Question

What is the goal of China's 2011-2020 Anti-Poverty Program

Why do Li and Sicular (2014) believe China's minimum wage has not been effective in reducing inequality and poverty?

What has happened to life expectancy and education levels in China since reforms?

What does the Human Development index measure? How has China's average HDI changed in China since reforms? How does the HDI in China compare to the global average?

What does the Harrod-Domar model say about the relationship between investment and growth? What are the weaknesses of the Harrod-Domar model?

What is the "classical" progression of structural change in a developing economy?

How did the manipulation of prices during China's socialist era distort the pattern of structural change? What does the pattern look like when evaluated at market (2004) prices?

What is the largest sector in China today by share of GDP?

How does China's pattern of structural change differ from the "classical" progression? How is that related to globalization?

Why do some believe there is a housing bubble in China today?

How does the Chinese government explain the rapid expansion of the housing market?

Describe the four stages of the demographic transition.

What is the Total Fertility Rate? The Birth Rate?

In what two ways has China deviated from the standard demographic transition model?

How has China’s TFR compared to other Asian countries?

What was the One Child Policy? How has enforcement changed over time?

What were some major critiques of China’s fertility policy?

What defines a stable equilibrium in the marriage market?

Why would a gender imbalance intensify competition in the marriage market?

What positive economic effects do Wei and Zhang (2011) observe as a result of China's skewed sex ratio?

What is the dependency ratio? How and why will China's dependency ratio be changing in the next few years?

What "marginal" changes were made to reform urban labor markets in the initial phase of reforms?

Who were the xiagang?

What share of the population was employed in the state sector before 1978?

How did the average urban worker get a job during that time?

What is the Lewisian Turning Point (LTP)?

Use the appropriate diagram to explain what happens to wages as demand for industrial labor grows before the LTP and then after the LTP.

Is there strong evidence to support the existence of an LTP in China? What else might explain rising wages?

Why can the returns to education be used as evidence of efficient labor markets?

What is a Mincer equation?

How have rising returns to education affect educational achievement in China?

Why is migration an indication of healthy labor markets?

Why did labor reforms create a need to reform China's social security system?

What was the role of the agricultural collective in during China's Socialist Era?

According to Lin, how did the collectives create a “prisoners’ dilemma?” What effect did this have on agricultural productivity?

What is a dominant strategy? What is a Nash Equilibrium?

Why did China's TVEs grow so quickly?

What are the three "models" of TVEs we discussed in class? How would you characterize each one?

Why did the rapid growth of TVEs end?

What information asymmetry problem complicated TVE privatization?

What mechanism did the gov't design to solve this problem?

What is individual rationality? What is incentive compatibility?

What are non-performing loans? How are they related to SOE reform?

What is “Grasping the large, letting go the small?”

Why was it important to increase SOEs’ marginal retention rates?

What was the Company Law?

What is SASAC and why was it created?

What share of output is accounted for by SOEs today?

What are the four elements that must be changed to turn a socialist enterprise into a “capitalist” one?

What are the theoretical advantages of corporatization? How did it work in practice?

What is the difference between market-based and control-based models of corporate governance? Which model best fits governance in China?

What is was the Anti-Monopoly Law? Why do some believe it has not been enforced effectively?

What is "creative destruction"? Why might the continued prominence of SOEs in China limit the potential for "creative destruction"?

How does China rank globally in terms of exports and total trade?

What is China's total trade as a % of GDP?

Which country was China's biggest trading partner during the Socialist era?

What were the two elements of the “double airlock” system before reforms?

What are special economic zones? Where were they first set up?

What is export processing?

What are tariff vs. non-tariff barriers to trade? What role did they play in reforms?

When did China join the WTO? What reforms were necessary for it to do so?

Why is it important to look at imports as a measure of openness? How have imports in China been changing?

Which "mode" of foreign direct investment (FDI) is most common in China today?

What were the important findings of Hu and Jefferson's (2002) study of FDI in China?

How does China manage its exchange rate today? What type of system is this?

How would a country intervene in foreign exchange markets to defend a fixed exchange rate?

What is the "impossible trinity"? How is it related to China's exchange rate policy?

What is an environmental Kuznets curve?

What are scale, composition, and technique effects? How are they related to the Kuznets curve?

Where (broadly speaking) in China are the major air pollutants concentrated?

What did the World Bank estimate for the economic costs of China's pollution in 2007? Why might this be an underestimate?

What are the main causes of China's degraded water quality? How are these problems made worse by water shortages?

How much of China's surface water is unfit for direct human contact (Grade IV and above)?

What government body is responsible for environmental protection in China today?

What has undermined the effectiveness of China's system of discharge fees for pollution?

Why is China's arable land shrinking?

What is the pollution haven hypothesis?

Do Dean, Lovely, and Huang (2009) find evidence to support this hypothesis "on average?"

Why do Dean, Lovely, and Huang (2009) argue lower pollution taxes is not an effective strategy for attracting FDI?

Answer 1

1)

In order to counter the poverty in the present era, the Government of People's Republic of china will organize and implement the China Rural poverty alleviation and development program ( 2011 - 2020 ).

Main goals are by 2020 the government will,

• Ensure that the poor are able to feed and clothe themselves
• Compulsory education, basic healthcare and housing
• Achieve net income growth of farmers from rural areas
• Rural areas should average with the national average in terms of income
• Achieve basic public services in major sectors approaching the national average level

These are the main goals to be achieved by 2020 by China.

2)

Li and Sicular (2014) examined recent trend of inequality and poverty in China, by analysing the effect of distribution policies taken during the Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao government period, till 2012. They have made two findings.

Rising inequality has not been the result of stagnant or falling incomes of lower income groups but rather income growth has been higher for higher income group and also rising inequality also has not been the result of widening interregional income gaps but it is primarily associated within the region rather than among the region.

Li and Sicular found that taxation and minimum wage policies have not been overly effective in reducing inequality and poverty, and that the benefits of regional development programmes do not necessarily reach low-income and poor households.

3)

China's key public health indicators, including life expectancy and maternal mortality, have improved following medical reform that began in 2009. Average life expectancy is estimated to be one year more in 2015 than in 2010 (74.83 years).

China has issued a guideline on educational reform to improve educational fairness and quality. China has the largest public education sector in the world. As of the end of 2016, China had 512,000 schools and 265 million students in schools. China has a full coverage of nine-year compulsory education. Gross enrollment rate in senior high school reached 87.5 percent in 2016, with higher education at 42.7 percent. Aftewr the reforms the education level in china has improved.

4)

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical tool used to measure a country's overall achievement in its social and economic dimensions. The social and economic dimensions of a country are based on the health of people, their level of education attainment, their standard of living, etc.

This index makes it possible to follow changes in development levels over time and to compare the development levels of different countries.

China experienced a substantial rise in its Human Development Index (HDI) during the period of reforms.

Its HDI (one indicator of well-being) rose from 0.530 in 1975 to 0.777 in 2005. And it fluctuated and averaged at 0.738 by 2016.

China HDI is marginally greater than the Global average

Global average HDI : 0.717

China HDI as of 2016 : 0.738