International Studies of Economics最新文献

The inventor is a vital input in acquiring new technologies. Collaboration among inventors is an essential topic for scholars. Talhelm et al. proposed The Rice Theory, highlighting the cultural differences between rice and wheat regions. This paper explores the differences in inventor team size under rice and wheat cultures using invention patent data in China. The results of ordinary least square estimation and instrumental variable estimation indicate that the size of inventor teams under rice culture is significantly smaller than that under wheat culture by 0.558–0.721 persons. Using the Chinese Qinling–Huaihe line, this paper constructs a regression discontinuity (RD) design. The local average treatment effect estimation confirms the difference in rice and wheat cultures. Subsequently, we demonstrate the significant existence of this difference through lots of robustness checks. We try to explain the phenomenon from the perspective of “The Rice Theory” by arguing that inventors in rice regions may be more inclined to collaborate but with a smaller inventor team size. This paper demonstrates the cultural differences in the performance of inventor team size, informing our understanding of input in research and development (R&D) activities.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) initiated by China in 2013 is a new experiment in regional cooperation, which aims to improve infrastructure connectivity through investment. This paper investigates whether the BRI created exports for its member states (excluding China), based on a difference-in-differences model. We find a significant causal relationship between the signing of the initiative and the export growth of its member states. In addition to the large export creation between the BRI countries and China (considered as “give-them-a-fish”), export creation also originated from the BRI countries excluding China (“teach-them-to-fish”). Both the intensive and extensive margins are significantly important, indicating that export creation has not just come from expansion of the volume of existing products, but also from new products and new markets. The BRI achieved the goal of mutual benefit mainly through enlisting investment in both publicly funded infrastructure sectors and private sectors. Moreover, the initiative has enhanced the position and participation of its member states in the global value chain.

The paper analyzes earnings differences between rural–urban migrants and urban workers in China to examine the proposition that discrimination against migrant workers is tending toward zero. Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition is applied using the 2013 China Household Income Project (CHIP) database to find out the extent of discrimination against migrant workers. The results show the existence of wage difference between the two groups, however, most of the wage difference can be explained by observable characteristics implying that discrimination is on the wane. Assuming the urban worker's wage as a nondiscriminatory wage, the benchmark model shows that 82.9% of the wage difference can be explained by individual endowments. Furthermore, including occupation and industry variables the extended model can explain 91.8% leaving only 8.2% as the source of wage discrimination. Using the combined and Cotton (1988) method, the explanatory part is still very high (89.2% and 86.3%) although a bit lower than the previous method. To further support the proposition, we also do the same exercise using 2007 CHIP data that shows a higher percentage of discrimination (36.2%), implying that discrimination decreased in 2013 compared to 2007. A cautious review of similar literature also supports the view. In short, wage discrimination against migrant workers is tending toward zero in recent urban China.

The chemical fertilizer industry has made great contributions to China's food security. Existing studies mainly focus on evaluating fertilizer use efficiency at the farm level whereas little is known about the technical efficiency of Chinese firms producing fertilizer. Based on the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database (CIED) and the Generalized True Random Effects model (GTRE), this paper estimates and decomposes the technical efficiency of Chinese fertilizer-producing firms. Results show technical efficiency increased from 0.883 in 1998 to 0.930 in 2007, with an average of 0.898. The growth rate of persistent efficiency is lower than that of transient efficiency, implying structural problems exist in the Chinese fertilizer industry. Moreover, ownership type and firms' entry and exit are exogenous determinants of technical inefficiency. State-owned firms perform much worse on technical efficiency. The entry of efficient firms and exit of inefficient firms, especially the exit of inefficient state-owned firms, have improved the technical efficiency significantly.

This paper seeks first to test whether there is evidence of fiscal fatigue in the Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) countries. On the contrary, we want to investigate the impact of fiscal rules on fiscal space to see if the implementation of fiscal rules enhances fiscal space in the region. The findings show evidence of fiscal fatigue for the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon while Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Chad exhibit no fiscal fatigue behavior. For our second objective, while analyzing the determinants of fiscal space we found that the two fiscal rules (the balanced budget rule and debt rule) implemented in CEMAC Zone do not improve fiscal space. Therefore, there is a need for the fiscal policy stance to supervise the conduct of fiscal rules in the CEMAC region as fiscal rules themselves do not enhance the available fiscal space. Besides, we suggest CEMAC's fiscal policy authorities to integrate the expenditure rule in their fiscal policy framework to mitigate the government expenditure bias.

Hybrid entrepreneurship research is to probe into the increasingly widespread phenomenon of “employment + entrepreneurship” in real life, and to break the traditional practice of dichotomizing self-employment and employment. Hybrid entrepreneurship provides entrepreneurs with another employment alternative by combining entrepreneurship and employment. By analyzing data collected mainly from prospective entrepreneurs in China, this paper aims to explore the main influencing factors of hybrid entrepreneurial intentions, in particular how gender moderates the relationship between entrepreneurial motives and hybrid entrepreneurial intentions. Empirical findings reveal that gender differences are evident in prospective entrepreneurs who are motivated to be self-employed by necessity-driven factors and those who aim to test the waters of entrepreneurship via the hybrid path.

The process of industrialization was accompanied by the switch from household production to firm production. The industrialization process was also a process of population growth, the appearance of general-purpose technologies, and the expansion of international trade. This paper studies the partition of production between households and firms in an analytically tractable general equilibrium model with a continuum of goods. We show that population growth, development of general-purpose technologies, and the opening of international trade increase the percentage of goods produced by firms. However, with the appearance of a technology biased toward home production, the percentage of goods produced by households can increase.

China's economy underwent a steady recovery in 2021. Investment grew steadily with structural improvement. Exports and imports surged while trade surplus expanded. On the other hand, although labor market conditions improved, income distribution worsened, contributing to sluggish growth in consumption, whereas the gap between consumer price index and producer price index widened, and the profits of enterprises of different sizes diverged, which may go beyond how they are correlated with the locations of the enterprises in the chain of production and trade. While proper liquidity was maintained with prudent monetary policy, risk spillover rose in the financial system, particularly for small and medium-sized banks. Household and local government debts remained at relatively high levels, further dragging down growth in consumption and infrastructure investment. The “dual carbon” goals exerted downward pressure on near-term growth in trading off their long-term benefits. The economy also faced challenges in its external environment in the midst of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic aboard, trade protectionism, and the readjustment of the global value chain. Moreover, excessive supervision and inadequate implementation disturbed China's economy, resulting in declined market vitality and confidence of market participants. Based on the Institute for Advanced Research-China Macroeconomic Model, the baseline real gross domestic product growth rate is projected to be 5.5% in 2022. Alternative scenario analyses and policy simulations are conducted, in addition to the benchmark forecast, to reflect the influences of various risks and possible favorable situations. The findings suggest that China should deepen reform and open up more comprehensively and initiatively, while special effort should be placed on providing accommodative policy and friendly public opinion environment, to facilitate steady growth and propel high-quality development. A comprehensive macroeconomic governance framework with Chinese characteristics must be developed from systems thinking, to resolve the various issues, internal and external, cyclical and secular, structural and institutional, in an all-inclusive and coherent manner.