Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Globalization, Unemployment, And Excess Capacity : A Model And A Conjecture, Lok Sang Ho

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

Using a theoretical model with an industrial world trading with a developing world and assuming no impediment to capital flows, it is shown that an abundant supply of unskilled labor will render real wages for the unskilled close to the subsistence level and will result in excess capacity. The rate of return for traditional manufacturing investment at the margin will decline so funds will seek to invest in financial assets and real property, boosting their prices. Under reasonable assumptions about the income elasticity and the price elasticity of demand for manufacturing products in rich and poor countries, it is shown …

Privatization Of Public Housing : Did It Cause The 1998 Recession In Hong Kong?, Lok Sang Ho, Wai Chung, Gary Wong

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

This paper finds evidence that a public housing privatization program produced adverse effects on housing transactions and the economy in Hong Kong. A scheme announced in December 1997, offering tenants an opportunity to buy their units at deeply discounted prices, reduced public housing tenants’ bids for private homes and adversely affected home transactions. This effect is more pronounced than the effects of the Asian Financial Crisis. An effect on housing prices is also indirectly demonstrated though a demonstration that a structural break in the housing price relationship occurred at the time the privatization program is introduced. Declines in housing prices …

The Economic Challenges For The New Chinese Leadership, Yue Ma, Ping Wang

CAPS Working Paper Series

"The Impact of China's Accession to the WTO" 中國入世後的初步分析

This paper will first review the early concerns about China's entry to the WTO. Then we will evaluate the preliminary impact of the WTO membership on the Chinese economy, which turned out to be better than expected. We also discuss the current international debate on the Chinese currency renminbi revaluation and suggest that a gradual improvement of the current Chinese rigid exchange rate system will be inevitable.

Finally we will explore the potential problems and challenges to both economies of mainland China and Hong Kong in the future. We argue that …