Abstract:The role of competition in disciplining government is contingent. When regional governments compete in tax and public service simultaneously, the relationship between the multiple competitions depends on the endowment of the economy. Even in symmetric competitions, when capital endowment is abundant, the taxcompetition can increase the incentive of government to supply more public goods, however when the endowment is scare, more intensive tax competition may induce more public resource into extravagant official consumption. Using the provincial level panel data in China, the empirical evidences support the above proposition.
Key Words:Regional Competitions; Political Governance; Corruption
JEL Classification:H11, H41, K42
 

Abstract:China’s economic fluctuation may be caused by manyfactors. We decompose the source of China's volatility to department and region shocks. Results show that 30% of the reason due to the impact of local government behavior. For the character of local government shock，this paper explores the cause from corruption, and expands the research. By using the fixed effects model and instrumental variables methods，we find the corruption impacts the local behavior at thelevel 5% significant，while the tax incentive and political incentive is not significant.
Key Words:Corruption; Local Government Shocks; Macroeconomic Stability
JEL Classification:D73， E32， H72

Abstract:Since initiation of the reform and opening-up policy, the business cycle in China has been characterized with certain stylized facts different from those both in the developed countries and developing countries and emerging economies. Firstly, China’s household consumption fluctuates more than its output.Secondly, China’s employment fluctuation is smooth while the investment and capital stock are much more volatile. This paper tries to explain the features of China’s business cycle from the perspective of credit constraint. To do so, we establish a RBC model incorporating heterogeneous consumers and heterogeneous firms. In this model, part of the consumersand firms are subject to the credit constraint due to the imperfect financial market. We thus study the implication of credit constraint to China’s business cycle. In respect of the omnipresence and omnipotence of China’s government in macroeconomic management, we introduce the government consumption into the model. This enables us to capture the impact of the government consumption shock to consumers and firms. Based on the simulation results, this paper finds: in regard to China’s business cycle, creditconstraint is an important transmission mechanism, and government consumption is a momentous source of fluctuation we should not ignore.
Key Words:Credit Constraint; Investment Wedge; Government Consumption; Real Business Cycle
JEL Classification:E21, E22, E23, E24, E27
 

Abstract:Since 2003, the quantities of letters and visits have been soaring dramatically in China. Researches on letters and visits are very important for establishing our harmonious society and understanding the implementation of the political institutions. We build theoretical models via contract theory, and regard visits as an accountability mechanism: by accountability on local bureaucrats after the visits, the central government can constrain their behaviour and encourage them to work harder for local residents. The central government should choose the optimal level of accountability because too stringent accountability would strengthen local bureaucrats’ inclinations to intercept visits and therefore may decrease their effort to provide services. And accountability is increasing in the cost of visit to central government. According to our model, with the development of economy, advancement in science and the rise of network society, the accountability will be gradually reinforced. We also discuss some extensions and give some policy advice.
Key Words:Letters and Visits; Intercepting Visits; Local Bureaucrats; Accountability
JEL Classification:D73, D78, P16
 

Abstract:China economic development mode transition is a process turning from industrial economy as main force to industrial and urban economy as joint dynamics. The internal cause lies in that industralization fulfilled the needs of “food, clothes and daily necessities”, now the shortage of “housing, transportation and education” deepens on rapid urbanization. These are not only the main task of urbanization, but also the main dynamics for China long-term sustained development. There are a series of new issues needs further studies in urban economics, such as the key indicators of urban development, price effect and production capacity effect of consumer investment, relationship between investment and local public finance, economic indicators of city development stage,etc. Urban economic development is a deeper reform, including ideology, living mode and behavior changes. It is more comlicated, more difficult than the previous 30 years’ reform. Thus it needs more creative reform.
Key Words:Urbanization；Economic Development Mode
JEL Classification:D12，F10

Abstract:Imbalance of regional economic development is a puzzle in China. Thispaper proposes some new indices, and studies regional inequality, polarization and mobility of 31 provinces and eight areas from 1978 to 2008. Firstly, the contribution rate of intergroup inequality to 31 provinces rises from 78 percent tonearly 90 percent according to Gini coefficient. Among the contribution rates of each area’s relative deprivation compared with other regions, Southwest is the largest, the midstream of Yangtze River and Yellow River follow it, and the whole contribution rate of the three areas is 70 percent above. Secondly, polarization of the eight areas is ascending, and polarization increases more rapidly than inequality. Lastly, mobility of GDP per capita is the main reason of regionalinequality changes in every stage, and rank mobility is more important compared2008 with 1978, but population share plays little action in equality changes. In China, long-term inequality and polarization is more than most years, and mobility doesn’t pay any role in reducing inequality and polarization.
Key Words:Regional Inequality; Polarization; Mobility; Eight Areas
JEL Classification:R11, D63, O18

Abstract：China has experienced dramatic trade liberalization since the late 1990s. In this paper, I investigate the impact of trade liberalization on firm productivity by using both Chinese manufacturing firm-level data and highly disaggregated Chinese import data from 1998—2002 For this purpose, a firm's total factor productivity (TFP) was calculated by adopting an augmented Olley-Pakes (1996) semi-parametric methodology to correct the simultaneous bias from reverse causality and selection bias from the firms exit. After controlling the endogeneityissue, trade liberalization is found to significantly boost the firm's productivity. Moreover, the effects of trade liberalization on the firm's productivity in exporting firms are found to be smaller than that in non-exporting firms. One of the possible reasons is that, exporting firms with assembly, as a significant proportion of exporting firms in China, has no need to pay for imported materials. Accordingly, the ongoing tariff cut has only limited effect on these firms' productivity. However, such firms would still have other benefits like spilloverfor processing behavior. As a result, exporting firms on average have higher productivity than non-exporting firms. Such findings are robust to different measures of TFP.
Key Words：Trade Liberalization; Firm Productivity; Firm Exit;Chinese Firms
JEL Classification：F10, L10, O10, O20

Abstract：This paper analyses the price effect of imported goods on urban househ old expenditure.We first estimate the price effect of imported consumption goods and intermediate goods on domestic consumption goods. Then we use Chinese urban household consumption structure to calculate the price effect of imported goods on urban household expense. The results indicate the price effect of imported goods on domestic goods is significant, but it changes with the cost of trade. The price effects of imported good on domestic clothes, transport, medicine and electrical equipment are weak, but the effect on domestic food is much stronger.During 2000 to 2008,the rising price of imported good has a negative impact on the urban household expenditure, especially on the poor family.
Key Words：Imported Goods; Price Effect; Consumption
JEL Classification：D12, F10, R20

Abstract:This paper provides a survey of studies on R&D Competition without timing and spillover since the early of 1980s. The theoretical models are bifurcated into the patent race and the incremental investment models. Seven kinds of R&D approaches are abstracted from the former models according to whether there is technological risk or not, the investment is one-shot or flowing, the investment intensity is time-varying or invariable, the competition state variable is one-dimensional or multidimensional, and experiences or knowledge are accumulated or useless in the R&D process. On the other hand, the latter are sorted into models based on profit functions with given properties and on particular kinds of product market competitions respectively. While classifying these theoretical models according to the highlights and structures, the paper also pays particular attention to unveiling and collecting a variety of competition effects, mechanisms and result patterns from them. Besides, the related empirical and experimental papers are also summarized. Finally, several principles governing the evolutions of the technological gaps are generalized, and a number of policy suggestions and a promising research
avenue are presented.
Key Words:Innovation; R&D Competition; Patent Race; Incremental Investment
JEL Classification:O30，L10，L60，G30，C61