Short Communication

This paper studies how income inequality evolves in the process of China’s growth since 1990s. We showed that the Kuznets inverted U curve has not appeared in China yet. In addition, we pointed out that the tertiarisation process plays the key role in shaping income distribution. The paper presented an institutional analysis on the phenomenon of slow tertiarisation in China, pointing out that the institutional innovations will be crucial for the sustainable development of China.

This paper analyzes regional convergence clubs across provinces in China using the polarization index, and compares with their results of East Asia developed countries and Emerging Nations to find peculiar regional convergence to China. β-convergence has some methodological problems, and the empirical results of distribution approach depend on the periods of analysis. We use three polarization indexes which can measure bi-polarization in various years, and these indexes can supplement the distribution approach. China, Russia, and India have been forming two convergence clubs during economic liberalization and the high-growth period. The convergence exists in regional economic growth in Japan, Korea, and Brazil. Economic liberalization and rapid economic growth can affect bi-polarization.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse China’s current problems in inequality and compensation of employees, and their impact on human capital accumulation and innovation, which is one of key factors influencing the sustainable economic growth in China in the following decades. We have analysed the economic reforms in China in the past three decades and discussed the future economic development strategy of China from the perspective of human capital accumulation and innovation.

Using the panel data on 49 African countries over the period from 2003 to 2011, this paper estimated the determinants of China’s outward direct investments in Africa by employing the Hausman-Taylor method which controls the endogeneity of some variables. The results show that, as investors from developed countries, China’s OFDIs in Africa are attracted by marking-seeking and resource-seeking motives, tend to invest in the African countries having good macroeconomic performance and strong economic interaction with China. There is no evidence that China tends to invest in the countries having bad governance. Transaction cost is not an obstacle for Chinese investors. The results show moreover that the Chinese government’s policies of economic cooperation in Africa, of “China’s African Policy” and of the diversification of foreign exchange reserves explained 58% of the annual average growth rate of China’s investments in Africa. This marks the key difference with western investors.