Impacts of institutional change on industrial economy: a China's automobile industry perspective

China' s automobile industry is a perfect example of institutional change it went through a series of development stages including the shaping up of industrial system, rapid expansion, and competitiveness improvement, as the industry’s policy system and the implementation effects improve. Our main studies and conclusions include: (1) Review and analysis of institutional change and the development of China’s automobile industry. The continuous improvement of the policy system of China’s automobile industry, a s re presented by the above mentioned policies, as well as their implementation effects are the main drivers behind China’s ever improving independent R&D capability and global competitiveness. (2) Quantitative analysis of the characteristics of the impacts of institutional change on China’s automobile industry. As the research shows, the growth process of China's automobile industry and its key influencing factors can be described with the Cobb Douglas production function model containing institutional variable s. The intensity of the impact of institutional change variables on the automobile industry changes significantly over time. (3) Case study on the impacts of institutional change on China's automobile industry. As shown in the study, the automobile industry policy plays a significant role in driving the development of Chinese automobile companies who should therefore take such opportunities to enhance technological innovation, resource integration and other abilities.A indústria automobilística da China é um exemplo perfeito de mudança institucional passou por uma série de estágios de desenvolvimento, incluindo a formação do sistema industrial, a expansão rápida e a melhoria da competitividade, à medida que o sistema de políticas industriais e os efeitos da sua implementação melhoraram. Esta tese analisou as mudanças institucionais e o desenvolvimento da indústria automobilística chinesa. Em nossa opinião as mudanças institucionais que se consubstanciaram em políticas industriais para o setor automobilístico contribuíram para a crescente capacidade independente de pesquisa e desenvolvimento da indústria e da sua competitividade global . Procedemos também a uma análise quantitativa sobre as características do impacto das mudanças institucionais na indústria automobilística chinesa. Como mostra a nossa pesquisa, o processo de crescimento da indústria automobilística chinesa e seus principais fatores de influência podem ser descritos com o modelo de função de produção Cobb Douglas, introduzindo variáveis institucionais. A intensidade do impacto das variáveis de mudança institucional na indústria automobilística muda significativamen te a o longo do tempo. Procedemos também a um estudo de caso sobre os impactos das mudanças institucionais na indústria automobilística chinesa. Como mostra o estudo, as políticas industriais referentes à indústria automobilística desempenham um papel importante no desenvolvimento das empresas automobilísticas chinesas. As empresas devem estar atentas a estas políticas e aproveitar as oportunidades para aprimorar a inovação tecnológica, a integração de recursos e outras competências

Mitigation Country Study – China

human development, climate change

Emissions and low-carbon development in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area cities and their surroundings

Cities are the major contributors to energy consumption and CO2 emissions, as well as being leading innovators and implementers of policy measures in climate change mitigation. Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is an agglomeration of cities put forward by China to strengthen international cooperation among “Belt and Road” countries and promote low-carbon, inclusive, coordinated and sustainable development. Few studies have discussed the emission characteristics of GBA cities. This study, for the first time, compiles emission inventories of 11 GBA cities and their surroundings based on IPCC territorial emission accounting approach, which are consistent and comparable with the national and provincial inventories. Results show that (a) total emissions increased from 426 Mt in 2000 to 610 Mt in 2016, while emissions of GBA cities increased rapidly by 6.9% over 2000–2011 and peaked in 2014 (334 Mt); (b) raw coal and diesel oil are the top two emitters by energy type, while energy production sector and tertiary industry are the top two largest sectors; (c) GBA cities take the lead in low-carbon development, emitted 4% of total national emissions and contributed 13% of national GDP with less than a third of national emission intensities and less than three-quarters of national per capita emissions; (d) Macao, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have the top three lowest emission intensity in the country; (e) most of GBA cities are experiencing the shift from an industrial economy to a service economy, while Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Foshan and Huizhou reached their peak emissions and Guangzhou, Dongguan and Jiangmen remained decreasing emission tendencies; (g) for those coal-dominate or energy-production cities (i.e. Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing, Maoming, Yangjiang, Shanwei, Shaoguan and Zhanjiang) in mid-term industrialization, total emissions experienced soaring increases. The emission inventories provide robust, self-consistent, transparent and comparable data support for identifying spatial–temporal emission characteristics, developing low-carbon policies, monitoring mitigation progress in GBA cities as well as further emissions-related studies at a city-level. The low-carbon roadmaps designed for GBA cities and their surroundings also provide a benchmark for other developing countries/cities to adapting changing climate and achieve sustainable development

Provincial government and regional development

This research uses a case study of Xinjiang to challenge China's reform by addressing the problems rooted in its partiality and regionalisation. The reform started in the field of political administration and toleration of decentralisation and marketisation in the economic sphere has generated economic prosperity in some regions. But economic reform was not necessarily accompanied by political transformation. Most characteristics of socialism have been retained, including political discretion and economic bailout. Both are regarded as major causes to economic weakness in some sectors and some provinces. The central argument for the continuation of the partial reform is decentralisation of decision-making to the local political state, enabling local government to give a "helping hand" in facilitating change. But the partiality of the reform drives local governments in those regions with political sensitivities to become a "political defender", holding back the progress of the reform there. Such unbalanced and unparalleled developments amongst the regions and institutions has create imbalances in provinces such as Xinjiang, challenging the success of China's reform overall. In politically sensitive regions, the Communist Party has retained an administrative stranglehold and development has stagnated, not only calling into question the sustainability the reforms but also potentially threatening China's unity and political stability. The thesis uses Xinjiang, which is politically very sensitive, because of its ethnicity and strategic resources, to argue this point