China, People’s Republic

For a country like China that is home to more than a billion people, the principal objective of agricultural policy must be to ensure food security. The foremost measure that can be taken in this regard is to increase domestic production. While this may seem to inevitably lead to an adversarial relationship pitting food security against the environment and available resources, it is nonetheless also a relationship that can be mutually supportive. This paper examines the ways in which the achievement of China’s food security goals can be advanced by means of better practices in resource use and environmental protection.

Over the past decade, the share of jobs not controlled by the state has increased considerably, whilst employment in agriculture has declined, against the backdrop of ongoing urbanisation. Over 200 million people have been drawn into urban areas through official or unofficial migration, despite various obstacles to labour mobility, including the registration system and the associated restrictions to social service access. New labour laws were introduced in 2008 to better protect employees in a market now dominated by private-sector employers, notably via more systematic use of and adherence to written labour contracts, in particular of indefinite duration ones. To what extent the new legislation and implementing regulations will be enforced remains to be seen. For the time being, de facto employment protection is far less than de jure, with an enduring preponderance of fixed-term contracts involving few restrictions. Minimum wages are set locally and have not kept up with average wages, nor are they effectively enforced. During the recent slowdown, average wages adjusted rapidly and employment was soon on the rise again. However, this episode also highlighted the need to integrate migrants better, not least by relaxing registration rules.

In recent years, policymaking in China has put increasing emphasis on stemming the growth in inequality, which had been fairly steep since the 1980s. Policy action has taken the form of regional development measures and of reforms of various aspects of the social safety net broadly defined. The Western Development Plan has aimed at narrowing the income gap between the sparsely populated and underdeveloped West and the more prosperous and faster-growing East. The bulk of the expenditure, however, has been on large capital-intensive projects rather than on education and other social spending. More emphasis on education would help reduce the income gap, since human capital is a key determinant of income. Government policies to improve conditions in rural areas nationwide have involved a substantial reduction in the burden of regressive taxes and fees. Welfare assistance has also evolved: a minimum living allowance has been introduced in urban and more recently in rural areas, but it has not reduced poverty that much, not least because of how it is administered. Moreover, the financing of this allowance ought to rely more on national solidarity and its delivery needs to be better co-ordinated with that of other social benefits. A set of new indicators of nationwide inequality, based on household survey data, suggests that overall inequality has ceased to increase in recent years, and may even have inched down. Alternative measures of income inequality across provinces show that, if migration is taken into account, disparities are markedly less, and have tended to decline somewhat in recent years. Even so, geographical inequality remains very high by international standards. It reflects intra- more than inter-provincial differences, pointing to persistent, if diminishing, labour market segmentation.

1998: Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (General) Regulation; further implements the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance, includes limits on the investment of scheme assets, requirements on trustees and other service providers and rules concerning enrolment, contributions, portability and withdrawal of accrued benefits and a compensation fund to be established by the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA). 1995: Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes

2000: Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (Exemption) Regulation; provides for contractingout of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance and defines rules with which contractedout occupational plans must comply.

China’s spectacular economic expansion has continued in recent years, making for impressive improvements in living standards. The slowdown associated with the global financial and economic crisis was contained by massive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus, which has boosted domestic demand. While the current account surplus is shrinking, some macroeconomic imbalances remain, in particular in the form of a high national saving rate. A key adjustment will be to durably lower government saving. Ongoing social reforms can be expected to help in this respect, provided they are sufficiently funded by the central government. Rapid further urbanisation will require greater labour mobility. This calls for gradually phasing out the still rigid registration system and the attendant differences in social entitlements, notably as regards education, welfare assistance, pensions and health care. More accessible and better public services will also strengthen social cohesion. To sustain vigorous economic growth beyond the ongoing recovery, it will be important to further liberalise product and financial markets.

Populations in OECD and emerging economies are ageing rapidly, which will have significant macroeconomic impacts, including on public expenditures and tax revenues. The rules and practices that govern fiscal relations among different levels of government, such as their responsibilities for taxation, spending and debt management, have a bearing on economic efficiency and ultimately growth. The consequences of population ageing at subnational government levels are especially intense. Many local governments are vulnerable to the ageing of their populations from a fiscal perspective. The economic and fiscal challenges of an ageing population go beyond intergovernmental boundaries, and they require complex intergovernmental policy responses. This volume brings together cross-country studies of fiscal policy, demographics and spatial productivity, as well as country studies of Brazil, Canada, China and Germany.

This dataset comprises statistics on different transactions and balances to get from the GDP to the net lending/borrowing. It includes national disposable income (gross and net), consumption of fixed capital as well as net savings. It also includes transaction components such as net current transfers and net capital transfers. Data are expressed in millions of national currency as well as US dollars and available in both current and constant prices. Data are provided from 1950 onwards.

This dataset comprises statistics on different transactions and balances to get from the GDP to the net lending/borrowing. It includes national disposable income (gross and net), consumption of fixed capital as well as net savings. It also includes transaction components such as net current transfers and net capital transfers. Data are expressed in millions of national currency as well as US dollars and available in both current and constant prices. Data are provided from 1950 onwards.

This dataset comprises statistics on different transactions and balances to get from the GDP to the net lending/borrowing. It includes national disposable income (gross and net), consumption of fixed capital as well as net savings. It also includes transaction components such as net current transfers and net capital transfers. Data are expressed in millions of national currency as well as US dollars and available in both current and constant prices. Data are provided from 1950 onwards.

This dataset comprises statistics on different transactions and balances to get from the GDP to the net lending/borrowing. It includes national disposable income (gross and net), consumption of fixed capital as well as net savings. It also includes transaction components such as net current transfers and net capital transfers. Data are expressed in millions of national currency as well as US dollars and available in both current and constant prices. Data are provided from 1950 onwards.