Conducting field work in China

Useful post from Sinograduate. Click the link to see expanded descriptions of each point.

Conducting Field Work in China

If you’re a masters or Ph.D. student conducting social science research on China for your thesis or dissertation, at some point you might find yourself in China for fieldwork. Having recently spent a year in China for my own dissertation fieldwork, here are some suggestions for a successful (or at least not overwhelmingly painful) fieldwork experience in China.

1) You’ll need an affiliation. 

2) Don’t necessarily affiliate at the top universities. 

3) Load up on your guanxi.
 4) Have copies of an affiliation letter from your institution for cold calls. 

5) It’s easier to say no on the phone than it is in person. 

6) Hire a Chinese research assistant to bring to meetings with you. 

7) Come bearing gifts.

Research paper. Impacts on all aspects of research on the Chinese economy.

What Should Economists Know about the Current Chinese Hukou System? 

Yang Son

Abstract

This article explains the current hukou system in China and provides the most recent evidence on the impact of the hukou system on the Chinese labor market and economy. By a comprehensive literature survey, this paper shows that the hukou system plays in two major roles in current China. First, workers with different hukou face different costs of living in cities and have different access to government-provided public services and welfare programs in the urban areas. Migrants with rural and non-local hukou working in the Chinese big cities have no or little access to welfare programs provided by local city governments. Second, there exists labor market discrimination against rural hukou holders in cities, especially in the urban high-wage sector such as state-owned enterprises. The current hukou system has a negative impact on rural-to-urban migration in China as well as on economic efficiency and equality by reducing the expected benefits associated with migration.

Are China's Financial Markets Deep and Liquid enough for RMB internationalisation?

Could China internationalise the RMB?

This paper examines the case for China and concludes it is not there yet.  How long?  Perhaps not as long as you might expect.  Obstacles in China have a way of disappearing when they need to.

"The People's Republic of China's Financial Markets: Are They Deep and Liquid Enough for Renminbi Internationalization?"  

ADBI Working Paper 477

PRINCE CHRISTIAN CRUZ, Asian Development Bank

YUNING GAO, Tsinghua University

LEI LEI SONG, Asian Development Bank
 

Domestic financial market development is a key determinant of a currency’s international status, and financial depth and market liquidity are two essential attributes for an international currency. This paper discusses the status of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) financial markets and their depth and liquidity conditions. The paper also compares the PRC’s financial markets with those in developed and emerging economies, contemporaneously and historically. The paper finds that the PRC’s financial markets are not as deep and liquid as those in developed economies, and are much less so than those with international currencies. To support the internationalization of the renminbi, the PRC needs to remove several major obstacles to deepen its financial markets and improve their liquidity conditions.