Recent IMF research explores the effectiveness of credit in supporting the Chinese economy, and compares it with the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus. The study finds that credit contributed positively to output growth in China in the early 2000s, but the effect fell to almost zero post-2010. This suggests that, at present, credit cannot effectively support further growth of the Chinese economy. In contrast, the estimated fiscal multiplier is 1.4 post-2010, which is high in international and historic comparisons. Therefore, a targeted fiscal stimulus can cushion the adjustment of the Chinese economy to lower credit growth.
Despite reforms to the hukou household registration system and the very large rural-urban migration experienced in China, rural households are still experiencing a risk of losing their land allocation if they migrate. We argue that this risk leads to an inefficient rental market with low rents and is an impediment to migration, with consequent over-employment in agriculture and low productivity.
We investigate the relationship between the allocation of government subsidies and total factor productivity for Chinese listed firms.
China's non-financial borrowing continued to expand though the government vowed to take deleveraging among its top five policy priorities in 2016. Current member of the People's Bank of China's Monetary Policy Committee, Prof. Yiping Huang of Peking University, and his co-author Yuyan Tan of Peking University argue that resolving Zombie firms is a key for China’s deleveraging. The rising share of Zombies firms in China after 2010 reduces the financial efficiency and brings in financial market risks. Dealing with the Zombie firms is now critical for sustaining China’s long-run economic growth and managing its financial stability.
BigTech firms, i.e. large technology firms whose primary business is digital services, are entering finance. Their entry into finance started with payments. Increasingly, they have expanded beyond payments into the provision of credit, insurance, and toward savings products, either directly or in partnership with incumbent financial institutions...