C. Journal articles published externally
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Symposium on Health Economics Issues in China: The Role of For-Profit Hospitals in Medical Expenditures: Evidence from Aggregate Data in China
( 2009) Liu, Gordon G. ; Li, Lin ; Hou, Xiaohui ; Xu, Judy ; Hyslop, DanielThe health care delivery system in China, which is dominated by state hospitals, is being increasingly challenged by public concerns: it is too expensive and too inaccessible, a complaint commonly phrased as "kai bin nan, kan bin gui" in Chinese. As the penetration of for-profit hospitals has gradually increased, there is a growing need for policy research to assess their impact on medical spending from the patient perspective. Using panel data at the provincial level in China, this paper examines the impact of the penetration of for-profit hospitals on average medical expenditures for both outpatient and inpatient services in public general hospitals. Based on fixed-effect model estimates, the study shows that the penetration of for-profit hospitals has lowered the average medical expenditures for both inpatient and outpatient services across regions, especially for pharmaceuticals. Together with other results, this study finds no evidence that private for-profit hospitals drive up average medical expenditures while serving their profit-maximization objectives. Rather, they help increase the market supply of health care, which in turn better serves the increasing demand. -
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Labor Restructuring in China : Toward a Functioning Labor Market
( 2009) Dong, Xiao-yuan ; Xu, Lixin ColinThis paper examines the patterns and determinants of the labor restructuring process in China using two large firm-level datasets for the period between 1998 and 2002. We find that the public sector has undergone substantial labor retrenchment. The removal of employment guarantees for state workers has led to substantial employment shifts both within and between sectors. As compared to many Central and East European countries and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in their early phases of transition, China has experienced a more synchronized pace of job destruction and creation as well as higher rates of excessive reallocation. Our results also show that the employment adjustment and downsizing process has been driven largely by market forces. We find a notable resemblance in the patterns of enterprise response to demand shocks across the public and the private sectors. -
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Income Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction : A Case Study of Eight Provinces in China
( 2009) Goh, Chor-ching ; Luo, Xubei ; Zhu, NongThis paper examines the growth performance and income inequality in eight Chinese provinces during the period of 1989-2004 using the China Health and Nutrition Survey data. It shows that income grew for all segments of the population, and as a result, poverty incidence has fallen. However, income growth has been uneven, most rapidly in coastal areas, and among the educated. A decomposition analysis based on household income determination suggests that income growth can largely be attributed to the increase in returns to education and to the shift of employment into secondary and tertiary sectors. -
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Are There Lessons for Africa from China's Success against Poverty?
( 2009) Ravallion, MartinAt the outset of China's reform period, the country had a far higher poverty rate than Africa as a whole. Within five years that was no longer true. This paper tries to explain how China escaped from a situation in which extreme poverty persisted due to failed and unpopular policies. While acknowledging that Africa faces constraints that China did not, two lessons for Africa stand out. The first is the initial importance of productivity growth in smallholder agriculture, which will require both market-based incentives and public support. The second is the role played by strong leadership and a capable public administration at all levels of government. -
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Evaluating Job Training in Two Chinese Cities
( 2009) Bidani, Benu ; Blunch, Niels-Hugo ; Goh, Chor-Ching ; O'Leary, ChristopherRecent years have seen a surge in work on the impacts of active labor market programs for numerous countries. However, little evidence has been presented on the effectiveness of such programs in China. Recent economic reforms, associated with massive lay-offs, and the accompanying public retraining programs make China fertile ground for rigorous impact evaluations. This study uses survey data from the two large industrial cities Shenyang and Wuhan, covering the period 1998 to 2000, to evaluate retraining programs for over 2,000 workers two years after they had been observed as displaced and unemployed. Using a comparison group design, this study is, to our knowledge, the first evaluation of its kind in China. The evidence suggests that retraining helped workers find jobs in Wuhan, but had little effect in Shenyang. The study raises questions about the overall effectiveness of retraining expenditures, and it offers some directions for policy-makers about future interventions to help laid-off workers. -
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International Economic Activities and Skilled Labour Demand : Evidence from Brazil and China
( 2009) Fajnzylber, Pablo ; Fernandes, Ana M.Using two new firm-level datasets, this article investigates the impact of three international economic activities--the use of imported inputs, exports, and foreign direct investment--on skilled labour demand in Brazil and China. We find that Brazilian firms that engage in these activities exhibit a higher skilled labour demand than firms that do not. In contrast, Chinese firms that engage in these activities have a lower skilled labour demand than firms that do not. Thus, international economic activities act as a channel for skill-biased technology diffusion in Brazil but have an effect of specialization according to comparative advantage in unskilled labour-intensive goods in China. -
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Reranking and Pro-poor Growth: Decompositions for China and Vietnam
( 2009) Wagstaff, AdamReranking in the move from one income distribution to another makes it impossible to infer from changes in Lorenz and generalised Lorenz curves how income growth among those toward the bottom of the initial income distribution compares to that among those toward the top, and whether there has been income growth among those who were initially poor. Decompositions allowing for reranking indicate that economic growth in China and Vietnam has been better for households who were initially poor than changes in the Lorenz and generalised Lorenz curve and poverty growth curve would suggest. -
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Evidence for an Incipient Decline in Numbers of Missing Girls in China and India
( 2009) Das Gupta, Monica ; Chung, Woojin ; Li, ShuzhuoThe apparently inexorable rise in the proportion of "missing girls" in much of East and South Asia has attracted much attention among researchers and policymakers. An encouraging trend was suggested by the case of South Korea, where child sex ratios (males to females under age 5) were the highest in Asia but peaked in the mid-1990s and normalized thereafter. Using census data, we examine whether similar trends have begun to manifest themselves in the two most populous countries of this region, China and India. The data indicate that child sex ratios are peaking in these countries, and in many subnational regions are beginning to trend toward lower, more normal values. This suggests that, with continuing economic and social development and vigorous public policy efforts to reduce son preference, the "missing girls" phenomenon could eventually disappear in Asia. -
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Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China: An Overview
( 2008) Lin, Justin Yifu ; Zhuang, Juzhong ; Tang, Min ; Lin, TunThis overview introduces the background of the study "Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China (PRC)", under which all the papers in this special volume were prepared. It summarizes key findings of these papers as grouped into three parts: (i) Inclusive Growth and Policy Options; (ii) Balancing Efficiency and Equity Objectives: International Experiences; and (iii) Empirical Analysis of Income Inequalities in the PRC. In concluding, this overview argues that building a harmonious society is the most important development challenge that the PRC faces, and that a development strategy anchored on inclusive growth provides an effective approach to addressing this issue. -
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Miss-targeted or Miss-measured?
( 2008) Ravallion, MartinA method is proposed for testing the robustness of the assessed targeting performance of an anti-poverty program to the fact that program administrators have a broader concept of "poverty" than the economist/evaluator. An application is given to China's main urban anti-poverty program.