This paper examines technical efficiency and its determinants in Chinese manufacturing industries using survey data at the sector level. A stochastic frontier approach is applied to estimate technical efficiency rates for individual sectors. In particular, the empirical analysis focuses on...

When attempting to identify empirical regularities in consumption patterns, their tremendous diversity across countries represents both a major opportunity and challenge. For example, consumers in rich countries devote less than 20 percent of their budget to food, while this rises to more than...

This paper presents an overview of the current situations and reforms in China's telecommunications sector. It particularly focuses on the service areas. The main issues addressed in clude recent growth, organisational structure and reforms, key players and competition, ownership and growth...

China and India have recently achieved spectacular economic growth. However, services in these two Asian giants have played a very different role. In India, the service sector contributes to more than 54 per cent of GDP while its GDP share in China is much smaller (below 41 per cent in 2004). To...

In 2003 China’s energy consumption amounted to 1678 million tonnes coal equivalent (MTCE), making China the world’s second largest consumer behind only the United States. China is now also one of the largest oil importers in the world. With an economy which is expected to maintain a rate of...

This paper investigates the interrelationships between prices on the mainland Chinese share market and those in the neighbouring markets of Hong Kong and Taiwan. While there is a growing literature on interrelationships between share market including the emerging markets in Asia, very little is...

International food consumption has attracted a lot of attention in the literature. In particular, a series of studies have been conducted using the popular International Comparison Project (ICP) databases (released in the 1970s and 1980s). This paper adds to the growing literature by presenting...

Economic growth in China and India has attracted many headlines recently. As a result, the literature comparing the two Asian giants has expanded substantially. This paper adds to the literature by comparing regional growth, disparity and convergence in the two economies. This is the first of...

China has enjoyed high economic growth for three decades since the initiative of economic reform in 1978. This growth has however been driven mainly by labour-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing activities. Has innovation played a role in China’s economic growth? What are the determinants...

Environmental regulation has become more and more important in policy making among the world economies. How has it affected productivity growth and hence economic growth? The answer to this question is either controversial or yet to be explored in many cases. The objective of this paper is to...