Each institutional arrangement in a financial system has both advantages and disadvantages in mobilizing savings, allocating capital, diversifying risks, and processing information when facilitating financial transactions. Meanwhile, the factor endowment in an economy at each stage of its...

This paper proposes a demand-side theory on the appropriate financial structure for an economy. As argued in the new structural economics, the factor endowment structure in an economy determines its optimal industrial structure. Firms operating in different industries and applying different...

With panel data for 28 Chinese provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) during 1985–2002, this paper assesses the effect of banking structure on economic growth. Banking structure is defined as the relative importance of banks of different size in the banking sector. The market share of...

China’s energy needs and its environment are facing great challenges because of the country’s rapid urbanization and industrialization. It is China’s strategic choice to exploit renewable energy to guarantee its energy security and reduce CO2 emissions. Crop residue has been identified and...

Food availability decline and Sen's entitlement are two leading approaches in understanding causes of famine. Previous research based on case studies has given independent support to each approach. This paper analyses the Chinese famine of 1959-61 by considering jointly the urban bias and the...

Deflationary expansion has puzzled economists both in and outside China. We study this business cycles phenomenon within a model of discrete time dynamics. We find that deflationary expansion could be possible if driven by an overshooting in investment and if the state of the economy maintains...

African countries are facing great opportunities but also formidable challenges in accelerating economic growth and sustaining a high level of economic performance. The experiences of East Asian countries may offer valuable insights for African leaders an