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The article introduces papers published within the issue which were presented at the 6th Annual Forum of the World Association for Political Economy (WAPE) in Amherst, Massachusetts in May 2011, including one on state-owned enterprises (SOE) in China, another on the implications of the need to prevent major climate change for the developmental strategies of China and India and a paper on the influence of neoliberalism on the reform of emergency services in Great Britain.

This paper examines the development of China's wind turbine industry, shedding light on the Chinese mode of disruptive industrial upgrading through policy pragmatism and fragmented, experimental governance. Based on a historical analysis of China's wind turbine industry, the paper highlights three distinct phases, which are all marked by their own inbuilt and potentially self-disruptive impasses and associated crises. In turn, these impasses have forced the Chinese government into radical and flexible interventions, which have spurred on Chinese companies to creatively find new ways to develop and upgrade. The paper illustrates the transformation of Sino-foreign relations by China's non-linear upgrading approach, particularly during the Chinese wind power industry's quality crisis, and its development model. It also discusses the implications this examination of China's approach has for the literatures on China, upgrading, and catch-up. Finally, the paper calls on future studies to enquire further into China's distinct mode of industrial upgrading and its embeddedness in China's institutional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using exploratory spatial data analysis technology, this paper studies the coal resource and its utilization in China's 31 provinces between 2001 and 2011. The research concluded that the distribution structure of China has a serious imbalance between coal production and coal consumption. The coal resource curse values for most provinces are decreasing apparently. It was also found out the coaldominated economic development pattern of regions as "Sanxi" (Shanxi, Shaanxi and Mengxi) has become weakened. From the spatial autocorrelation test on coal resource curse, it is revealed that the observed spatial agglomeration of resource curse show significant positive global autocorrelation, i.e. the high curse value region tends to be cluster, with the low value region following the same trend. Moreover, the outcome of local spatial autocorrelation test indicates that several provinces have significant positive values, and the high-risk curse value district has shrunk to the coal endowment region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's massive volume of and dramatic increase in migration have stimulated increasing research in this area. However, researchers have not paid sufficient attention to return migration until recently when the issue of migrant labor shortage in Southern China has been linked to return migration back to the rural areas. Taking advantage of information contained in the 1995 China 1% Population Sample Survey and the 2000 China Census, this paper provides a systematic analysis of interprovincial return migration to Sichuan province, one of the most important migrant-sending provinces in China. We focus on return migrant selectivity, the impact of local labor-market conditions and migration networks on return migration, and nonfarm work participation among return migrants. Return migration in the late 1990s shows positive selection on education and return migrants are more likely to engage in nonfarm work. The pattern for the early 1990s is just the opposite of what is observed in the late 1990s. Our multilevel models show that labor-market conditions as well as migration networks in destination areas play important roles in the return migration process. Policy implications of this trend of return migration are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the interplay between the rise of China and India in the world economy and the global climate emergency. It considers alternative growth scenarios for China and India. The results show that, to meet their respective global climate obligations, both China and India need to accept much slower economic growth rates and possibly economic stagnation in the coming decades. This clearly indicates that both China and India need to revise their growth-oriented model of development. Only a new development strategy focused on social and environmental progress, rather than economic growth, can be compatible with climate stabilization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper applies structural decomposition analysis to Chinese input-output tables in order to disentangle and quantify the sources of China's import growth and China's growth in vertical specialization: that is, China's incorporation into the global supply chain. China's exports and the role of processing trade therein have increased substantially in the last decade. Yet, they account for only one third of China's import growth from 1997 to 2005. Instead, the volume growth of China's domestic final demand is found to be most important. Moreover, compared with other countries, the structural change in input-output coefficients and in the commodity composition of domestic final demand turns out to be surprisingly important. Looking only at vertical specialization, it is concluded that more than half of its growth, from 21% in 1997 to 30% in 2005, is due to the growth of China's import ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides insights into the local political economy of China's current in situ urbanisation as compared to the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on the role played by county and township governments in shaping urbanisation in their localities. Marked differences were observed in the extent to which local cadres are able to steer the urbanisation process and adapt the relevant policies to local conditions and demands of the population. If leading county and township cadres are able to assert a relatively autonomous position vis-à-vis the superior municipality, a rural urbanisation process that considers both urban and rural interests and integrates local economic initiatives seems to become a potential alternative to the prevailing city-centred urban expansionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The medical device market is one of the most attractive and profitable areas in the global economy. Since China opened its doors to the world, it has attracted increasing amounts of foreign investment. The Chinese medical device market is currently one of the most promising and fastest growing markets, which is the second largest market in the world with 200 billion yuan (RMB) total sales in 2013. This paper illustrates the geographical distribution of the Chinese medical device industry, combined with the location quotient (LQ) assessment, to reveal the medical device industry’s professional level and degree of concentration in each province, providing guidance for investors who are interested in medical device investment in China. The LQ and market share (MS) matrix reveals that the best investment regions in China are Bohai Economic Rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta Economic Zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the existing scholarship on the capitalist transformation of Chinese agriculture uses the concepts of the Marxist political economy to analyze class differentiation, it has not systematically analyzed the role of the Chinese state (as manifested in the current semi-private land system) in this transformation with reference to Marx's theory of agricultural rent. Capitalist transformation of Chinese agriculture in the context of continuing strong government control over farmland provides a unique opportunity to assess the validity of Marx's hypothesis that private landownership is a barrier to capitalist development in agriculture and that state ownership of land is a possible way to overcome it. Analysis highlights two advantages of the current system for the capitalist transformation of Chinese agriculture. First, by enabling local governments to transfer large and consolidated tracts of farmland to agribusiness companies and large farmers and relieving them from the burden of dealing with each and every private owner for land access, the semi-private landownership system minimizes the transaction costs incurred by agrarian capital. Second, farm workers are guaranteed access to small plots of land and this subsidizes agrarian capital by reducing the costs of the reproduction of labor power, thereby putting downward pressure on wages. JEL Classification: P32, P1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a new approach to analyse labour relations at the level of companies, industries, and regions in China. Referring to Western and Chinese labour sociology and industrial relations theory, the author applies the concept of "regimes of production" to the context of China's emerging capitalism. This article focuses on China's modern core manufacturing industries (i.e. steel, chemical, auto, electronics, and textile and garment); it explores regimes of production in major corporations and new forms of labour-management cooperation, the growing inequality and fragmentation of labour policies within the modern sectors of the Chinese economy, consequences for further reform regarding labour standards, collective bargaining, and workers' participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2003, the poverty alleviation bureau in Xishuangbanna, China, introduced tea and rubber as cash crops to raise the incomes of ethnic-minority farmers who were thought to be backward and unfamiliar with markets. Using Marx's commodity fetish and Polly Hill's critique of "cash crops", this paper analyses the cultural politics of ethnicity for Akha and Dai farmers in relation to tea and rubber. When the prefecture government introduces "cash crops", the state retains its authority as the dispenser of knowledge, crops and modernity. When tea and rubber become commodities, however, some of the symbolic value of the commodity seems to stick to farmers, making rubber farmers "modern" and tea farmers "ethnic" in new ways. Through rising incomes and enhanced identities, Akha and Dai farmers unsettle stereotypes of themselves as "backward". As a result of income levels matching those of urban middle-class residents, rubber farmers even challenge the prevalent social hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights China's views regarding CPEC and argues that stakes are very high for China in CPEC, and it is a project that must succeed if BRI is to go down in history as a success. However, CPEC's success cannot be ensured without responding to the security challenge present in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which has the potential to jeopardise the CPEC and as a result the entire BRI. Hence, China is required to engage with both Pakistan and Afghanistan to ensure the long-term security of the CPEC. Building of CPEC and its further extension leaves India with limited options but augmenting economic, political and security concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By adopting the methods of economics and sociology, this paper analyzes the energy situation in rural China and the industrialization of making Straw Densification Briquette fuel in some detail. Straw Densification Briquette fuel has a promising future in China because of offical support and is likely to play an important role in rural energy structure adjustment, energy shortage relief and rural construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism geography did not exist in China before 1978. Since its birth shortly after the 1978 reforms, it has been growing rapidly. After a brief period of growth with strong interests in theoretical issues, the field over the last two decades has been dominated by applied work. This is attributable to the rise of tourism as an important source of national and local income which demands better planning of tourism resources, and to the neoliberalization of the educational system at the university level. Topics of theoretical inquiry are suggested for the development of a more balanced tourism geography in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs input-output analysis to evaluate the economic aspects of tourism in China. It concludes that, 5riven the size and diversity of the Chinese economy, tourism has provided only a limited stimulus to economic development at the national level. Tourism development depends markedly on input flora secondary industry. Tourism contributes to direct value added for tourism commodities and generates substantial indirect and induced employment to non-tourism commodities, especially in agriculture. Leakage is rather low. Only 40 per cent of the tourism leakage comes directly from tourism-related commodities and more than half is indirect leakage flora non-tourism commodities, especially secondary industry. This suggests that the availability of secondary commodities may be a constraint on tourism development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory essay highlights the changing foci of labor scholarship during five distinct periods in the evolution of Chinese industrial relations. In so doing, the author argues that labor scholarship has oscillated between pessimistic and optimistic views regarding whether a labor movement is forming in China. The three articles brought together in this special section focus on the key themes of labor activism, collective bargaining, and the role of labor NGOs during a single period, 2006 to 2015. Together, the articles evidence optimism about the future of labor voice in China. This essay, however, suggests that the post-2015 period has been marked by changes in state policy that are having a chilling effect on labor voice and labor scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the formation mechanisms of the pattern of labor force migration in the ethnic minority area, based on a sample of 120 administrative villages in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and by means of questionnaire investigation and indoor interview. The formation mechanism of the pattern of labor force migration, in essence the decision-making mechanism of the rural labor migration, could be interpreted by two factors, i.e. the motives to migrate, and the condition of migration. The rural labor migration in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region has its own characteristics. The research shows a tendency that a complex mixture of different motives to migrate is gradually replacing a single economic one; the pursuit of a better cultural and social life has become more important. With respect to the social condition (or the social capital factor) of the fulfillment of rural labor force migration in Ningxia, the help of relatives and friends of rural laborers still serves as the main bridge. The advent and development of rural labor broking, however, has become an important element to promote rural migration in Ningxia. Meanwhile, local governments are also making efforts to accelerate the rural labor migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary rise of China in the new geo-economy is increasingly pressurising the spatial distribution of financial activity in mainland China and Hong Kong. With the reemergence of Shanghai, many people foresee the future demise of Hong Kong as the most important financial centre for the Chinese mainland. This paper shows that this conviction seems rather premature. From an examination of the regional distribution pattern of the mainland-China-based companies listed on the stock exchanges of Shanghai and Hong Kong it appears that both financial centres have relatively distinct hinterlands. Furthermore, it is shown that the exchanges of Shanghai and Hong Kong differ strongly in terms of sectoral specialisation. These results indicate that both centres reveal a considerable amount of complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does a state's source of wealth condition the domain in which it seeks to project influence? We argue that what a state makes conditions what they take. Specifically, the less states rely on land rents to acquire wealth, the less interested they will be in seeking control over territory and the more interested they will be in securing access to distant markets. We develop and test several observable implications that should follow whether this proposition is true. First, as states become less economically dependent on territory, they should be less likely to fight over territory; second, those states should be more likely to both invest in power projection capabilities and subsequently project power at greater distances. Our findings support our theory. These results are robust across a variety of model specifications that take into account potential confounds, such as regime type, economic development, threat, and geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From demand for natural resources to sustainability initiatives, everything seems to hinge on China. China’s environmental entanglements call out for the analysis and understanding that environmental sociologists practice. Environmental sociologists from within and beyond China have begun to explore how society, polity, and ecology intersect, but we have yet to fully take on the challenges that China’s environmental struggles pose. This article focuses on four domains in which China’s experience compels us to rethink our theories: environmental ideology, political economy, civil society and environmental justice, and international environmental politics. In each domain, China’s institutions, discourses, and place in the world-system reframe major currents of thought in environmental sociology. These points challenge us to decenter environmental sociologists’ focus on how things happen within liberal polities in the global North; they likewise push us to reconsider arguments about the South. Together, these challenges present an opportunity to extend our theory and practice, fashioning a more global environmental sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study is a content analysis of international economic news about Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Latin American countries from corresponding Latin American newspapers. We studied the portrayal of Chinese outward foreign direct investment among 14 different Latin American newspapers. The study aims at illustrating differences between newspaper portrayals of Chinese outward foreign direct investment in the region, with a special focus on the possible factors that influence the editorial selection of relevant news frames on international economic news. We found that the use of conflict and economic consequence frames corresponds to the editorial distinct focuses on either geopolitical interpretations or economic interpretations of international economic news in the case of Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Latin America. We also found attitudes and perspectives adopted in the portrayals are different both on a national basis and on an editorial basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to cut down power generation cost is an important issue during energy system transformation. This study examines the pathway of China’s coal-fired and clean power’s unit generation cost changes during 2007–2015 and predicts the change trends of each type of power between 2016 and 2025. The results show that the cost of coal-fired power will increase to 0.50–0.73 Yuan/kWh in 2025 because of the stricter environmental regulations and the establishment of a nationwide carbon emission trading market. Conversely, the cost of clean energy power, with the exception of hydropower, shows a decreasing trend between 2007 and 2025, with the costs of nuclear power, solar power, and wind power declining from 0.40, 4.34, and 0.56 Yuan/kWh to 0.33, 0.31, and 0.49 Yuan/kWh, respectively. However, the cost of hydropower displays an increasing trend from 0.22 to 0.26 Yuan/kWh during 2007–2025 due to increases in construction costs. Considering the external cost increases applying to coal-fired power and the declining trend caused by the learning rates of renewable power, the cost of all the clean energy power will be lower than the costs of coal-fired power before 2025. The cost sharing of coal-fired power is also analyzed in this study. However, there are a number of relevant economic and policy measures that are needed to be taken by the government to fulfill this transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research presents an examination of literature written within hospitality and tourism studies and within other disciplines pertaining to virtual and hybrid meeting genres over a 10-year period (2002-2012). While 15 articles were found within hospitality and tourism journals, 67 articles were included within this review, with the majority published within refereed journals outside of hospitality and tourism. Articles were categorized by journal, year, methodology, and theme. Using the diffusion of innovation theory, five themes emerged: comparison of virtual and/or hybrid meetings with face-to-face meetings, perceptions and attitudes toward virtual and hybrid meetings, management and design of virtual and/or hybrid meetings, specific audiences for virtual and hybrid meetings, and uses of technology within virtual and hybrid meetings. These articles have been accumulated to identify gaps in the literature and provide future research recommendations within hospitality and tourism to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a G20 member, China has been engaged in financial reform since the end of the global financial crisis. A core piece of this reform is Basel III, the new prudential standard issued by the Basel Committee. Rather than being merely compliant, China's banking regulation is stricter than the global standard and being implemented ahead of the international timetable. Why is China voluntarily subjecting itself to tougher regulatory standards than the rest of the world? This article shows that low adjustment costs, factional politics, and, above all, an unusual alignment of domestic interests in the quest for international reputation are driving this phenomenon. The troubled institutional history of China's financial system motivates all relevant stakeholders to seek external validation in order to address a credibility gap abroad, albeit for different reasons. The article examines the power of reputation as a driver of regulatory positioning in the context of China's integration into international financial institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Culture” has become a resource to be excavated and marketed for profit throughout China in recent decades. This article investigates processes underlying the production of culture through the example of a Star Worshipping Festival staged by a tourism company in a Shanxi mountain village. Regional political economy, historical knowledge, and ritual practices underlie strategies of development that transformed the entire village into a new cultural product revolving around Ancient Fortress culture. Despite a shared vision of culture as a resource, conflicting spheres of interest emerged between villagers and the drivers of development. A tourism company selectively mobilized aspects of villagers’ cultural practices to create a historical narrative legitimizing Ancient Fortress culture. By promoting Star Worshipping as a cultural display, the tour company projected Ancient Fortress culture onto the entire village, thereby denying villagers the capacity to stake claims over the present profits and future governance of this new cultural product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global fossil energy crisis and the pressure on environmental protection led to countries facing new issues related to energy and economic development. Biofuels are becoming favored by more and more countries. Along with the increase in biofuel production in major grain-producing countries, both global food consumption and prices have increased in recent years. This has raised growing concerns about food security. The current controversies about biofuels and food security include two aspects: the price crisis [1, 2, 3] and the resource crisis [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. As China is a major grain producer and trader, the development of biofuels will inevitably affect its food security. With more than 1.3 billion people, China's food security is an important part of global food security. From 1990 to 2012, China's com yields increased significantly but fluctuated frequently. Over the same period, the demand for com increased strongly. As global grain supply is tight, it is difficult for China to satisfy domestic demand by international trade. If domestic supply cannot meet demand, then domestic food prices are likely to rise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's financial system, dominated by the banking sector, has played a central role in the development of an imbalanced trajectory of economic development and growth. As one of the primary mechanisms for implementing decisive macro-economic policy, the banking sector has hitherto served the Chinese growth strategy well in actively allocating capital towards the investment and export sectors, whilst proving capable of managing the macro-economic ramifications of this highly interventionist strategy. However, the role of the financial system in this growth strategy is also rooted in the requirement that authority over financial capital remains closely tied to state institutions and policies, due to elite concern over politico-economic instability. Based on policy analysis and qualitative interviews conducted in mid-2012, the article suggests that whilst the structure of the financial system was conducive to fostering the growth of the real economy, it will hold back not the need for rebalancing, but rather the process of rebalancing itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article gives a broad characterization of China's political economy, as well as specific aspects of its socio-economic instabilities. With a focus on China's export-oriented industry sectors, concepts from comparative and international political economy are applied to show how the Chinese economy can be understood as a variegated form of state-permeated capitalism that at the same time is deeply integrated into world economic processes. The article goes on to portray the socio-economic dynamics, as well as the instabilities of China's new capitalism, that are at the root of the state leadership's attempts to turn away from a one-sided model of export and investment-driven growth. Thereby, a number of obstacles are revealed for the "rebalancing" of the economy: a continued dependence on exports, a lack of domestic consumer demand which impedes a significant "social" upgrading, the ongoing low-wage model for which there is no end in sight, the limits of the state's steering capacity and the weaknesses of its fragmented, competition-driven structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using household survey data collected during November 2009 to January 2010 among 500 low-income families in Shanghai, this article provides updated evidence on the poverty reduction effects of the Minimum Living Standard Assurance (MLSA, or Dibao), urban China’s primary public assistance program. The article finds that, even though Shanghai’s MLSA line has been constantly raised, it has trailed behind the average living standard in Shanghai as measured by city per capita income and consumption levels. Low education, unemployment, being unmarried, and having child(ren) have been revealed to be strongly linked to MLSA participation and higher benefit amounts. MLSA’s poverty reduction effects were most prominent when a low poverty line was used, and the effect size became smaller as the level of the poverty line rose. When using two absolute poverty lines that were set in the national context, MLSA lowered the poverty rate, gap, and severity in Shanghai significantly but was unable to eliminate poverty. When using two much higher relative poverty lines, it is evident that MLSA was far from sufficient in lifting the relative positions of the recipient families in the context of the overall income distribution in Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For six decades, China's central authorities have promoted development in ethnic regions through special fiscal allocations with the idea that economic development is the key to national integration and inter-ethnic harmony. Yet, inter-ethnic tensions and violence persist in China. Focusing on historical changes to fiscal allocations as the principal policy instrument used by Beijing to promote development in ethnic areas, this analysis finds these changes mirror broad shifts in the country's national development strategy. As the study argues, this pattern reflects an approach to development policy in ethnic regions whereby policies serve central objectives consistent with a policy process for determining the fiscal allocations to ethnic regions that has been both centrally concentrated and non-participatory. With evidence that this "non-engaging" approach may be exacerbating ethnic tensions, Beijing has made efforts to introduce more "inclusive" approaches to determining policies for ethnic regions; however, whether these approaches will be institutionalized remains unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article gives information about submitting papers to this periodical "Human Relations" on the topic of changing work, labour and employment relations in China, noting the deadline for submission is January 31, 2013.

Most social science theory and the currently powerful Chinese ideology of modernizationism assume that, with modern development, family-based peasant farm production will disappear, to be replaced by individuated industrial workers and the three-generation family by the nuclear family. The actual record of China’s economic history, however, shows the powerful persistence of the small family farm, as well as of the three-generation family down to this day, even as China’s GDP becomes the second largest in the world. China’s legal system, similarly, encompasses a vast informal sphere, in which familial principles operate more than individualist ones. And, in between the informal-familial and the formal-individualist, there is an enormous intermediate sphere in which the two tendencies are engaged in a continual tug of war. The economic behavior of the Chinese family unit reveals great contrasts with what is assumed by conventional economics. It has a different attitude toward labor from that of both the individual worker and the capitalist firm. It also has a different structural composition, and a different attitude toward investment, children’s education, and marriage. Proper attention to how Chinese modernity differs socially, economically, and legally from the modern West points to the need for a different kind of social science; it also lends social–economic substance to claims for a modern Chinese culture different from the modern West’s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the differences in media governance in China and India. The differences in media policies between China and India are attributed to deregulatory processes and to the variance in media coverage. History shows that India's deregulation in television began in the 1980s and entailed two mechanisms, while China has a unitary system of broadcasting restructured into four tiers. Three interventions in broadcasting, distribution and transmission indicated the shift towards elements of strategic intent.

In the aftermath of the financial crash of 2008, commentators speculated that the relative buoyancy of China’s economy signaled the onset of an epochal shift of world power from West to East. This article considers the evidence by reviewing the state of the Sino-American economic relationship against the backdrop of the urgency of action on climate change. The lead established by Chinese companies in the clean technology sectors underpins the PRC’s primacy in the alternative fuel economy, but political and social need for a high GDP growth rate is irreconcilable with the demand for decarbonization. By contrast, U.S. efforts to jumpstart a green industrial revolution are stymied by political resistance from oil and gas lobbies, and the longterm recovery of its economic dominance as a trade super power is in doubt. The initiative lies with Beijing, thrust, once again, into the role of making history under conditions not of its own making. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Chinese farmers need loans. It's hard for them to borrow from formal lenders like banks or even the rural credit cooperatives. Thus, to satisfy their financial needs, farmers borrow from informal lenders. While farmers have benefited from the post-Mao reform in many respects, financial reforms of the past three decades have failed to create an effective system in which farmers can borrow from formal lenders. To create an effective and efficient financial system that can meet farmers' needs, it is necessary for informal lenders to play an active role in rural finance. China's rural finances face four key problems: asymmetric information, a lack of collateral, the unique structure of costs and risks, and the nonproductive use of loans. Informal lenders have an advantage in solving these problems. This article proposes the creation of a financial system in which informal lenders play an active role in lending to farmers and formal and informal lenders cooperate with each other. It develops the argument based on the first author's field research in the provinces of Guangdong, Henan, Jilin, Shaanxi, Shandong, and Shanxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine the dual-track pricing system in China's stock market since its inauguration, a legacy of its economic transition and a major source of institutional predation in the market. We then examine the share structure reform initiated in 2005 that sought to eliminate the distortion this predation had elicited. We interpret the reform push as a process of institutional change and focus on the drivers and theoretical explanations of such changes in China's stock market. We thus advance a model for understanding institutional change, Chinese style. We argue that, initially, the institutional arrangement was constructed by the dynamics of transition – the juxtaposition of the Leninist state and the emerging stock market. This provided huge incentives for state corruption in the emerging market. As the market transition proceeded, the societal and political costs of corruption and market distortion also grew, which produced a crisis that eventually attracted the attention of powerful leaders of the party state. We argue from this case that the broader political context in which specific examples of institutional change occur needs to be examined. Specifically, we argue that powerful agents who are external to given institutional environments can play an important role in institutional change, thus highlighting the political dynamics of an authoritarian state amid systemic transition and global integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on land use planning topics, including "Historical Amnesia: New Urbanism and the City of Tomorrow," "More Than Sector Theory: Homer Hoyt's Contributions to Planning Knowledge" and "Methodology for the Survival Analysis of Urban Building Stocks."

The relationship between workers' participation in management and firm performance is open to debate in economic theory. There has not yet been any empirical study on this subject regarding China. The author uses panel data of large and medium-sized industrial enterprises in China's Henan province, from a survey conducted in field research (1995-1998), to study how participatory management affects firm performance. The author found that participatory management has large positive effects on state-owned enterprises' productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assesses the role played by market reforms in shaping the level and composition of production, energy use, and carbon emissions in China. Historical background on market reforms implemented in China from 1978 to 2003; Examination of the implications of eliminating state-directed allocation of capital; Possible consequences of China's transition to a market economy.

Economic reforms in China over the past 20 years have led to a steady economic transformation that has created many opportunities for entrepreneurial firms. A central focus in this economic development has been to encourage the founding of more technology-related entrepreneurial firms, and the creation of joint ventures between Chinese and foreign firms that employ advanced technologies. However, the interactions between these private high-technology entrepreneurial firms and the institutional forces in their environment are some-what different from what occurs in traditional Western high-technology businesses. These differences are due principally to the culture present in the Chinese environment. In turn, these cultural differences lead managers of high-technology entrepreneurial firms to employ tactics not well known in the West in order to successfully navigate China's often hostile institutional environment. This article develops the theoretical understanding of these actions grounded with observations from managers in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the importance of rural electrification as an element of rural development in China. Assessment of rural energy needs in Chinese provinces; Examination of the energy resource availability in three provinces; Evaluation of rural energy options and the economics of stand-alone off-grid renewable energy technologies for rural applications in Chinese provinces.

The strategic fit paradigm, originally derived from observations in market-based economies, asserts that an appropriate match between environment and strategy has significant and positive implications for business performance. Based on a random sample of Chinese electronics firms, this study systematically examines the applicability of the strategic fit paradigm in China's centrally planned economy in transition. Results indicate that while environment-strategy coalignment is evident, coalignment only improves performance under certain environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]