Christopher Findlay

Land fragmentation and farm productivity in China in the 1990s

Abstract The main objective of this study is to examine the effects of fragmentation on farm productivity in China and to discuss policy implications. Some earlier work has questioned the importance of the economic costs of land fragmentation in developing economies. It has been argued that policymakers should focus instead on reducing the root causes of fragmentation: inefficiencies in land, labour, credit, and food markets. Our results, using a more recent and larger dataset from a household survey in China, find that fragmentation does have an economic cost in China. Production functions are estimated for each of the major grain crops in the sample provinces. We also argue that to reduce the economic costs, land consolidation in China should be undertaken with less government intervention. More attention should be given to the establishment of markets for land (or land use rights) and improvements in rural credit and grain markets.

Rural enterprises in China.

List of Figures - List of Maps - List of Tables - Acknowledgements - List of Abbreviations - Notes on Contributors - Introduction - Rural Enterprise Growth in A Partially Reformed Chinese Economy C.Chunlai, C.Findlay, A.Watson & Z.Xiaohe - Private Enterprises and Local Government in Rural China S.Young & Y.Gang - Rural Enterprise Contributions to Growth and Structural Change H.X.Wu - Regional Disparities in Rural Enterprise Growth A.Watson & H.X.Wu - Capital Formation in Rural Enterprises Y.Peng - The Rural Industrial Enterprise Workforce H.X.Wu - Rural Enterprise Productivity and Efficiency H.X.Wu & W.Yanrui - Rural Enterprises in China: Overview and Issues C.Findlay, A.Watson & H.X.Wu - Bibliography - Index

Globalisation and Tertiary Education in the Asia-Pacific: The Changing Nature of a Dynamic Market

The rapid development and adoption of technology along with open economies has created an integrated global economy. The globalisation process has brought with it significant changes in all areas of life, including tertiary education. This book outlines the features of the new wave of globalisation and draws out specific trends and challenges associated with this new wave for universities and policy makers.

Who Won the “Wool War”?: A Case Study of Rural Product Marketing in China

The absence of a systematic programme has been a distinctive feature of Chinas economic reform process. The Chinese did not set out to develop a step-by-step plan of reform to be phased in over a period of years. Instead they adopted a number of strategic goals, and in 1978 launched incremental and pragmatic changes aimed at realizing them. Essentially the strategy adopted had four main aspects: a shift from economic growth expressed mainly through statistical targets towards an emphasis on satisfying the consumption needs of the population; a change from extensive development based on new investment towards intensive development through greater efficiency; an acceptance of greater economic autonomy for producers, with a broader mix of methods of economic management and types of ownership; and the adoption of a much more open economy. The reforms adopted over the succeeding years have all been consistent with these objectives, but they have not been implemented through a carefully planned series of stages. Overall the process has been marked by different rates of reform across sectors, by occasional pauses and even retreats, and by problems generated by the interaction of the differing rates of reform. Enterprise managers, for example, have found that plan controls over their production or sales have disappeared at a faster rate than controls over their supply of inputs. Given the dual price system and the continuing role of the central government in the supply of strategic materials and energy, the impact of the uneven pace of change on managers’ behaviour has therefore been very complex.

The Digital Divide in East Asia

The concept of a ‘digital divide’—inequality in access to modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) between industrialised and developing countries, and between urban and rural populations—has attracted much attention from policymakers, aid organisations, media and the general public. This paper places discussion of the digital divide in a broader economic context, linking it with the theory of economic growth and technological change. The network effects of diffusion of the Internet are related to the possibility of leap‐frogging by latecomers. This is seen as a ‘digital opportunity’ presented to developing countries by the ‘new economy’. This paper discusses the appropriate policy environment for bridging the digital divide, and concludes that the East Asian region has much to gain from the complementarities of its economies, their openness to trade in ICT products, and policy cooperation.

Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Australia: Policy Issues for the Resource Sector

The past 18 months have seen Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Australian resource sector become an issue of policy interest. There are two big questions that the prospects of a significant rise in FDI from China into the Australian resources sector have raised. Is the surge of FDI into Australian mining and energy consistent with achieving the traditional gains from foreign investment? And are there any particular problems associated with investment from foreign state-owned enterprises or state-managed sovereign wealth funds? These are among the questions addressed in this paper. The paper argues that there are no issues that cannot be dealt with under the umbrella of the established test of ‘national interest’ in managing the growth of Chinese FDI into the Australian minerals sector. It argues that a confusion has been introduced into policy over the questions of state ownership and supplier–buyer relations in respect of Chinese investments and that clarifying these issues is likely to be important to Australias capturing the full benefits from the growth of Chinese resources demand and longer term economic and strategic interests in China.

OPEN SKIES OR OPEN CLUBS? NEW ISSUES FOR ASIA PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Air transport continues to lie outside the rules of the world trading system. Yet pressures for changes in the management of trade in air transport services are emerging within the bilateral system of regulation, particularly through United States efforts to negotiate so-called “Open Skies†arrangements, but also through new regional arrangements. A new method is outlined of exploiting the trends in regional cooperation and the pressures induced by the United States strategy to facilitate the liberalisation of air transport markets. This method applies the principles of what have been called “open clubs†. The principles include transparency and openness to new members as well as the absence of an intention to discriminate against outsiders. These principles are consistent with APECs strategy of open regionalism. The paper suggests that APEC is a suitable process within which to develop the application of the open club idea and it outlines the manner in which its principles might be applied to air transport.

Growth of China's rural enterprises: Impacts on urban‐rural relations

Chinas rural enterprises are economic units established by local government in the countryside or by the peasants and they operate outside the planning system. Rural enterprises have grown twice as fast as the rest of the economy since 1984. The rural enterprise sector has so far challenged the urban economy, in both product markets and markets for raw materials. What are the prospects for their relationship ‐ competition or cooperation? To answer the question, we develop a well‐specified but simple model of the rural and urban economies. The rural enterprise boom was caused in this model by the presence of barriers to factor mobility within China, price distortions and the pool of available labour in the countryside. The origins of the boom imply that rural enterprise exports tend to be relatively labour intensive. The complementarities between rural and urban enterprises are likely to dominate their future economic relationship and lead to further growth in the rural enterprise sector.

ASEAN and China Exports of Labour-intensive Manufactures: Performance and Prospects

The ASEAN countries and China have substantially increased their exports of labour intensive manufactures (LIM) in the last two decades and the emergence of China as an exporter of manufactures in the eighties will present the ASEAN exporters with increasing competition in the future. The present paper examines the hypothesis that ASEAN may be crowded out of world LIM markets by China. It first presents and analyses the available data on commodity composition and country distribution of ASEAN and Chinese LIM exports and then examines the respective patterns of comparative advantage and considers the likely future impact of Chinas entry into world LIM trade on ASEAN development. In the final analysis education and work-force skills will be decisive factors in future developments, and the most important ASEAN exports are likely to be manufactures and services that are relatively intensive in human capital and technology rather than labour intensive.

Telecommunications reform in Indonesia: Achievements and challenges

Telecommunications reform in Indonesia has occurred in two phases. In the first, from 1989, private participation was permitted in the fixed-line sector through public–private partnership (PPP) arrangements. In the current reform phase, which began in 1999, a duopoly structure was created in fixed-line sector operations, accompanied by a pro-competitive regulatory regime. The first reform phase was not successful. This paper explains that contract-based PPP programs provided only short-term solutions to the problem of lack of capacity. The more wide-ranging 1999 reforms acknowledge the importance of competition and a sound regulatory regime in telecommunications reform, but there are still limits on market entry, and the problems of lack of interconnection and network development disparities remain.