John C. H. Fei

The distribution of income by factor components

This paper furthers the discussion of income inequality decomposition by focusing attention on the problems which arise in this context when available data are restricted to the distribution of factor incomes between groups of families defined by their total income level. First, it sets out the Rao (1969) decomposition of the Gini coefficient for total income in terms of factor shares and factor concentration ratios. Further decomposition of concentration ratios into rank correlation ratios and factor Ginis is recommended when individual data are available. Second, interpretation of concentration ratios as Gini coefficients is shown to be misleading. An analogue in economic theory is required. The results obtained required exploration of the alternative concepts and measurements which are possible when individual family data are available. In turn, these had to be related to the more limited set of concepts which can be calibrated when available data are taken from a secondary source. Caution is advised in interpreting results based on secondary sources of income inequality by factor components.

Growth and the Family Distribution of Income by Factor Components

I. Introduction, 17. — II. Growth and income distribution, 18. — III. Application to Taiwan, 24. — IV. Impact of growth on FID: qualitative and quantitative aspects, 27. — V. Concluding remarks, 36. — Appendix, 38.

A model of growth and employment in the open dualistic economy: The cases of Korea and Taiwan

In this paper, the pressing problem of unemployment in the contemporary developing world is studied from an historical perspective of transition growth, i.e. the process representing the termination of economic colonialism and the initiation of modern growth. This problem is investigated for a particular type of LDC, namely, the open dualistic labour surplus economy. The post‐war (1950–70) experience of Taiwan and Korea were analyzed from this viewpoint—emphasizing the fine differences as well as the family resemblance among these countries. As ex‐Japanese colonies, both these countries shared a relatively strong agricultural infrastructure and the open dualistic and labour surplus characteristic at the beginning of the transition in the 1950s. However, as we show, Taiwan had an initially more favourable set of institutional and economic conditions in agriculture.

Technological Transfer, Employment and Development

It is generally agreed that one of the most important factors shaping the course of development in the typical less developed country (l.d.c.) is its coexistence with developed countries and the possibility of technological transfers from the latter to the former, induced by the presence of a so-called technology gap. In practical terms, such transfers result in a modification of the ways in which the developing economy’s labour force is utilised and in major changes in its output and employment performance. Our purpose in the present paper is to attempt an analysis of such technological transfer in the context of a fairly general growth-theoretic framework.

Less Developed Country Innovation Analysis and the Technology Gap

Increases in material welfare, i.e. economic progress leading to increases in per capita consumption, can be achieved in the long run as the consequence of many factors, including capital accumulation, improvements in the quantity of human resources and technological change. However both economists with a theoretical and those with an empirical and historical bent [1] have increasingly come to the conclusion that, in the long run, technological change is the most crucial — as well as the most difficult to get hold of. On the one hand, the theoretical economists have reminded us of the inevitability of stagnation in per capita income if capital accumulation alone is at work [2]. On the other hand, those with an historical interest have identified modern growth, as the Western world has experienced it over the past 200 years, as an epoch characterised by the routinisation of innovations.

A Tentative Plan for the Rational Sequencing of Overall Reform in China's Economic System1

The authors review Chinese economic reform to date, and sketch a linked sequence of reforms stretching over the coming 20 years. They argue that the logical interrelations of a market system require that markets in China be developed in a particular order: first commodity markets, then loanable funds, then capital goods, and finally labor. In addition, they argue that legal reforms, and a revival of traditional Chinese cultural values, are essential for the success of market institutions in China. J. Comp. Econ., September, 1987, 11(3), pp. 490–502. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520; Union College, Schenectady, New York 12308.

The Taiwan Success Story. Rapid Growth With Improved Distribution in the Republic of China, 1952-1979.@@@Ideology and Development. Sun Yet-sen and the Economic History of Taiwan.

A tamper-proof window unit comprising similar first and second quadrilateral centrally open frame members adapted to be mounted about an opening respectively on opposite sides of a door. Each frame member has a narrow elongated quadrilateral front panel extending generally in a plane parallel to the door and marginally about the door opening with an outer edge portion partially overlapping the door adjacent the opening. A small countersunk front to rear screw hole is provided in each side of front panel of a first frame member and the opening is spaced inwardly from the outer edge of the panel so as to communicate with the door opening. A narrow elongated quadrilateral integral flange extends along and projects rearwardly toward the door from an outer edge of each front panel. A second narrow elongated quadrilateral and generally L-shaped integral flange extends along the inner edge of each front panel with each L-shaped flange comprising first and second panels. The first panel of each L-shaped flange projects generally rearwardly from its associated front panel but at a slight angle of inclination toward the center of the door opening. The second panel projects from the rear or inner edge of the first panel outwardly with respect to the center of the door opening and in a plane generally parallel with the door faces and the front panels.

Per Capita Consumption and Growth

Introduction, 52. — I. The CPCS model of growth, 54. — II. Growth in the labor-surplus type of underdeveloped economy, 60. — III. Revision of the consumption standard, 62. — IV. The long-run growth target, 65. — V. The average propensity to save and the dynamic production efficiency, 68. — VI. Growth under imperfect knowledge, 70.