Compare(7)

Author: Wu Jinglian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: The Comparison provides an academic platform for comparative institutional analysis for readers. Standing at the forefront of theory, it selectively introduces the experiences and lessons of other countries, the theories and practices of transition economies, and the developments in the field of comparative research, while also targeting specific issues by introducing the design of economic reform plans, policy proposals, and commentary from domestic and international academic circles on China's economic reform. The seventh issue of The Comparison discusses three themes related to China's reform and development through three groups of articles. The first group focuses on healthcare sector reform, featuring Li Jiangge's Some Opinions on Rural Employment, Rural Finance, and Healthcare and Wang Shaoguang, a professor at the Department of Political Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong's Crisis and Turning Point of China's Public Health. The second group addresses the roots of Japan's bad debt problems, particularly the severe consequences brought by fiscal and public sector investment and financing plans. We provide three articles for readers: Qing Luo Xinhong's Japan's Recent Bad Debt Problem, Hoshi Takeo et al.'s Paying for Japan's Investment and Financing Plans, and Kashyap's Analysis of Japan's Financial Crisis. The third group features articles with opposing views on China's exchange rate policy. McKinnon and Schnabl argue that China should adopt a long-term exchange rate parity of 1 USD to 8.3 RMB instead of appreciating; while Kwan Chi-hung, a senior researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics, Japan, believes that the RMB should appreciate due to the increased competitiveness of Chinese products. Readers can draw their own conclusions from these articles. The themes of these three groups are closely related to the administrative efficiency and capacity of government institutions and officials. Therefore, this issue opens with the article Theories of Bureaucratic System Reform to discuss what incentives can be used to reform the bureaucratic system to improve its efficiency and quality. Our front-page column Why Some Countries Are Poor and Others Are Rich provides further theoretical background for the opening article, explaining the important role of a country's institutions and economic policies in economic development.