Economics 274 Fall 2018

The United Nations Security Council issued a unanimous condemnation of the nuclear test by North Korea. No matter what the UN releases as its “official” opinion, however, won’t matter if the countries in the UN do not follow through with the overall outlook. Some believe that even after this test, China may still see interest… Continue reading Testing Chinese Support →

I know this is the second post on this subject but I think it is extremely relevant. The 2013 National Intelligence estimate says that China is systematically hacking nearly every sector of the United States economy. As stated in earlier posts, big name companies all across the nation have reported being attacked. Some sources say that this… Continue reading China Systematically Hacking →

As we saw in Country Driving, China’s healthcare system has issues with staffing, payment options, and customer service among other issues. According to a recent article by China Daily, the growing middle class and aging population are beginning to demand better health services including greater access to doctors, cleaner and better-maintained facilities, shorter waiting times, and… Continue reading China’s Healthcare System Opening Up to Foreign Investors →

In March 2000, China introduced the Grain-to-Green program, aimed at converting cultivated land on steep slopes back into forests with the goal of minimizing erosion and mitigating the impact of flooding. It marked one of the largest scale conservation programs of all time. Estimates place land loss into the Yellow and Yangtze rivers to be… Continue reading Term Paper Topic: Grain-to-Green Policy →

For expository purposes, let’s stick with the extreme W. Arthur Lewis assumption of MPL=w=0 in the Chinese countryside by 1990. The list of contributing factors is long: electric pumps; mechanical threshers; chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers; new cultivars; and finally (though post-dating 1990) new rice systems that did away with the need to prepare seedbeds… Continue reading Lewis, China and Slums →

==> Meng, Xin (2012). “Labor Market Outcomes and Reforms in China.” Journal of Economic Perspectives  26:4, pp. 75-102. For your reference, this issue of JEP has the following additional articles on China. All are free to download via the link above. Li, Hongbin, Li, Lei and Xiong, Yanyan (2012). “The End of Cheap Chinese Labor.”… Continue reading Wed 13 Feb Reading →

Recently, a number of US newspapers announced that their security had been compromised by Chinese hackers. Though Beijing has categorically denounced such actions as illegal, many sources point to a notable lack of effort to crack down on such efforts. Moreover, in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, one U.S. lawmaker with experience in… Continue reading China and Cyber-warfare →

America owes $1.2 trillion to the now largest trading nation in the world, with imports and exports for China totaling $3.87 trillion for 2012, barely beating out the United States which had $3.82 trillion in total exports and imports. What is contributing to the massive jump?

  Africa is currently the world’s largest untapped market.  American businesses should be rapidly expanding into Africa, but they are not succeeding.  Why is this?

According to the article “China Trade Tops Forecasts in Holiday-Distored Month” from Bloomberg.com, China has seen a great economic recovery from a year ago. Exports have risen 25% and Imports have increased 28.8% from last year. All signs point to a growing and improving economy from these figures, however they aren’t telling the complete story.… Continue reading China’s Trade Beats Estimates →

Demographics: the latest cohort in China is the smallest since 1960…from a rejoinder by Brad DeLong to a silly mistake by Thomas Friedman of the NYTimes, who compared China, India and Egypt without bothering to look at data… If you expand the graph [click on it!] you’ll see that the biggest cohort is in their… Continue reading Population Growth in China? →

Notorious for stealing body styles, the Chinese automotive industry is quickly becoming the definitive source for unabashed design plagiarism. That’s why Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) recently hired former Ferrari designer Leonardo Fioravanti, albeit as a consultant. Still, it’s an intriguing move that could signal the possibility of some interesting supercars coming from one of the world’s key… Continue reading Chinese Supercars →

Relations between China and Japan have been strained to say the least the past few months. The dispute started back in September when the Japanese government bought land in the Senkakus (Japanese term) or Diaoyu (Chinese term) islands. Both countries claim sovereignty over the islands, and thus this action outraged the Chinese. There were protestors in… Continue reading Chinese-Japanese Tension Escalates →

Chinese demand for fossil fuels is increasing as their economy gains strength. This year, China’s demand for oil is on track to increase nearly 5%. This increase in demand represents an increase in demand of 514 million metric tons of oil. Of this amount of oil, more than half of the amount will be met… Continue reading China’s Increasing Demand for Oil →

With the western economies beginning to rebound, there is a wave of opinion that outsourcing trends will turn back to “insourcing” back in the west.  In President Obama’s inauguration speech, he referenced the need to bring back jobs to our shores.  There are three main arguments that supporters of the trend are citing.  First, China currently has… Continue reading Outsourcing tide is not likely to turn →