The rate of economic growth in China over the last 50 years has been remarkable. However this has only highlighted the inequalities between regions in China, making for considerable disquiet at the highest levels of Chinese policy-making. Not everyone has benefited from the same levels of prosperity and this book examines the many and varied policy solutions and proposals that have been applied to this thorny problem. The authors find that the industrial core of China (the South East and the Changjiang and Yellow River regions) is reasonably well integrated but not well connected to the remainder of the country. Indeed, evidence suggests that development in coastal areas comes at the expense of that in the interior while much of the policy designed to boost the interior actually flows to the coastal provinces. This original analysis of the linkages between regions in China, and regional policy since 1949, will prove an invaluable and illuminating account to a wide readership. This will include academics and researchers of Chinese studies and regional economics as well as policy-makers in the region.

The emergence of a stock market in China only occurred a decade ago and it remains something of an unknown quantity to many observers and traders outside of the country. This book provides an extensive historical and empirical analysis of the Chinese stock-market, the development of which is an integral part of the process of economic modernization that began in China in the late 1970s. The authors address a variety of critical topics to assess the efficiency, predictability and profitability of the Chinese stock-market. They carefully examine the evolution and performance of the market over the past ten years and measure its level of efficiency using an array of empirical studies. The results reveal that not only is the stock market far from efficient but that it has also failed to properly integrate with other regional markets. Thus, the authors propose further reforms which they argue are necessary for the stock market to realize its full potential contribution to the operation of China's financial markets and to its continuing economic development. The stock market in China will undoubtedly grow in importance and international influence during the next ten years. As such, this valuable new book will be required reading for economic researchers, business economists and market analysts, as well as academics with an interest in Chinese business and Asian finance.