EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Section 17 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 203 94% in 2014. However, our survey data reveal that in 2004 rural Chinese respondents were likely to rate their own physical and emotional health better than did urban respondents. But in two subsequent national surveys, in 2009 and 2014, this unexpected advantage of rural Chinese in self-rated health largely disappeared or was replaced by the more “normal” pattern of urban residents rating their health better than their rural counterparts. Data from all three surveys are analyzed in an effort to understand the reasons for the more favorable views of Chinese villagers in 2004 and the subsequent disappearance of this paradoxical pattern. Xu Xinpeng (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) Productivy Growth and Resource Allocation in Chinese Steel Industry Key words: industrial productivity, resource allocation, Chinese economy, total factor productivity, steel industry The recent past has seen widespread concerns, from both policy makers to investors around the world, about the possibility of slowdown in China’s economic growth from its double digit growth rates in the past few decades to around 7 percent in the foreseeable future. The slowdown of economic growth in China could be further exacerbated by significant risks in the Chinese shadow banking system, excess local government debts as well as reported “overcapacity” in various sectors such as steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, shipbuilding, and renewable energy sector (solar panels for example), among others. To understand potential causes of slowdown in China’s economic growth, most studies focus on demand- side factors, suggesting that China’s export-led model or investment-led model has come to an end and thus a re-balancing towards stimulating domestic consumption is necessary. In contrast, we consider long-term economic growth from a supply-side perspective. Using a recently available Census firm-level panel data, together with city-product level price data, we examines empirically whether the slowdown in China’s eco- nomic growth in general and industrial productivity growth in particular is due to decreases in individual firm’s productivity growth or resource misallocation across firms. We provide in-depth analysis on these issues with detailed micro-level data on one industry — the Chinese steel industry. Specifically, we evalu- ate the productivity distribution of the Chinese steel firms across different sub-industries and provinces and analyze resource re-allocation between firms within and across industries and provinces. Zuenko Ivan (Far Eastern Federal University) Informal Practices of Land-Use by Chinese Farmers in the Russian Far East Key words: investment, agriculture, land-use, Sino-Russian relations, Russian Far East Over the past few decades, Chinese agricultural business, farmers and seasonal laborers have been actively engaged in the economy of the Russian Far East (RFE). However the full extent of Chinese agri- cultural involvement in Russia is still not clear due to a lack of both dedicated research, and a the tendency of Russian media, officials and some scholars to focus mostly on the negative impacts of ‘land-grabbing’ by Chinese farmers (something that really does happen). Due to the inability of statistics to reflect the real situation on the ground, a number of field studies, including semi-structured interviews with representa- tives of local communities, were conducted in 2014–2015. This paper concentrates on the cases of informal land-use practices by Chinese small-scale and medium-scale ‘family farms’ which we witnessed during these field studies. Amongst them: land-lease from Russian farmers under the pretense of being a hired farm-worker; the registration of land and Chinese capital-owned enterprises under the name of a Russian spouse (often fictitious); obtaining Russian citizenship by one of the Chinese investors. The use of these practices allows Chinese business to escape excessive control by government bodies and officials who still tend to perceive Chinese capital expansion as a threat. Considering these cases, we conclude that informal land-use works effectively under the conditions of formally strict law requirements for business. Both in China and in Russia its efficiency can be explained by amenability of certain officials for corrupt behavior, and traditions of informal practices in business and government relations that still prevail.