Suchergebnisse

There has been a change in ideological sentiment on China's involvement in Africa. The paradigm shift has been led by Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo's bestseller, Dead Aid, which gave voice to the possibility of a development model defined by diligent business practices as opposed to the traditional Western model which is driven by foreign aid. If managed prudently the SinoAfrican relationship could prove to be an empowering change for several African governments and provide the foundation for the continent to take its place as a partner in the global economy.

This paper provides an historical analysis of how the growth of Japan's post-World War Two iron ore demand led to the development of the Asian iron ore market. The paper analyses bilateral advantages that geographic closeness provided to Japanese and Australian iron ore traders, and calculates how the bilateral quasi-profits arising from geographic closeness were divided between them.The model estimates that Australia's freight advantage to Japan was worth on average around US$124.8 million per year between 1985 and 2003-over that period iron ore trade between Australia and Japan was worth on average US$909.9 million per year. The freight sharing agreement between Australia and Japan provided US$32.3 million per year of the transport cost differential to Australian exporters, while Japanese importers received the remaining US$92.5 million.Despite the long-run nature of the Australia-Japan bilateral advantage, the development of the Asian iron ore market was influenced by strategic government interventions which aimed to capture shortrun rents. The short-run interventions by the Australian government threatened Japan's market access security and catalysed the development of Brazilian iron ore export capacity, which remains as Australia's largest competitor in the Asian market.

"The Chinese Economic Transformation, the 19th volume in the China Update book series, provides an opportunity for young economists to share their views on various issues relating to the Chinese economic transformation. More than half of the contributors to this book are female scholars. Some of the contributors are rising stars in the studies of the Chinese economy and economic transition, and some only recently received their PhDs and are on their way to establishing themselves in the field of China studies. But they have one thing in common: to passionately observe, study and research what is going on in the Chinese economic transformation during the reform period; and, by so doing, make contributions to the policy debates on, and general understanding of, the Chinese economy.
The chapters in this volume include an in-depth probe into challenges in capital and credit allocation due to financial friction and policy distortions; investigating the causes of growth slow-down in China and suitable policy responses; the evolution of the household registration system and its impact on off-farm employment and the integration of rural and urban labour markets; the growth, scale and characteristics of nonstandard employment; the development of rural e-commerce and its economic impact; innovation performance of listed enterprises in China; financial services liberalisation and its impact on firms' performance; financing support schemes for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the effect on banks' credit allocation to SMEs; the potential costs of US–China trade conflict and ways to mitigate them; gender income gap in China's labour market; causes of blockage of Chinese overseas direct investment and strategies to reduce the probability of encountering obstacles; and the role of state capital in the iron ore boom in Australia.
The great variety of topics in this year's Update allows readers to understand the current shape of the Chinese economy and to think deeply about policies and necessary reforms for future growth and development."