Saturday 14 November 2009

China Trip

Apologies yet again for some sluggish posting. This time, ironically, the lack of posts is due to the fact that I was actually working in China. Sadly, this blog is still blocked in the middle kingdom.

This is a shame as I have a lot of information that would be useful for students in China specifically regarding education opportunities in the UK.

One issue that is again taxing me is the reliability of data in China. This has always been a bugbear of mine but I am increasingly worried after talking to those at the coal face.

As an economist who has written a number of papers using Chinese data I am beginning to doubt the reliability of any results in empirical papers on China.

Officials in local regions have incentives to massage the figures and I suspect this takes place on a regular basis.

I will post more on my China experience. Having travelled to Beijing, Tianjin and Wuhan the most obvious observation is the sheer size of these cities and the relentless pace of development.

A remarkable, interesting and exciting country.

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