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TODAY THE REACH OF CENTRAL POWER IN CHINA IS BEING SERIOUSLY QUESTIONED, AND CONVENTIONAL WISDOM INCREASINGLY ASSERTS THAT THE CURRENT CROP OF CHINESE LEADERS HAS LITTLE CHANCE OF CRAFTING EFFECTIVE NATIONAL GOVERNANCE AFTER DENG ZIAOPING DIES. THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES THE GOVERNABILITY OF CHINA, THE LOSS OF CONTROL THAT NEVER WAS, ONE SYSTEM FOR THIRTY COUNTRIES, AND, CHINESE NATIONALISM. IT CONCLUDES THAT CHINA STANDS A REASONABLE CHANCE OF COMPLETING THE INEVITABLE ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL TRANSITIONS TO MODERNITY IN PEACE AND STABILTIY.

This book is aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of recent developments in sustainability science and engineering. The book focuses on principles and practices and presents 18 interwoven chapters on four major themes: Design for sustainability Sustainability metrics and analysis Sustainable energy Sustainable supply/value Significant, state-of-the-art work, methodologies, practices and plans are presented by researchers, technology developers and industry leaders. Topics discussed include: Life cycle assessment Product end-of-life options Practical approaches to sustainability Environmental footprint assessment Biofuels Sustainable supply chain management The uniqueness of this book lies in the range of topics covered with in-depth analysis and case studies. This book will be of interest to academic and industrial researchers, professionals in corporate and governmental organizations, and others interested in advancing the current state-of-the-art to the next level for the benefit of our global society.

From a data set of Chinese firms in the 200507 period, we find that government investment boosted the performance of zombie firms and crowded out the growth of private firms; we also found that the higher the concentration of state banks (and of state-owned enterprises), the more conducive is the environment for nurturing zombie firms. With the exit of zombie firms, (a) the industrial output growth rate would be higher by 2.12 percentage points, (b) the capital accumulation rate would be higher by 1.4 percentage points, (c) the employment growth rate would be higher by 0.84 percentage points, and (d) the rate total factor productivity growth would be higher by 1.06 percentage points. Our results support a radical change in the way that government investment has been carried out, and support comprehensive reform of the state sector, but they do not necessarily argue against government investment in large infrastructure projects and strategically-critical areas.

© 2016 by the Earth Institute at Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From a data set of Chinese firms in the 200507 period, we find that government investment boosted the performance of zombie firms and crowded out the growth of private firms; we also found that the higher the concentration of state banks (and of state-owned enterprises), the more conducive is the environment for nurturing zombie firms. With the exit of zombie firms, (a) the industrial output growth rate would be higher by 2.12 percentage points, (b) the capital accumulation rate would be higher by 1.4 percentage points, (c) the employment growth rate would be higher by 0.84 percentage points, and (d) the rate total factor productivity growth would be higher by 1.06 percentage points. Our results support a radical change in the way that government investment has been carried out, and support comprehensive reform of the state sector, but they do not necessarily argue against government investment in large infrastructure projects and strategically-critical areas.

We show that an increase in aggregate uncertainty-measured by stock market volatility-reduces productivity growth more in industries that depend heavily on external finance. The mechanism at play is that during periods of high uncertainty, firms that are credit constrained switch the composition of investment by reducing productivity-enhancing investment-such as on ICT capital-which is more subject to liquidity risks (Aghion et al., 2010). The effect is larger during recessions, when financing constraints are more likely to be binding, than during expansions. Our statistical method-a difference-in-difference approach using productivity growth of 25 industries from 18 advanced economies over the period 1985-2010-mitigates concerns with omitted variable bias and reverse causality. The results are robust to the inclusion of other sources of interaction effects, instrumental variable approaches, and different datasets. The results also hold if economic policy uncertainty (Baker et al., 2016) is used instead of stock market volatility as a measure of aggregate uncertainty.