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Full-Text Articles in Economics

Pre-Commitment Vs. Flexibility : Uncertainty And Distribution Reform In P.R. China, Kong Wing, Clement Chow Dec 1996

Pre-Commitment Vs. Flexibility : Uncertainty And Distribution Reform In P.R. China, Kong Wing, Clement Chow

Hong Kong Institute of Business Studies Working Paper Series

The Chinese economic reform is remarkably different from the East European reforms in which the Chinese model emphasizes competition over privatization. This paper explains why the Chinese distribution reform is successful, although the Chinese government has made no attempt in privatizing her inefficient state-owned enterprises. By extending Coughlan's (1 985) price competition model to endogenize the pre-commitment versus flexibility decision, it is shown that reducing uncertainty can encourage enterprises to pre-commit their investment which allows further development of the retail sectors. This results supports the gradual pace of distribution reform policy of China. By contrast, the 'renolutionary' East European model …


Wage Subsidies As A Labour Market Policy Tool, Lok Sang Ho Jan 1996

Wage Subsidies As A Labour Market Policy Tool, Lok Sang Ho

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

In this paper, the author argues that the wage subsidy is a valuable policy tool in the face of structural changes such as would result from the removal of tariffs, or in the face of a need to assist the disadvantaged or redress distributional inequity. After discussing wage subsidies that target at specific segments of the population, which has the potential to improve both static and dynamic efficiency, the author goes on to discuss and contrast his universal wage subsidy proposal with the negative income tax and the minimum wage legislation, all of which are designed mainly for distributional purposes.


Export Competitiveness Of China And Asean In The Us Market, Thomas J. Voon Jan 1996

Export Competitiveness Of China And Asean In The Us Market, Thomas J. Voon

CAPS Working Paper Series

This paper aims to provide a comparison of the changing pattern of export competitiveness among China and the four ASEAN countries comprising Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand (hereafter ASEAN-4) as exporters of primary commodities, labour-intensive goods as well as technology-intensive manufactures in the US market. Competitiveness is defined as country A’s ability to gain market share on a common export destination (such as the US import market). There are many popssible factors contributing to the changing level of competitiveness of a trading country. In this paper, we confine our analyss to evaluating how important relative changes in real exchange rate, …