Agriculture, Land, and the Rural Economy
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Why does agriculture matter?
It may seem odd to begin our discussion of a great industrial economy with agriculture. In China today, agriculture accounts for only 8 percent of GDP. ...
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Changing the Growth Model
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Why does China need to change its growth model?
Since reforms began in 1979, China has become one of the world’s greatest economic success stories. At no point during those decades ...
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China and the World: Is Conflict Inevitable?
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
For most of this book, we have considered China mainly on its own terms—as a large and interesting story of national development. But China’s rise also has important international ...
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China’s Political Economy
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What is China’s political system?
Understanding China’s unique and resilient governance system is essential for making sense of the country’s economic past, present, and future. We ...
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Coda
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
This Coda was written in the summer of 2009. See chapter 9 for a reassessment.
The prognosis for early socioeconomic progress in Myanmar is not sanguine, and ...
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The Colonial Era’s Importance in Understanding Burma/Myanmar Today
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
The colonial period lasted a relatively short time in its domination of the whole country—only from 1885 to 1948. Its impact, however, has been of far greater significance than one might ...
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The Crises That Are Burma/Myanmar
David I. Steinberg
in Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
This chapter and those that follow, all written before the change in government based on the elections in November 2010, are left intact to encourage the reader to reflect on how the state ...
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Demographics and the Labor Market
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What is the “demographic dividend”?
The “demographic dividend” refers to a period during which the proportion of nonworking, dependent people in a population falls substantially. ...
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The Economy
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Is North Korea economically self-reliant?
North Korean leader Kim Il Sung first declared his emphasis on self-reliance in a 1955 speech. Encapsulating self-reliance of all forms ...
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Economy
Steven Rood
in The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know®
At the turn of the millennium, a team of economists from the Australian National University and the University of the Philippines published The Philippine Economy: Development, Policies, ...
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The Emerging Consumer Economy
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Is China’s growth “unbalanced”? How much does it matter?
China from 1980 until a few years ago has been mainly an investment-driven economy. Growth has been powered by capital ...
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Energy and the Environment
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
In the preceding chapters, we have examined three of the systems that support China’s economic structure: the financial, fiscal, and enterprise systems. In this chapter, we will look at the ...
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The Enterprise System
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Which are more important: state-owned enterprises or private firms?
One of the most contentious features of China’s economy is its ownership. Two narratives are common. One is that ...
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The Financial System
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
What role do China’s banks play in financing growth?
China has a bank-dominated financial system. About 70 percent of corporate finance is provided either by banks or by other ...
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The Future
Patrick McEachern
in North Korea: What Everyone Needs to Know®
What are the prospects for Korean unification?
The near-term prospects for Korean unification are dim, but unification remains a constitutionally derived, foundational idea of the ...
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Geography, Demography, and Climate
Steven Rood
in The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How many islands does the Philippines have?
When at the 1994 Miss Universe pageant (being held in the Philippines), Philippine contestant Charlene Gonzales was asked, “How many ...
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Geopolitics and the Future: The Philippines in the World
Steven Rood
in The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know®
For the Philippines, it seems that geography is often destiny. The islands’ location, rather than the resources they held, was what made them attractive to the Spanish imperial enterprise. ...
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Government and Governance
Steven Rood
in The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know®
How is the national legislature structured?
The bicameral Philippine Congress works in interesting ways. In fact, constitutional designers have been ambivalent about bicameralism ...
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The Government Finance System
Arthur R. Kroeber
in China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® (2 ed.)
Why does the fiscal system matter?
There are two reasons for understanding China’s fiscal system. The first is about power relations. In a country as large and diverse as China, ...
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History: “300 Years in a Convent, 50 Years in Hollywood,” Then on Its Own
Steven Rood
in The Philippines: What Everyone Needs to Know®
History wars in the Philippines seem never-ending. How should the nation view Spain, which created the concept of “the Philippines” and brought Christianity to its shores—at the same time ...
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