The main goal of this diploma thesis is to map the development of China's competitiveness in the period from 1970's to the present and to outline the development of the economy in the next 2 decades. The simplified view of the Chinese competitiveness is used in the thesis, which means that we can identify 2 strategies aimed at the development of the Chinese competitiveness. The first chapter contains a definition of term competitiveness and introduces the way of its measurement. The first strategy was applied in China in the period 1978-2005 and is described in the 2nd, 3rd and the 4th chapter. The main goal of these 3 chapters is to describe the reforms adopted by the government and to evaluate the impacts of these reform measures on pillars of the Chinese competitiveness. The latest strategy is described in the last chapter and a special attention is paid to the reform measures aimed at boosting China's innovation performance.

This dissertation consists of three chapters related to macroeconomic implications of financial frictions, along with an application of macro-finance models to the Chinese economy. The first two chapters focus on government guarantees on business loans to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), a typical practice of the Chinese government. Chapter 1 embeds partial loan guarantees into the loan contracting problem, built upon the costly state verification framework. A larger degree of guarantees dampens the sensitivity of the loan rate to a change in leverage, which incentivizes entrepreneurs to lever up. Also, greater guarantees reduce entrepreneurs' exposures to credit risks, hence altering their choices of investment and leverage in response to an exogenous risk shock. Chapter 2 proceeds to develop a New Keynesian dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model and investigates the effect of government guarantees on capital misallocation and business cycle fluctuations in China. On one hand, government guarantees mitigate the influence of the financial accelerator mechanism on investment and production of both SOEs and private-owned enterprises (POEs). On the other hand, by inducing a time-varying dispersion in returns on capital across SOEs and POEs, government guarantees exert a negative impact on the allocative efficiency of resources and thus cause further losses on total factor productivity (TFP) and output during recessions. Quantitative analyses show that partial loan guarantees to SOEs are counterproductive in moderating the reaction of GDP to both risk and technology shocks. Chapter 3 develops a DSGE model with financial constraints on entrepreneurs and banks, featuring a risk-based bank capital requirement, and discusses the role of Basel II in reinforcing procyclical tendencies of the credit market and the real economy. I study impulse responses of the calibrated model to various shocks. Quantitative results show that the direction and magnitude of cyclical effects arising from Basel II strongly depend on the nature of macroeconomic shocks that hit the economy: only a risk shock can generate noticeable procyclical effect, while the procyclicality under a TFP shock and the countercyclicality under a shock to the marginal efficiency of investment (MEI) are quantitatively insignificant.

Thesis advisor: Zhijie Xiao / This paper attempts to deliver a side-by-side examination of the similarities and differences between the economies of East Asia (Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea Republic, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) and China. After the devastating 1997 Crisis, many investing eyes have turned to China as the next Asian growth engine. China has been opening its economy to foreign investors and its accession into the World Trade Organization will push for increased transparency and efficiency. The paper discusses the internal and external forces that drove the economies, with focused attention on its financial systems, using pre-crisis data. With foreign banks allowed entry into China by the end of 2006, its financial system will be an important component in economic longevity. Lastly, the question of whether or not China is vulnerable to a crisis is assessed based on the same factors that caused it in East Asia. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

L’émergence rapide de la Chine s’est accompagnée d’une hausse considérable des inégalités, qui a entrainé de profondes mutations touchant à la fois la structure de l’économie et celle de la société chinoise. L’objectif de cette thèse est de fournir une meilleure compréhension de la diversité de ces transformations, en combinant les analyses macro et microéconomique, et les approches économique et sociologique. Ce travail mobilise tout d’abord des données provinciales afin de dresser un état des lieux du niveau d’inégalités régionales et de la concentration spatiale de la richesse. La récente baisse des disparités régionales peut, entre autres, s’expliquer par l’existence d’effets de diffusion de la croissance entre les différentes provinces chinoises. Par la suite, l’étude est complétée par l’utilisation de données issues d’enquêtes-ménages. L’analyse de la polarisation des revenus en zones urbaines et rurales permet de faire ressortir des modifications dans leur distribution, notamment en mettant en évidence la constitution de groupes de revenus intermédiaires. Une étude approfondie de la classe moyenne urbaine chinoise est ensuite menée afin d’en identifier les membres sur la base du revenu, et de montrer l’hétérogénéité de cette catégorie en termes d’emploi et d’éducation. Enfin, à partir de l’exemple des comportements de consommation alimentaire et du rapport social au corps, le rôle précurseur de la classe moyenne dans la transition nutritionnelle est mis en avant. Au final, la classe moyenne chinoise apparaît comme une catégorie centrale pour la poursuite du développement du pays. / The rapid emergence of China has been accompanied by a significant increase in inequalities, resulting in profound changes affecting both the economic and social structures of China. The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to provide a better understanding of the diversity of these transformations, by combining macro and microeconomic analyses, together with economic and sociological approaches. Firstly, this research mobilizes provincial data in order to give a general overview of the level of regional disparities and of the spatial concentration of wealth. The recent decline in regional disparities can, among other things, be explained by the existence of growth spillover effects between Chinese provinces. Subsequently, the study is supplemented by the use of household survey data. The analysis of income polarization in rural and urban areas allows to highlight some shifts in its distribution, emphasizing in particular the constitution of population clusters in intermediate income ranges. An intensive investigation on the Chinese urban middle class is thereafter conducted so as to identify its members on an income-based definition, and to underline the heterogeneity of this category regarding employment and education. Finally, based on the example of food consumption and social attitude towards body weight, the vanguard role of middle class in the nutrition transition is highlighted. To conclude, the Chinese middle class appears to be a central category to ensure the further development of China.

In the current literature on productivity and economic growth, many studies have explored the relationship between information and communications technology (ICT) and growth. In these studies, ICT capital stock is treated as an individual input in the production process that contributes to output growth. In fact, ICT is found to be a key driver of productivity growth in the developed economies. However, few empirical studies deal with China which has in recent years become one of the world's largest ICT markets and production centres. The lack of empirical work in this field contrasts sharply with the wealth of literature which presents background and descriptive studies of China's high technology sectors that include the telecommunications, the computer and the Internet sectors. This dissertation attempts to fill the void in the literature by examining the role of ICT in China's economy over the past two decades. It aims to develop a framework which emphasizes ICT as a production factor and apply it to interpret China's economic growth. The dissertation contributes to the empirical literature by focusing on the following core aspects underlying the linkage between ICT and economic growth. First, it attempts to estimate the size of China's ICT capital stock using the perpetual inventory method. Second, based on such estimates, the dissertation measures the contribution of ICT to China's economic growth by means of a production function model that segregates ICT from all other forms of capital. Third, the dissertation examines the impact of ICT on technical efficiency in China's regions by applying a stochastic frontier model. Lastly, the dissertation looks at the demand aspect of the ICT industry by estimating and projecting demand for ICT services, namely, the telecommunications and computer markets in China. According to this study, ICT capital is found to be a positive driver for the Chinese economy, and is responsible for about 25% of the country's economic growth, although the percentage varies at different periods. ICT capital is also found to have a positive and significant impact on technical efficiency in the Chinese regions. However, the disparity between the coastal and inland regions in terms of technical efficiency scores is found to be very wide, due to the bulk of ICT investment going into the municipal cities and coastal provinces. It is also found that China may be facing the beginning of a period of strong productivity growth driven by increased investment in ICT, especially innovative investment. Furthermore, projections of demand show that the majority of Chinese citizens will have access to a fixed-line telephone or the mobile phone in five years from now, while about half of the Chinese population is expected to use the computer by 2010.

This thesis deals with issues concerning entry of a Czech company to the Chinese market. The first chapter is devoted to the development of the Chinese economy from the establishment of the People's Republic of China to the present. The second chapter describes China's trade with the European Union, the United States and the Czech Republic. China's membership in the WTO is mentioned here as well. The third chapter analyses characteristics of the Chinese market in more detail: safeguard measures, perspective industries, forms of entry, advertising and business customs. It is completed with a subchapter about the company Chemoprojekt, a.s. which is already present in the Chinese market for a longer time.

China has gone through a phase of rapid economic development in the last four decades. The country is the world’s biggest economy, measured in GDP purchasing power parity terms, and the largest trading nation in terms of the total sum of exports and imports of merchandise trade. With the launch of the century’s largest infrastructure project – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – by Xi Jinping in 2013, China is planning to revive the Ancient Silk Roads in order to gain geopolitical power beyond Asia. Thus far, huge flows of FDI have already made their way from China to countries along the Belt and Road, especially the ones in need of additional infrastructure provision. In this paper, the effect of Chinese outward FDI on economic growth in the BRI economies through infrastructure development is examined, thereby conducting a cross-country analysis with panel data for 34 and 27 countries, respectively, over the period 2005–2017. The direct effect of Chinese FDI on economic growth in BRI countries is ambiguous, supporting previous literature on FDI and economic growth. When adding infrastructure indicators to the regressions and accounting for the endogeneity problem, the effect of Chinese FDI on economic growth changes but remains insignificant, nevertheless. This is most likely due to the reduced sample sizes, on the one hand, and the fact that Chinese construction contracts play a bigger role than actual FDI in the BRI.

A l'occasion du trentième anniversaire de la transition économique de la Chine, ma thèse traite de plusieurs aspects de l'intégration du marché intérieur chinois au cours de cette époque passionnante. Le chapitre 1 donne d’abord un aperçu des réformes institutionnelles visant à renforcer le contrôle d’Etat à l’égard des affaires régionales et promouvoir l’intégration du marché chinois entreprises depuis 1978. Des faits stylisés récents de la protection locale révélés par une enquête sont ensuite illustrés. Le chapitre 2 présente une revue rapide de la littérature relative à l’intégration économique entre régions chinoises. En général, ces travaux peuvent être regroupés en six volets principaux: similarité de la structure de production; convergence des prix; synchronisation des cycles d’activité; commerce domestique; mobilité inter-régionale des capitaux ; et migration interne. Le chapitre 3 étudie le commerce domestique en Chine. Dans l’esprit de McCallum (1995), nous montrons qu’en contrôlant diverses variables gravitationnelles classiques, les flux commerciaux à l’intérieur d’une province sont 23 à 28 fois plus intenses que les flux inter-provinciaux pendant la période 1992-2003. Ces résultats donnent une indication de la fragmentation du marché des marchandises entre provinces chinoises. Néanmoins, à partir des régressions par sous-période, ces barrières commerciales liées aux frontières provinciales ont connu un déclin manifeste depuis le milieu des années 90. Le chapitre 4 se penche sur la mobilité et l’efficacité allocative des capitaux entre les provinces chinoises. Tout d’abord, nous mettons en évidence que les taux d’épargne et d’investissement provinciaux sont significativement corrélés durant la période 1978-2006. Selon l’argument de Feldstein et Horioka (1980), ces résultats s’interprètent comme une indication de faible mobilité inter-provinciale des capitaux. De surcroît, en détectant la causalité entre l’investissement agrégé et le revenu provinciaux, nous établissons l’efficacité médiocre de l’affectation des capitaux au sein de Chine. Le chapitre 5 porte sur les migrations des mains-d’œuvre entre les régions chinoises. Après une brève présentation des réformes du système de hukou, nous proposons un modèle expliquant les différentiels de salaire avec l’indicateur de frontière provinciale. A partir des statistiques enregistrées par ville et par secteur, nous montrons que la dispersion salariale à l’intérieur d’une province est significativement moins prononcée que la dispersion inter-provinciale durant la période de 2003-2005, toutes choses égales d’ailleurs. Selon la loi du prix unique, telles distorsions liées aux frontières provinciales suggèrent une faible mobilité des mains-d’œuvre entre les provinces chinoises. / On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of China’s economic transition, this thesis deals with several facets of the integration of Chinese domestic market over such an exciting era. Chapter 1 discusses first a variety of institutional reforms aimed at reinforcing the central control over regional affairs and improving the integration of domestic market. Several stylised facts about the local protectionism, which come from a recent survey implemented by a respected institution, are also illustrated in the chapter. Chapter 2 offers a brief review of the literature relative to China’s internal integration. Generally speaking, the studies have proceeded along six major lines: similarity of production structure, price convergence, synchronization of business cycles, domestic trade linkages, interregional capital mobility and population migration. Chapter 3 examines the trade pattern within China. In the spirit of McCallum (1995), we find that after controlling for various traditional gravity factors, the trade flows within a Chinese province are 23 to 28 times as dense as those between provinces over the period of 1992-2003. Such findings suggest a highly fragmented product market within China. A trend toward market integration is, however, derived from the evolution analysis. The regressions by sub-period samples show that since the mid-1990s, the magnitudes of border effects have exhibited a dramatic decline. Chapter 4 investigates the capital mobility and capital allocation efficiency among Chinese provinces. We show first that the provincial savings and investment rates are significantly and positively correlated over the period of 1978-2006. According to the Feldstein-Horioka’s argument (1980), this relationship can be interpreted as evidence of low capital mobility. Furthermore, by testing the causality between provincial aggregate investment and income, we fail to provide consistent evidence to support the hypothesis of efficient capital allocation in China. Chapter 5 addresses the labor force migration among Chinese regions. After a short introduction of reforms of hukou system, we derive a simple wage gap equation including education level, market potential and provincial border indicator as explaining variables. In using city and sector-level data, we find that other things being equal, the wage dispersions within provincial borders are significantly less pronounced than those among provinces over the period of 2003-2005. According to the law of one price, such findings imply a weak mobility of labor force among provinces.

Cette thèse approfondit les distorsions et frictions créant la mauvaise allocation du capital dans les pays émergents, c’est à dire une accumulation de capital hétérogène entre secteurs privé et public, une épargne excessive (des ménages et des entreprises), et le ralentissement de l’investissement dans certains secteurs. Le premier chapitre montre, à travers un modèle dynamique d’équilibre général comprenant différents types d’entreprises, que dans l’économie Chinoise, l’allocation de l’épargne des ménages vers les entreprises publiques (SOEs) par le système bancaire a une portée à la fois domestique et internationale. Tout d’abord, elle permet d’expliquer en grande partie la configuration des flux de capitaux en Chine : malgré la forte croissance de sa productivité globale des facteurs, la Chine observe une forte accumulation de réserves de change tandis que l’entrée d’ Investissements Directs Etrangers (IDE) est importante. En outre, en canalisant l’épargne des ménages vers les SOEs, cette allocation du capital explique également, dans ce modèle, la chute de la consommation (qui est un problème actuel majeur de la transition Chinoise). Des frictions supplémentaires sont introduites dans le modèle, comme la privatisation, l’expropriation du capital, l’aléa moral et les contrôles de capitaux, jouant également un rôle significatif dans l’apparition des déséquilibres de l’économie Chinoise. Le deuxième chapitre se concentre sur la distorsion ayant joué un rôle clé dans la mauvaise allocation du capital de l’économie Chinoise, le biais de crédit en faveur des SOEs, et étend son analyse aux autres pays émergents en se focalisant sur les entrées d’IDE. L’étude est empirique avec des approches globale et sectorielle, s’appuyant sur différentes méthodologies appliquées à deux échantillons de pays émergents. L’augmentation de la distribution de crédit aux SOEs, au détriment des entreprises privées, ralentit l’augmentation des entrées d’IDE, spécifiquement dans les secteurs manufacturiers. En effet, ces derniers ont une dépendance aux financements externes élevée et la part d’entreprises privées est plus importante que dans les secteurs tertiaires. Afin de corriger les déséquilibres de l’économie Chinoise analysés dans le cadre théorique du premier chapitre, le troisième chapitre propose un système fiscal constitué de taxes hétérogènes entre les différents types d’entreprises en Chine (SOEs, firmes privées domestiques et étrangères), ainsi que de taxes sur les revenus des ménages et sur les remboursements de crédits. Les réformes visent la diminution du surinvestissement de la plupart des entreprises, une plus forte consommation, et la maximisation du bien-être. Certaines réformes imposent des taxes plus élevées dans les entreprises publiques, permettant notamment une réallocation de la force de travail vers les entreprises privées domestiques et étrangères. De plus, l’ajustement des coûts des facteurs de production (travail et capital) entre les secteurs privé et public, et entre les entreprises domestiques et étrangères, est parfois nécessaire pendant les réformes appliquées dans ce modèle. Ces réformes pour la hausse de la consommation et la baisse de l’investissement apportent aux ménages des bénéfices en terme de bien-être, et le rééquilibrage de la demande intérieure ne requiert pas nécessairement d’ajustement de la position financière extérieure. Enfin, la thèse se termine par une extension du modèle précédent, avec des rigidités nominales et des taxes sur la consommation de biens étrangers et domestiques appliquées pendant les réformes ciblant une hausse de la consommation. / This thesis deepens the distortions and frictions creating the misallocation of capital in emerging economies, that is, an heterogeneous capital accumulation between private and public sectors, excessive savings rates (both household and corporate), and the slowdown of investment in certain sectors.The first chapter shows, through a dynamic general equilibrium model comprising various types of firms, that in the Chinese economy, the allocation of household savings to State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) by the banking system has domestic and international consequences.First, this allocation explains to a large extent the configuration of capital flows in China: despite its high total factor productivity growth, China observes an accumulation of foreign reserves while inward Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are massive. Moreover, by channeling household savings toward SOEs, this allocation of capital also explains, in the model, the drop in consumption (which is a current major issue of the Chinese transition). Additional frictions are introduced in the model, such as privatization, capital expropriation, moral hazard and capital controls, which have a significant effect on the emergence of the Chinese economy’s imbalances.The second chapter focuses on the key distortion at the origin of the capital misallocation in the Chinese economy, the credit bias in favor of SOEs, and extends the study to the other emerging economies by analyzing the effect on inward FDI. The work is empirical, with global and sectoral approaches, relying on different methodologies applied to two samples of emerging economies. The increase in credit distribution to SOEs, to the detriment of private firms, slows the increase in inward FDI, specifically in manufacturing sectors. Indeed, the latter have a high external financial dependence and the share of private firms is larger than in tertiary sectors.So as to correct the imbalances that are analyzed in the theoretical framework of the first chapter, the third chapter proposes a fiscal system that is constituted of heterogeneous taxes between the different types of firms in China (SOEs, private domestic and foreign firms), and of taxes on household incomes and loan repayments. These reforms aim at decreasing the overinvestment of most firms, enhancing consumption, and maximizing welfare. Certain reforms include a higher taxation of state-owned firms, which leads to a reallocation of the labor force toward private domestic and foreign firms. Moreover, the adjustment of production factor costs (labor and capital) between private an public sectors, and between domestic and foreign firms, is necessary for certain reforms applied in this model. These reforms that increase consumption and reduce the investment rate bring welfare benefits to households, and the readjustment of the external financial position is not necessary to the domestic rebalancing of the economy. Finally, the thesis ends with an extension of the previous model, which includes nominal rigidities and heterogeneous consumption taxes across home and foreign goods during the reforms that increase the consumption ratio.

Le développement des contenus vidéo en ligne ont changé l’environnement de l’internet et des médias jusqu’à devenir une partie de notre vie quotidienne. Cependant, le développement de cette industrie est contraint par plusieurs problèmes, tels que la faible valeur de la publicité, le manque de rentabilité et les litiges de droit d’auteur. Des recherches scientifiques sont à mener se concentrant sur les modes de revenu des plateformes de diffusion et le fonctionnement du marché.Ma thèse mène dans un premier temps une description détaillée de marché des contenus vidéo en ligne en Chine. J’analyse les caractéristiques du marché à l’aide de la théorie des marchés bifaces. Puis la thèse examine les modes de tarification, construit un modèle de marchés bifaces différenciée verticalement, et explore la stratégie de prix optimal dans les différents modes et le choix optimal du mode de fixation des prix. Ensuite, je construis un modèle de concurrence avec la différenciation horizontale avec différents choix d’accès des annonceurs. La thèse explore de manière centrale les modes de transaction et les comportements des entreprises entre les fournisseurs de contenu et la plateforme ainsi que l’équilibre du marché.La thèse procède à une description détaillée du mécanisme de revenus et le fonctionnement de l’industrie des contenus vidéo en ligne basé sur la théorie des marchés bifaces et les caractéristiques de cette industrie émergente. Selon les résultats de la modélisation mathématique, l’analyse conclut par des suggestions à destination des plateformes et de cette industrie adaptées aux caractéristiques chinoises. / The appearance and following flourish of online video content have changed the Internet environment and media ecology of information era, which even become part of our life every day. However, the development of online video content industry is persecuted by several problems, such as lower advertising value, lack of profitability and constant copyright disputes. Specific research on the revenue modes of online video content platform and the operating mechanism of online video content market is essential.I conduct a detailed description for present China’s online video content market at first and then analyze the market characteristics using two-sided market theory. Next the thesis examines the exiting price modes, constructs a model of two-sided vertically differentiated markets, and explore the optimal pricing strategy under the different modes and the optimal choice of pricing mode. Then the thesis constructs a horizontal differentiated model of market competition under the different accessing choices of advertisers. The thesis intensively explores the transaction mode and business behavior between content providers and content platform on the accessing ways and market equilibrium.The dissertation conducts a detailed description of the revenue and operation mechanism for online video content industry based on the theory of two-sided markets and the characteristics of this emerging fresh industry. According to the analysis results concluded by the mathematical modeling, corresponding policy suggestions confirming to the online video content market with Chinese characteristics would be proposed from the perspectives of platform operation and whole industry.