How will China's saving-investment balance evolve ?

This paper investigates how China's saving, investment, and saving-investment balance will evolvein the decades ahead. Household saving in China is relatively high compared with OECD countries. However, much of China's high economywide saving, and the difference between China and other countries, are due to unusually high enterprise and government saving. Moreover, cross-country empirical analysis shows that economywide saving and investment in China are higher than what would be expected, even adjusting for differences in economic structure. Combined, these findings suggest that much of China's high saving is the result of policies particular to China. Looking ahead, the econometric results suggest that purely on the basis of projected structural developments-including development, changes in economic structure, urbanization, and demographics-saving and investment would both decline only mildly in the coming two decades, with ambiguous impact on the current account surplus. However, the potential effect on saving, investment, and the saving-investment balance of several policy adjustments could be large. Several of these policies are identified and their likely impact assessed and quantified. This exercise suggests that rebalancing along these lines should reduce both saving and the current account surplus over time, although the surplus is unlikely to turn into a deficit soon.Economic Theory&Research,Investment and Investment Climate,Economic Investment&Savings,Non Bank Financial Institutions,Contractual Savings

Investment and saving in China

The author analyzes sectoral patterns of investment and saving in China-over time and compared with other countries-to shed light on the factors driving high investment and on how saving is channeled into investment. The findings inform several policy debates. Key findings include: (1) investment by enterprises distinguishes China from other countries and explains most of the variation over time; (2) high household saving explains only a part of the large difference in national saving between China and other countries-the majority is explained by high saving of the government and enterprises (through retained earnings); and (3) only about one-third of enterprise investment is financed via the financial sector, a lower share than in the early 1990s. The author also explores explanations behind high saving of the government and enterprises. His findings have three sets of policy implications. First, the identified financing patterns put in perspective the exposure of the financial sector to investment-related risks but, against a background of concerns about suboptimal allocation of capital, bring to the fore corporate governance, dividend policy, and transparency and accountability of public funds. Second, the findings suggest policy adjustments that would help in achieving the government's goals of improving the quality of growth and increasing the role of consumption. Third, long term saving prospects and the impact of financial sector and pension policies are discussed.Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Economic Investment&Savings,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism

China's pattern of growth : moving to sustainability and reducing inequality

The authors study the sources and pattern of China's impressive economic growth over the past 25 years and show that key issues currently of concern to policymakers-widening inequality, rural poverty, and resource intensity-are to a large extent rooted in China's growth strategy, and resolving them requires a rebalancing of policies. Using both macroeconomic level and sector data and analyses, the authors extend the growth accounting framework to decompose the sources of labor productivity growth. They find that growth of industrial production, led by a massive investment effort that boosted the capital/labor ratio, has been the single most important factor driving GDP and overall labor productivity growth since the early 1990s. The shift of labor from low-productivity agriculture has been limited, and, hence, contributed only marginally to overall labor productivity growth. The productivity gap between agriculture and the rest of the economy has continued to widen, leading to increased rural-urban income inequality. Looking ahead, the authors calibrate two alternative scenarios. They show that continuing with the current growth pattern would further increase already high investment and saving needs to unsustainable levels, lower urban employment growth, and widen the rural-urban income gap. Instead, reducing subsidies to industry and investment, encouraging the development of the services industry, and reducing barriers to labor mobility would result in a more balanced growth with an investment-to-GDP ratio that is consistent with the medium-term saving trend, faster growth in urban employment, and a substantial reduction in the income gap between rural and urban residents.Economic Growth,Labor Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Municipal Financial Management,Achieving Shared Growth

China : global crisis avoided, robust economic growth sustained

This paper explores how the ongoing crisis, the policy responses to it, and the post-crisis global economy will impact China's medium-term prospects for growth, poverty reduction, and development. The paper reviews China's pre-crisis growth experience, including its relationship to global economic developments. It discusses the pace, composition, sources, and financing of growth during 1995-2007, and the impact of key external and domestic influences. The paper also analyzes the immediate impact of the global crisis on China's economic performance in 2009 and its likely impact in the short run. It then discusses the government's policy response, with a particular focus on the fiscal and monetary stimulus measures. Finally, the paper explores China's medium-term growth prospects in light of the crisis and the key policies for moving to a robust and sustainable growth path post-crisis.Debt Markets,Economic Theory&Research,Emerging Markets,Currencies and Exchange Rates,Access to Finance

Protocol voor het uitzetten van glas- en pootaal in Nederland

Als onderdeel van het Nederlandse Aalbeheerplan wordt door het Ministerie van Economische Zaken, Landbouw en Innovatie (EL&I) subsidie verstrekt voor de aankoop van glas- en pootaal. Dit met als doel om de biomassa aan uittrekkende schieraal te verhogen zodat de aalstand zich kan herstellen. Het Productschap VIS (PVis) coördineert de jaarlijkse aankoop en uitzet van de glasaal. De Combinatie van Beroepsvissers (CvB) , samen met de lokale beroepsvissers, zorgt voor de daadwerkelijke uitzet. Het is echter onduidelijk op welke wijze de uitzet praktisch het best kan geschieden. Hierbij spelen zaken als: overdag of 's nachts, verspreiding over het water, locatie (oever of open water), type oever, in helder of troebel water, en bij welke weersomstandigheden. Vanwege de hoge aanschafkosten van de glasaal dient de wijze van uitzet optimaal te zijn ten einde een hoge mate van overleving van de glasaal te bewerkstelligen. Het gaat niet om meer algemene criteria voor de selectie van goede uitzetgebieden, hiervoor bestaat al een protocol (Klein Breteler 2008). Doel van het project is om voor de opdrachtgever, Ministerie van Economische Zaken, Landbouw en Innovatie, een eenvoudig protocol op te zetten om de overleving van glas- en pootaal te optimaliseren. De kennisvraag is of het mogelijk is een praktisch protocol voor de uitzet te formuleren op basis van een literatuuronderzoek en praktijkervaringen van vissers, bij voorkeur uitgesplitst naar glasaal en pootaal

A Platform as a Service Framework for Ambient Assisted Living Services

The primary objective of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) technology is to provide aid and assistance to individuals, particularly the elderly, in maintaining their independence and residing in their own homes and their known environment for an extended duration. AAL technology is becoming increasingly important due to the continuous decrease of birth-rate and increasing life expectancy, leading to a shrinking proportion of younger population in developed countries. This research proposes a cloud-based platform as a service (PaaS) for AAL that enables service providers to deliver services without the need for the user to invest in expensive technical equipment in advance, thus reducing high start-up costs. This hurdle, as identified by both peer groups and service solution vendors, stands as a pivotal challenge demanding resolution. The PaaS for AAL focuses on adaptation and personalization, as user acceptance of AAL services depends heavily on their situational needs. To provide customization, the PaaS for AAL can dynamically adapt its functionality and presentation of information based on the context of the environment or user, such as the medical state of the user and the condition at home. To store and retrieve information about the user, an ontology-backed database is implemented, and information about the environment is provided through interoperability with existing smart home appliances, directly attached sensors, and external web services. One of the key concerns of potential AAL users according to a field test during the research is privacy-related. A PaaS for AAL places regulatory demands on protecting the user’s privacy and personal information. Consequently, another part of this work focuses on the question of how general data sharing is possible based on the respective context of the user while protecting their privacy: By implementing monitoring, access control, and enforcement of privacy preserving data access, the platform for AAL is further enhanced. The extension of the introduced privacy policy language with context awareness is a significant step towards providing more robust privacy protection in AAL use cases. With a concluding evaluation survey, it can be shown that it allows for more granular control over data access and ensures that sensitive user data is only accessible when necessary and under appropriate conditions

Public internet opinion and climate change: a worldviews' analysis

in deze scriptie wordt verslag gedaan van een onderzoek naar de wereldbeelden die aangetroffen worden mbt klimaatverandering. Daarbij wordt mn gekeken naar de rol van internet