03. Journals

2,963 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/2210

These are journal articles published in World Bank journals as well as externally by World Bank authors.

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Public Procurement, Regional Integration, and the Belt and Road Initiative

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2021-05-21) Ghossein, Tania ; Hoekman, Bernard

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a mechanism through which countries can upgrade connectivity-related infrastructure, including through cross-border projects, complementing traditional sources of finance. An overarching goal of the BRI is to reduce trade costs between China and partner countries, in part by helping to integrate regional markets. The large-scale borrowing associated with BRI projects has given rise to potential debt servicing and sustainability concerns. The rate of return of BRI regional infrastructure projects depends in part on the integrity of public procurement processes and realizing value-for-money objectives. To date BRI projects financed by Chinese institutions have been largely awarded to Chinese companies. Enhancing transparency of BRI procurement processes and international cooperation among countries participating in the BRI would help achieve value for money goals and support the integration of BRI countries.
Land Asset Securitization: An Innovative Approach to Distinguish between Benefit-sharing and Compensation in Hydropower Development

(Taylor and Francis, 2020-08-08) Shi, Guoqing ; Shang, Kai

Development Project (DP) is creating the benefits for all and taking benefit-sharing (BS) as a goal. BS involves paying something above the fair market compensation or replacement value of the assets lost in the displacement and resettlement. BS becomes more important and complicated when the lost assets are not transacted as commodities in a market. BS is a key to resolve the challenges on impoverishment caused development induced displacement and resettlement globally. An innovated BS approach and methodology for land asset securitization (LAS) is proposed. It takes occupied lands as capital investment in the DP rather than for displaced assets’ compensation only based on natural resources transfer theory. LAS takes the approach in lands resourcing, land resources capitalization and land assets securitization. It establishes the mechanism to arrange additional benefits for resettlers. It enables rural resettlers to receive appropriate compensation to sustain basic livelihoods at the DP construction and early commercial operation stage as well as share profits equally during full operation. LAS will prevent either the hydropower developer or the government from having interests in securitized assets. LAS is a sustainable approach to promote win-win among resettlers, developers, governments, and civil society.
The Impact of Positive Agricultural Income Shocks on Rural Chinese Households

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2020-02) Leight, Jessica

In the post-collectivization period, rural Chinese households were required to sell part of their grain output to the state at a below-market price; however, increases in this quota price beginning in 1993 generated substantial positive income shocks. These income shocks also varied cross-sectionally in accordance with crop composition given that quotas were systematically larger for rice-producing households, generating a quasi-random source of variation in the size of the shock driven by climatic variation in suitability for rice cultivation. Households induced to experience relatively larger income shocks show evidence of decreased agricultural investment, increased investment in non-agricultural businesses, and increased migration as households gain increased income, consistent with the hypothesis that credit constraints may have constrained some households from entering non-agricultural production ex ante. In addition, there is evidence that these households were concentrated among households who had not previously diversified out of agriculture.
Property Rights Reform to Support China’s Rural-Urban Integration: Village-Level Evidence from the Chengdu Experiment

(Wiley, 2019-05-27) Deininger, Klaus ; Jin, Songqing ; Liu, Shouying ; Shao, Ting ; Xia, Fang

As part of a national experiment, in 2008, Chengdu prefecture launched a series of property rights reforms, among them complete registration of all land and measures to ease transferability and eliminate labour market restrictions. A comparison of villages inside and outside the prefecture's border using a difference‐in‐difference approach suggests that the reforms have reduced administrative reallocations; aligned land use closer to economic incentives, mainly through market transfers; and stimulated enterprise startups. These results, most of which are more pronounced for villages closer to Chengdu city, illuminate the potential gains from factor market reform. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions. https://authorservices.wiley.com/author-resources/Journal-Authors/licensing/self-archiving.html
Why Is China Investing in Africa? Evidence from the Firm Level

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-10) Chen, Wenjie ; Dollar, David ; Tang, Heiwai

China’s increased trade with, and investment in, Africa have boosted the continent’s economic growth but have also generated considerable controversy. The aggregate data on China’s overseas direct investment (ODI) in African countries reveal that China’s share of the stock of foreign investment is small, though growing rapidly. China’s attraction to resource-rich countries is no different from Western investment. China’s overall ODI is uncorrelated with a measure of rule of law, whereas Western investment favors the better governance environments. As a result, Chinese investment in strong and weak governance environments is about the same, but its share of foreign investment is higher in the weak governance states. Micro data from MOFCOM’s database on registered Chinese firms investing in Africa between 1998 and 2012 provide a different perspective. Key words in project descriptions are used to code the investments into 25 sectors. This database captures the small and medium private firms investing in Africa. Contrary to common perceptions, there are few projects in natural resource sectors. Most projects are in services, with a significant number in manufacturing as well. Country-sector-level regressions based on firms’ transaction-level data find that Chinese ODI, both horizontal and vertical, is profit-driven, like investment from other countries. In particular, regressions show that Chinese ODI is relatively more concentrated in skill-intensive sectors in skill-abundant countries but in capital-intensive sectors in capital-scarce countries. These patterns are mostly observed in politically unstable countries, suggesting stronger incentives to seek profits in tougher environments.
Strategic Reassurance in Institutional Contests: Explaining China's Creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

(Taylor and Francis, 2018-07-05) Chen, Zheng ; Liu, Yanchuan

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has been widely conceived as a Chinese effort to promote reforms of global financial governance. While the existing literature of contested multilateralism tends to focus on the problem of threat credibility, this article highlights the necessity of strategic reassurance in institutional contests. To facilitate incremental reforms of the existing order, rising powers like China need not only to pose credible challenge towards established institutions, but also to demonstrate their benign intentions and commitment to future cooperation. Besides revealing strength and resolve, the creation of a new multilateral regime helps rising powers to signal their self-restraints and reassure other powers. Consequently, the institutional configuration of new multilateral organizations involves a trade-off between the dual needs for threats and reassurance. Chinese behaviors in creating the AIIB can be explained through this framework.
Empowering Cities: Good for Growth? Evidence from the People's Republic of China

(The MIT Press, 2018-03) Mukim, Megha ; Zhu, T. Juni

This paper utilizes a countrywide process of county-to-city upgrading in the 1990s to identify whether extending the powers of urban local governments leads to better firm outcomes. The paper hypothesizes that since local leaders in newly promoted cities have an incentive to utilize their new administrative remit to maximize gross domestic product and employment, there should be improvements in economic outcomes. In fact, aggregate firm-level outcomes do not necessarily improve after county-to-city graduation. However, state-owned enterprises perform better after graduation, with increased access to credit through state-owned banks as a possible explanation. Importantly, newly promoted cities with high capacity generally produce better aggregate firm outcomes compared with newly promoted cities with low capacity. The conclusions are twofold. First, relaxing credit constraints for firms could lead to large increases in their operations and employment. Second, increasing local government's administrative remit is not enough to lead to better firm and economic outcomes; local capacity is of paramount importance.
Gender Patterns of Eldercare in China

(Taylor and Francis, 2018-03) Chen, Xinxin ; Giles, John ; Wang, Yafeng ; Zhao, Yaohui

Using the baseline wave of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), collected from 2011 to 2012, this study finds that among those age 60 and above, women are 7.6 percent more likely than men to have care needs and 29.3 percent more likely than men to have unmet needs; and that most of the gender gap in unmet needs is explained by the existence and health status of a spouse. Further analysis reveals a sharp gender division in patterns of family care in China. While men are more likely to receive care from their wives, women are primarily cared for by their children. Marital status and spouse health also affect provision of care, with infirm women who have healthy husbands less likely to receive care than infirm men with healthy wives. The findings have important implications for designing gender-sensitive policies in eldercare.
Migrant Labor Markets and the Welfare of Rural Households in the Developing World: Evidence from China

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-02-01) de Brauw, Alan ; Giles, John

Increased ability to migrate from China’s rural villages contributed to significant increases in the consumption per capita of both non-durable and durable goods, and these effects were larger in magnitude for households that were relatively poor before the easing of restrictions to migration. With increased out-migration, poorer households invested more in housing and durable goods than rich households,while richer households invested significantly more in non-agricultural production assets. As migration became easier, increased participation in migrant employment was greater among poorer households on both the extensive and intensive margins, and poorer households reduced labor days in agriculture.
The Impact of Rural Pensions in China on Labor Migration

(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2018-02-01) Eggleston, Karen ; Sun, Ang ; Zhan, Zhaoguo

We study the impact of China’s new rural pension program on promoting migration of labor by applying a regression discontinuity analysis to this new pension program. The results reveal a perceptible difference in labor migration among adult children whose parents are just above and below the age of pension eligibility: The adult children with a parent just attaining the pension-eligible age are more likely to be labor migrants compared with those with a parent just below the pension-eligible age. We also find that with a pension-eligible parent, the adult children are more likely to have off-farm jobs. These abrupt changes in household behavior at the cutoff suggest that these households are credit constrained. In addition, we find that the pension’s effect on migration is greater among adult children with a parent in poor health; pension-eligible elderly report that they are more likely to use inpatient services when needed and less likely to rely on adult children for care when they are ill. These results suggest that (expectations regarding) providing care for elderly parents has constrained labor migration from China's rural areas to some extent, and that the new rural pension program has helped to relax this constraint.