Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice

We discuss optimal privatisation policies in mixed oligopolies in which a public firm is the Stackelberg follower (private leadership). We find that under constant marginal cost, the optimal degree of privatisation is zero. When the marginal cost is increasing, however, the optimal degree is never zero, and full privatisation can be optimal. These results suggest that the optimal privatisation policy depends on the cost conditions. We also find that the optimal degree of privatisation is substantially lower under private leadership than in the simultaneous-move model when there is no cost difference between public and private firms.

The rise of China as a global economic power has caused concern that a crisis in Chinese banking could lead to a worldwide downturn similar to the Global Financial Crisis. Early warning indicators, such as the credit-to-GDP gap and the debt service ratio, are worrying. It is, therefore, worthwhile to study the key factors affecting bank deposits in China. We estimate a dynamic panel model applied to a panel of 63 Chinese banks and find that bank-specific fundamentals, as opposed to macroeconomic factors, are the main drivers of changes in bank deposits.

JEL: E44, G21, G28

This article explores the contradictory relation between globalisation and crisis in the Korean capitalism since the 1990s. After formulating the relation between globalisation and crisis from the perspective of Marxian theory of world market crisis, this article overviews the process of globalisation in Korea after the 1990s, focusing on foreign trade, capital export and global value chains. In addition, this article empirically examines the relation between globalisation and crises in the Korean capitalism by analysing the trend of Marxian ratios, including rate of profit. Based on the case study on the Korean capitalism, this article concludes that globalisation is not the cause of but the capitalist responses to the economic crises.

This article investigates the effect of physical and human capital formation on the productivity growth of China. We focus on the market reform factors including ownership shifts, population policy, openness and fiscal expenditures on education, and the convergence of productivity growth within the traditional four economic regions of China. We find that Chinese economic miracle is mainly pushed by the (physical) capital service rather than human capital. The physical capital inputs contribute even more to the economic growth of China since the returns to education decrease with the education expansion and increasing tuition fees after 1994. The four economic regions of China show different growth patterns. The capital inputs mostly help the labour productivity (LP) growth of the West region and the wage growth of the interior region, but human capital formation contributes to the total factor productivity (TFP) of all four regions. Moreover, provinces within each region present strong evidence of convergence of productivity growth. The convergence is most prominent for the provinces within the Northeast and Coastal regions for LP and TFP growth, suggesting fast technology spillovers within these regions.

This article tries to extricate the rationale behind China’s transition debate in the Maoist era (1949–1978). Using a re-casted theory of historical materialism (HM) to posit the shared ground of engagement of Chinese Marxists, I unpack the emergence of two competing development strategies for socialist transition, one which foregrounds forces of production (FOP) as the prime mover of this transition and the other class struggle to change relations of production (ROP) as the determining factor. I conclude by briefly discussing the shift from Mao Tse-tung to Deng Xiaoping’s era as a resolution of the development strategy in favour of the development of FOP as the key to China’s socialist transition.