China has sought to improve enterprise performance not through privatisation as in other transition economies, but through corporatisation as means of improving corporate governance. Actual governance practices of corporatised Chinese firms are however seriously defective, characterized by...

This paper attempts to address a puzzle in China's investment pattern: despite high aggregate investment and remarkable economic growth, negative net investment is commonly found at the microeconomic level.  Using a large firm-level dataset, we test three hypotheses to explain the existence and...

China has sought to improve enterprise performance not through privatisation as in other transition economies, but through corporatisation as means of improving corporate governance. Actual governance practices of corporatised Chinese firms are however seriously defective, characterized by...

Important gaps remain in the understanding of the economic consequences of civil war.  Focusing on the conflict in Rwanda in the early 90s, and using micro data to carry out econometric analysis, this paper finds that households and localities that experience more intense conflict are lagging...

The paper uses the Lewis model as a framework for examining the labour market progress of two labour-abundant countries, China and South Africa, towards labour shortage and generally rising labour real incomes. In the acuteness of their rural-urban divides, forms of migrant labour, rapid...

China has had a remarkably high ratio of investment to output throughout the period of economic reform, surpassing almost all other economies, whether developed or developing.  The high investment rate is in turn an important proximate determinant of China's high rate of economic growth.  This...

We evaluate the impact of firm-specific export subsidies on exports in Colombia.  Using a two-stage selection correction procedure, we obtain firm-specific predicted subsidy amounts that can be explained by the characteristics that determine the firms' eligibility for government support and its...

The latest World Bank estimates of real GDP per capita for China are significantly lower than previous ones.  We review possible sources of this puzzle and conclude that it reflects a combination of factors, including substitution bias in consumption, reliance on urban prices which we estimate...

This paper addresses the hotly-debated question: do Chinese firms overinvest?  A firm-level dataset of 100,000 firms over the period of 2000-07 is employed for this purpose.  We initially calculate measures of investment efficiency, which is typically negatively associated with...

This paper examines recent employment practices among 39 families of Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh, India.  A social class analysis offers a starting point for the study of employment contracts.  Employment practices are diverse, but the habitus of the employers and employees sometimes...