral GE.For the three fundamental sectors in China’s industrial systems,namely the smelting and pressing of nonferrous metals(SPNFM),the processing of petroleum,coking,and nuclear fuel(PPCNF);and the manufacturing of nonmetallic mineral products(MNMMP),we employed a three-stage data envelopment analysis(DEA)model to measure GE in the fundamental sectors in 30 provinces from 2010 to 2015.We then adopted a stochastic frontier analysis(SFA)model to evaluate the influence of technological innovation(TI),industrial agglomeration(IA),environmental regulation(ER),and intraindustry competition(IC).The results showed that GE in the three fundamental sectors varied spatially.Specifically,TI promoted GE in MNMMP,but the effect was not obvious in the SPNFM and PPCNF sectors.Moreover,ER had positive impacts on GE in the fundamental sectors.The effects of IA and IC on GE in the fundamental sectors varied in direction and strength.After eliminating the impacts of environmental effects and statistical noise,the real GE in the three fundamental sectors varied significantly compared to the comprehensive GE.Policy opportunities for enhancing GE in the fundamental sectors mainly lie in region-specific policy and regulations that avoid a“one-size-fits-all”governance approach.

How Did China Maintain Macroeconomic Stability During 1978-2018?

In this paper,we analyze the role of macroeconomic management in developing countries'economic take-off and structural transformation.We argue that developing countries face three leading challenges:market immaturity,lack of a developed financial system,and severe information asymmetry between international investors and domestic players.If not properly dealt with,these challenges can lead to macroeconomic volatility and fragility in economic development.Therefore,the government must intervene appropriately to address these challenges.By analyzing China s experiences in the era of reform and opening up(1978-2018),we find three important lessons:(i)It is important for the government to facilitate the entry and exit of enterprises in macroeconomic cycles,relying not only on market signals but also on administrative orders and measures of institutional reform;(ii)Financial reforms should be implemented in order to promote financial deepening and channel savings into investment;and(iii)The government should carefully manage capital account liberalization in order to preserve financial stability while promoting foreign investment,international trade,and industrial upgrading.

Exploring China's Potential Child Poverty

This paper estimates child poverty in China using 20IS data from the China Household Income Project.Applying the Alkire-Foster drawer approach,we constructed a multidimensional poverty indicator system that accounted for multiple factors contributing to a child's development and well-being,based on which we estimated multidimensional poverty experienced by children.Children s poverty varied by age,gender,rural/urban settings,and geographic region.By extending the Alkire-Foster drawer approach,two important features of child poverty in China were found,which had normally been neglected by per capita poverty measures:poor children in nonpoor families and unequal allocations to different children within the same families.The results showed that more than 40 percent of multidimensionally poor children lived in nonpoor families.Unequal resource allocation within families was observed in half of the families.These two features of child poverty require more policy attention and the Chinese government should prioritize addressing multidimensional child poverty.