{"title":"At a crossroads: consequential trends in recognition of community-based forest tenure from 2002-2017","authors":"Chloe Ginsburg, Stephanie Keene","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1755129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1755129","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Insecure, contested, and unjust forest tenure arrangements undermine forest investment and protection, fuel conflict, and jeopardize Indigenous Peoples’, local communities’, and indigenous and community women’s rights, livelihoods, and development prospects. While legally recognized community forests tend to have lower rates of deforestation, store more carbon and benefit more people than forests managed by either public or private entities, evidence shows over two-thirds of forests remain controlled by governments – a significant portion of which is contested by indigenous and local communities who traditionally own, manage, and depend on these forests. It is therefore all the more critical that governments support and advance communities’ forest tenure rights. Using longitudinal tenure data and analysis of global forest ownership trends developed by the Rights and Resources Initiative, this article details the distribution of statutory forest rights across 58 countries covering nearly 92% of global forests over the fifteen-year period from 2002–2017.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1755129","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45806682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Feed-in tariffs for renewable power and the role of auctions: the Chinese & global experience","authors":"D. Roberts","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1752494","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1752494","url":null,"abstract":"Global installed capacity of non-hydro renewable energy has grown dramatically in recent years, with an increase of ~3x from 2010 to 2018. The increase in China has been even more dramatic, with a ~ 8.8x rise over the same period. Furthermore, almost all of the increase has been in the form of wind and solar power. When governments decided to stimulate the massive increase in renewable energy capacity, the policy tool of choice was the non-competitive allocation of administered feed-in tariffs (FITs). The decision to subsidize new capacity through the use of this tool reflected the desire to quickly spur the development of a new industry which lacked experience and hard data. For many countries, the absolute cost of the subsidy associated with FiTs has increased significantly with the rapid expansion of renewable energy capacity and depressed prices for conventional fossil fuel. In 2014, it is estimated that China’s annual renewable energy subsidies were ~14 billion Yuan. They subsequently increased by roughly 10x to ~140 billion Yuan in 2018, and are estimated by Bloomberg New Energy Finance to have totaled almost 230 billion Yuan in 2019. This level and trend in renewable energy subsidies in China is arguably both fiscally untenable and economically unnecessary. Related to the dramatic increase in renewable energy capacity is a dramatic reduction in the cost of producing wind and solar power. Over the 2009–2019 period the global average Levelized Cost of Electricity fell 81% for solar PV, 46% for on-shore wind, and 45% for offshore wind. Policymakers are increasingly choosing to set FiTs through a competitive auction process. The key reasons for doing this are: (a) to reduce the subsidy burden on governments; (b) to facilitate the transfer of lower production costs to consumers; (c) to reduce the incentive to overinvest in new capacity; and (d) to avoid equity concerns associated with excessive profits for project developers. Over the past decade, there has been exponential growth in global auctioned renewable power capacity – rising from 3 GW in 2012 to 52 GW in 2017. However, auctions are only now starting to be deployed on a wide scale. As recently as 2018, they contributed to less than 10% of the global renewable energy capacity in any one year.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1752494","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47313685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Environmental policy instruments and corruption","authors":"R. Damania, T. Sterner, D. Whittington","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1751454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1751454","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In this paper we discuss the choice of taxation or regulation of environmental externalities. The subject might appear to be a well-trodden path, but we believe we have a new angle on this well-established question. We think we are being quite realistic when we assume that corrupt practices lurk behind every corner, threatening to derail the good intents of any regulator. With this starting point we compare the result of trying to impose taxation contra regulation in environments where the implementation in both cases will be marred by corrupt practices of under-reporting emissions and bribing inspectors. In a simple and stylized model of these circumstances we show that taxes tend to perform the same or better in the sense that a pollution tax induces greater compliance and lower pollution than does a regulatory standard. We also show that the advantages of a tax are particularly great in countries where the enforcement ability of authorities is weak, which is commonly thought to be the case in developing countries.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1751454","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44134373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Forest carbon sequestration and China’s potential: the rise of a nature-based solution for climate change mitigation","authors":"Lu Jin, Yuanyuan Yi, Jintao Xu","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1754606","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1754606","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A growing interest has recently been placed on the potential of nature-based solutions to help mitigate climate change, reflecting the importance of natural ecosystems as sources and sinks for greenhouse gases. Forests are of the hot debate – that sequester and also emit carbon dioxide (CO2). In this paper, we estimate the forest carbon sequestration potential for China. We show that, as the government plans, by 2020, the size of China’s forest carbon stock will reach 12.87 billion tons, among which 5.73 billion tons will be from afforestation and reforestation (A/R). From the up-to-date data on AR activities (by 2018), we find that only 80% of the target sinks have been met. Scenario analysis shows that the carbon sequestered by the forests in 2020 is equivalent to 13%-17% of the industrial CO2 emission that year, with 6%-8% by A/R, 4%-6% by forest-management, 3%-4% by reduced-deforestation-and-forest-degradation, and 1% by wood-product-sink.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1754606","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"60289217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"International review of ecodesign programs for products and lessons learned for China","authors":"N. Khanna, Xu Liu, N. Zhou","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1751449","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1751449","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the 1980s, ecodesign has emerged as a new guiding principle for integrating environmental aspects into product design and development, with the aim of reducing adverse environmental life-cycle impacts. For China, the concept of ecodesign is becoming important in advancing Chinese industrial development while mitigating the rise in national energy consumption and emissions. We reviewed 28 existing ecodesign labels and supporting programs adopted globally to identify lessons learned and best practices for the development of potential ecodesign labeling programs in China. We find that systematic framework and process and inclusion of various stakeholders in developing criteria, certification requirements and supporting policies in the form of green procurement, small local pilot subsidies, and active outreach and communication are key success factors of international programs. Based on international experiences and by leveraging existing Chinese frameworks for labeling and policies, China has an opportunity to lead in developing broader environmental criteria for a new ecodesign labeling program.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1751449","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48707770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The environmental improvement under China’s ‘New Normal’","authors":"Shilei Liu, Yu Liu, Lunyu Xie, Jintao Xu","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1755097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1755097","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The significant environmental improvement in China has drawn much research attention in recent years. However, in exploring the factors that lead to pollution reduction, most literature has ignored the slowing economic growth under the ‘New Normal’ of China. This omission could lead to the overestimation of the pollution reduction effects of other factors. In this paper, we estimate the effect of the economic slowdown using a dynamic Computable General Equilibrium model, CHINAGEM. We find that the contribution of the economic slowdown to pollution reduction ranges from 10% to 30%. This indicates the importance of considering the economic slowdown when evaluating the effects of other factors related to the environmental improvement in China.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-04-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1755097","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48547341","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"What can blockchain do and cannot do?","authors":"Zhong-Chun Xu, Chuanwei Zou","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1748968","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1748968","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper studies the economic functions of blockchain. First, by explaining blockchain technologies from an economic perspective, it introduces the Token Paradigm to summarize mainstream blockchain systems, discusses the true meanings of consensus and trustlessness in the blockchain field, and analyzes the functions of smart contracts. Next, it categorizes major blockchain applications according to how they use tokens and discusses relevant economic problems such as tokens’ monetary features, tokens’ impacts on blockchain platforms, blockchain’s governance functions, and the efficiency and security of blockchain systems. Finally, it discusses the concept of Blockchain as a Financial Infrastructure (BaaFI), which is represented by central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and global stable coins.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1748968","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47285128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evaluating the accrual anomaly in the Chinese stock market with the decomposition method","authors":"Zhuo Huang, Zhimin Qiu, Dawei Lin","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1726601","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1726601","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT We evaluate the explanations for accrual anomaly in the Chinese stock market using the decomposition method. The results show that institutional ownership best explains the accrual anomaly with an explanatory power of about 46%, equity growth (EG) explains 12% of the anomaly, and the residual fraction of around 32% is unexplained by any candidate explanations. Our findings indicate that the naïve investor fixation hypothesis is favored to explain the accrual anomaly in China, and the existing explanations cannot fully explain the anomaly.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1726601","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41383551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"RETRACTED ARTICLE: Why did they get in trouble? The influence of firm characteristics and institutional distance in the case of Chinese outward foreign direct investment","authors":"Abdelkader Mohamed Sghaier Derbali, A. Lamouchi","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1715581","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1715581","url":null,"abstract":"Statement of Retraction We, the Editor and Publisher of China Economic Journal, have retracted the following article: Abdelkader Derbali & Ali Lamouchi, “Why did they get in trouble? The influence of firm characteristics and institutional distance in the case of Chinese outward foreign direct investment,” China Economic Journal, 10.1080/17538963.2020.1715581 Since publication, it has been brought to our attention that this article has substantial overlap, with the article(s) listed below: Chapter 1 of A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy: Shuo Zhang, THREE PAPERS ON INSTITUTION, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION OF CHINESE FIRMS, 2016-08-22. As this represents a serious breach of publishing ethics and of warranties made by the author with respect to originality and provenance, we are retracting the article from the journal. The authors have been informed. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1715581","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46314401","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does China use its trade potential in the Belt and Road Initiative properly? The relations between Chinese value added and trade potential in the European countries: bottom-up analysis","authors":"E. Cieślik","doi":"10.1080/17538963.2020.1715580","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2020.1715580","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The aim of research is to evaluate China’s potential trade to selected European markets covered by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Chinese value added embodied in these countries gross exports. The study tried to answer the question: is there relation between Chinese actual exports coverage of its potential exports to selected European markets and China’s value added embodied in gross exports of its trade partners in Europe. The study covered 54 industries from selected 19 European countries which are the members of Chinese BRI. The study confirmed the positive relationship between Chinese actual exports coverage and China’s value added embodied in gross exports of its selected trade partners in Europe. Moreover, the analysis allowed identifying European markets that were characterized by high export potential for China and still not adequately used both in terms of total exports and value added. The study also identified specific industries, where China was particularly exploiting its exports.","PeriodicalId":45279,"journal":{"name":"China Economic Journal","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2020-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17538963.2020.1715580","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41741382","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}