Ding Lu | University of the Fraser Valley (original) (raw)

Papers by Ding Lu

Economics, the study of optimal use of society’s scarce resources, plays a key role in program ev... more Economics, the study of optimal use of society’s scarce resources, plays a key role in program evaluation. Application of concepts and analytical framework in several economics fields has enhanced the rigour of program evaluation methods. This paper goes through the evaluation logic model to review and highlight the key aspects of program evaluation where modern economics has provided crucial insights and practical research tools. The rising importance of economics applied to program evaluation has far reaching implications on the latter’s profession development and its education agenda.

The Great Urbanization of China, 2011

SSRN Electronic Journal

The send-down movement refers to the rustication program run by the Chinese government to send mi... more The send-down movement refers to the rustication program run by the Chinese government to send millions of urban youth to live and work in the countryside in the 1960s and the 1970s. The movement reached its peak during the Cultural

Frontiers of Economics in China, 2014

China Econ Rev, 1999

Singapore's managed floating exchange rate regime contrasts with Hong Kong's cu... more Singapore's managed floating exchange rate regime contrasts with Hong Kong's currency board system featured by the Hong Kong–United States dollars peg. This paper appraises the two different exchange rate regimes by comparing their track records in maintaining macroeconomic stability and trade competitiveness in the 1990s. A review of the two regimes' institutional characteristics and macroeconomic performance reveals the systemic inadequacy of Hong Kong's exchange rate regime under a changing global financial environment. As East Asia emerges from the recent financial crisis, Singapore's experience of successfully moving away from a currency board system to a credible managed floating regime offers a lesson worthy of attention from Hong Kong.

China Econ Rev, 2001

China's industrial policy regime has played an important role in the country's economic developme... more China's industrial policy regime has played an important role in the country's economic development and participation in the world economy. This paper examines the effect of this regime on cross-industry resource allocation in three aspects: incentives, openness of trade and investment, and allocative efficiency. The results indicate effectiveness of industrial policy in offering incentives and controlling market openness in line with the planned priority. Evidence in cross-industry resource allocation, however, suggests significant efficiency gains are yet to be obtained from further participation in globalization.

Factor mobility plays an important role in the convergence of regional income levels. This paper ... more Factor mobility plays an important role in the convergence of regional income levels. This paper examines the role of labor mobility in China's regional economic development in the context of phases of demographic transition and the existence of institutional barriers. Our findings show that the two most important sources of interregional income disparity are per worker capital stock and technology level. The fact that the richest provincial economies are at the later phase of demographic transition provides a major reason for why those economies have accumulated higher per worker capital stock and achieved higher productivity levels. We also discover that regional per capita income levels have not displayed convergence since the mid 1990s. Two observations explain this phenomenon. One observation is that capital and labor movements have played only a limited role in equalizing their marginal returns across regions despite the fact that labor mobility has substantially strengthened this role since 2000. The other observation is that the impact of demographic changes on income growth has been distinctly uneven between the rich and poor regions. This phenomenon can be attributed to some particular features of China's interregional labor migration. * I would like to thank Siow Yue Chia, Harry X. Wu, and participants of AEP Conference, Seoul, April 2008, for their valuable comments and suggestions.

China Economic Review, 2003

The rise of China as an economic powerhouse has caused concerns in its neighbors. Prevailing in t... more The rise of China as an economic powerhouse has caused concerns in its neighbors. Prevailing in the region is the fear that China is becoming a gigantic ''regional factory'' that will ''hollow out'' neighboring economies' industries. In this paper, we emphasize the economic benefits that a rising Chinese economy can bring into the region. A discussion on the country's growth strategy suggests that China has recently started shifting from an export-oriented economy to a more domesticdemand-driven one. Such a shift, in the backdrop of China's entry into the World Trade Organization, is opening up the country's huge domestic market for imports, thus providing great opportunities for the regional economies. A custom-made structural VAR analysis based on tradelinks in the region provides empirical evidence that China had quickly emerged as a growth engine in the region even before China joined the WTO and made a full transformation of its growth model.

China Economic Review, 2002

Historical data of economic development suggest a Kuznets-Williamson type of relationship between... more Historical data of economic development suggest a Kuznets-Williamson type of relationship between economic growth and income disparity. Using China's provincial data, we first try to determine to what extent such a relationship is valid in the urban-rural disparity context. Next, we identify some factors other than economic growth that might have affected urban-rural disparity. In particular, we calculate and compare the inter-sector gross allocation effect (GAE) at the provincial level to discern the impact of labor mobility and allocative efficiency on urban-rural disparity. We also try to evaluate the contribution of local governance to urban-rural disparity by looking into regional differences in effectiveness of economic growth to raise local standard of living. Policy implications of the findings are discussed in the light of China's institutional reforms and development strategies.

Climate and Development, 2015

ABSTRACT Using data on China's provincial economies for the period 1978–2005, we decompos... more ABSTRACT Using data on China's provincial economies for the period 1978–2005, we decomposed the causes and factors that have contributed to inter-regional per capita income disparity. Variance in capital per employee and variance in capital elasticity are found to be the two main sources of income disparity while the employment–labour force ratio is shown to be an important factor in containing the rise of income disparity. An analysis on inter-regional factor reallocation effects reveals their relatively small and insignificant contributions to overall growth performance. It is also discovered that capital has in most years flowed in the right direction to pursue higher marginal productivity across provincial economies. Inter-provincial labour movement, on the other hand, had not displayed significant equilibrating effects until institutional reforms started to allow freer inter-regional labour mobility in later years. Generally, we conclude that market-oriented factor mobility has played a crucial role in equalizing factor returns as well as enhancing growth efficiency across regions.

Frontiers of Economics in China, Sep 23, 2014

East Asian Policy, 2015

China has taken a series of proactive measures to prevent and control air pollution. The Air Poll... more China has taken a series of proactive measures to prevent and control air pollution. The Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013) includes main policy initiatives to improve national and regional air quality. Fiscal reforms are needed to fund clean-air technology and incentivise firms and households to reduce pollution and economise energy use. The War on Smog requires high-level coordination of governments at different levels and various local jurisdictions.

Based on the data of six major sectors and 13 industrial sectors of the Chinese economy, this stu... more Based on the data of six major sectors and 13 industrial sectors of the Chinese economy, this study examines the impact of sectoral factor reallocation on productivity growth for the period 1986-2000. According to the results, the earlier post-reform high productivity growth was not sustained in more recent years. The overall performance of inter-sector reallocation was also disappointing. Limited improvements in productivity growth were observed for the industrial sectors as China beefed up reforms of state-owned enterprises in the late 1990s. This evidence highlights the huge potential gains for a developing economy like China to build sound market institutions in line with greater market openness and inter-sector factor mobility.

Economics of Transition

Using data on China's provincial economies for the period 1978-2005, we decomposed the causes... more Using data on China's provincial economies for the period 1978-2005, we decomposed the causes and factors that have contributed to inter-regional per capita income disparity. Variance in capital per employee and variance in capital elasticity are found to be the two main sources of income disparity while the employment-labour force ratio is shown to be an important factor in containing the rise of income disparity. An analysis on inter-regional factor reallocation effects reveals their relatively small and insignificant contributions to overall growth performance. It is also discovered that capital has in most years flowed in the right direction to pursue higher marginal productivity across provincial economies. Inter-provincial labour movement, on the other hand, had not displayed significant equilibrating effects until institutional reforms started to allow freer inter-regional labour mobility in later years. Generally, we conclude that market-oriented factor mobility has play...

Domestic Strategies and Global Implications, 2004

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

ABSTRACT A mini writing project on economics concepts is developed for undergraduate introductory... more ABSTRACT A mini writing project on economics concepts is developed for undergraduate introductory economics courses. The design of the mini-paper format ensures all students receive the same level of workload regardless the variety of assigned topics. The match of each mini-paper topic to its relevant final exam questions allows us to test the hypothetical benefits of such assignments for learning the relevant course contents. This research design has several advantages as compared to earlier empirical studies on pedagogical values of active learning. The results provide robust evidence of learning benefits of the mini writing assignments. The benefits do not differ significantly for students of different educational backgrounds or among students rendered with various paper marks but appear stronger for students from the science faculty.