Economic Analysis of China's Third Industry (Part 1, Part 2)

Author: Li Jiangfan, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-10-01
Features: This book is the final research outcome of the National Social Science Research "Nineth Five-Year Plan" major project "Research on the Current Status and Development Strategy of China's Tertiary Industry." It is an outstanding academic monograph on the economic analysis of China's tertiary industry, authored by the renowned Chinese tertiary industry expert Professor Li Jiangfan and his postgraduate students (Master's and Doctoral candidates) and young faculty members after years of scientific research and development. Based on the theoretical foundation of tertiary industry economics, the book systematically analyzes the human, financial, material inputs and cost of China's tertiary industry, as well as the quantity and quality of service output. It also examines key issues such as the tertiary industry, service markets, urbanization, industrial linkage, and spillover effects, as well as opening-up. The book comprises approximately 700,000 words and consists of 10 research reports, including:
- Analysis of Labor in China's Tertiary Industry
- Investment Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Intermediate Consumption Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Cost Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Output Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Quality Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Market Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry and Urbanization
- Input-Output Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry
- Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry and Opening-Up
This book adopts strong empirical, dynamic, and forward-looking scientific research methods, conducting a systematic and comprehensive study of the development of China's tertiary industry. It proposes a series of innovative insights and targeted policy recommendations regarding the development of China's tertiary industry, holding significant practical implications for guiding macroeconomic management of the sector.
[Preface] Over a decade ago, as the Secretary-General of the Sun Yefang Economic Science Award Foundation Committee, I wrote a preface for the reprint of Professor Li Jiangfan's Economics of the Tertiary Industry upon its winning the Fourth Sun Yefang Economic Science Book Award. Now, I am also delighted to write a preface for Economic Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry, the final research outcome of the National Social Science Research "Nineth Five-Year Plan" major project led by Professor Li Jiangfan. Professor Li Jiangfan has been dedicated to tertiary industry research since 1980, achieving remarkable accomplishments. His Economics of the Tertiary Industry, with its innovative structural system, fresh academic perspectives, rigorous scientific arguments, and self-contained theoretical logic, pioneered the study of the tertiary industry in China's economic research field and won the Sun Yefang Economic Science Book Award in 1991. Since then, Professor Li has expanded his research on the tertiary industry from economics to economic operation, development strategies, and service management, yielding a series of fruitful results.
Economic Analysis of China's Tertiary Industry is an outstanding academic monograph on the economic analysis of China's tertiary industry, written by Professor Li Jiangfan and his postgraduate students (Master's and Doctoral candidates) and young faculty members through years of collaborative research since 1996. Grounded in the theoretical foundation of tertiary industry economics, the book analyzes the relationships and dynamic trends between input and output factors of China's tertiary industry. Through comparative studies between China and other countries, it reveals the evolutionary trends of the tertiary industry globally and explores a series of critical issues in China's tertiary industry development, providing a scientific basis for strategic decision-making in the 21st century.
Browsing through the book, I find it particularly distinctive in three aspects.
First, it conducts a systematic and comprehensive study of China's tertiary industry development. The development of the tertiary industry is a major issue facing China's economic growth in the 21st century. With the growth of the national economy, the proportion of the tertiary industry in China's GDP and employment structure has gradually increased, playing an increasingly important role in improving national economic efficiency and residents' quality of life. Systematic empirical research is urgently needed. However, domestic academia has long focused on industry and agriculture, lacking empirical research on the tertiary industry. The limited empirical studies on China's tertiary industry often analyze the sector from the perspective of individual service sectors, lacking comprehensive research. Research on the current status and patterns of China's tertiary industry from the perspective of input and output factors remains largely unexplored. This makes it difficult for China to accurately grasp the operational patterns of the tertiary industry in the macroeconomic process of economic development and industrial structure upgrading. Following the main research line of input analysis—output analysis—comprehensive analysis, the authors systematically study the history, current status, and development of China's tertiary industry, overcoming the shortcomings of overly focusing on sector-by-sector analysis, which often leads to "seeing the trees but not the forest." This approach helps clarify the development status and trends of China's tertiary industry based on a scientific foundation of both qualitative and quantitative analysis, promoting its healthy development.
Second, it adopts empirical, dynamic, and forward-looking scientific research methods. The authors extensively collect tertiary industry statistical data from mainland China, the "Four Asian Tigers," the United States, Japan, and other countries, process them using computer statistical analysis software, and establish mathematical models based on samples from various types of countries to derive empirical analysis conclusions that are well-founded and logically sound. At the same time, the authors place the research subject of China's tertiary industry in a dynamic domestic and international environment, linking it to China's economic development, industrialization, urbanization, WTO entry, and the trend of economic globalization for dynamic and forward-looking analysis. This scientific research method overcomes the rigid and static mindset of viewing China's tertiary industry development, helping to transform the "decision-making based on intuition" approach in the development process into a scientific decision-making method. This is highly commendable in economic research.
Third, through empirical research, it proposes a series of innovative insights and targeted policy recommendations regarding China's tertiary industry development, holding significant practical implications for improving macroeconomic management of the sector. Throughout the book, readers will find numerous fresh insights in various chapters and sections. For example, the book analyzes the labor structure, labor input effectiveness, and employment structure optimization of China's tertiary industry, explores the scale, growth, investment structure, and investment operation mechanism of the sector, reveals the trends and influencing factors of intermediate consumption in the tertiary industry, and examines the cost changes in for-profit and non-profit service industries. It also analyzes the growth drivers, trends, and countermeasures of tertiary industry output. Additionally, it provides thought-provoking analyses of the relationship and development trends between tertiary industry development and urbanization, the industrial linkage and spillover effects of the tertiary industry, and the relationship between WTO entry and China's tertiary industry development strategy and tactics. Based on these analyses, the book proposes targeted policy recommendations tailored to China's national conditions.
I believe the practical significance of the book's theoretical analysis lies in two aspects. First, from the perspectives of input, output, and comprehensive analysis, it comprehensively examines the current status, problems, and trends of China's tertiary industry, providing a scientific basis for the government to clearly understand the "state of affairs" of the sector, eliminate obstacles to development, and formulate correct long-term development goals for the tertiary industry in the 21st century. Second, it offers significant guidance for local governments in the new century to identify key issues in industrial structure adjustment and optimization, adopt appropriate measures to promote tertiary industry development, cultivate new growth points, and facilitate industrial structure optimization and upgrading.
Following the evolutionary patterns of industrial structure optimization and upgrading, the improvement of economic development will inevitably strengthen the strategic role of the tertiary industry in the national economy. The tertiary industry and its research have great potential. However, as China undergoes intense institutional transformation, the development of the market economy and economic globalization will introduce many uncertainties for the tertiary industry. Therefore, the academic achievements of this book's research on the tertiary industry are not a one-time "final truth" but must be tested and continuously improved in the evolving practice of the tertiary industry. I believe that Professor Li Jiangfan and his research team on the tertiary industry will continue to track and explore the development of China's tertiary industry in a dynamic manner, contributing to the comprehensive development of the sector in China's modernization efforts in the new century and new stage.
Zhang Zhuoyuan
October 30, 2003, Beijing