| Author: |
Frye, Tony |
| Author affiliations: |
Miami University |
| Publication date: |
2007 |
| Subject terms: |
ECONOMIC ZONE; CHINA; PRC; joint venture; Shanghai |
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Abstract:
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Economic zones (or EZs) have remained the foundation of China’s economic growth since its opening in the late 1970s. China’s economic zones have grown exponentially, with fifty nine official EZs in mainland China, but retain many regional, legal, and sectoral differences. The purpose of this study is twofold. One, investigate the differences, or the lack thereof, between economic zones in the coastal and the non-coastal areas of China. This is accompanied by examining three economic zones (located in the cities of Chongqing, Shanghai, and Yantai), which vary in regional location. Next, a set of typologies are constructed to extract the successful components of economic zones in China, comparing the results of the zones to deduce their degree of similarity in policies and economic growth. The second purpose of the study is to expand on the opening literature by using empirical research, theoretically operationalized into an economic zone model to investigate how the policies of individual economic zones impact investment decisions in a sector-specific study. In particular, this study is looking at the investment decisions of two US automobile manufacturers, Ford and General Motors, in the three Chinese economic zones in the study. By controlling for national and sectoral foreign investment types, this study will measure the similarities, as well as the differences, in strategies and investment choices by the investors in these economic zones. Ultimately, it is the thesis of the study that in terms of policies, growth, and regional (coastal versus non-coastal) status, there is little difference between the economic zones. In addition, there is no significant difference between the two automobile manufacturing companies in their investment choices in the zones in this study. Nevertheless, there are external, intervening variables, such as the importance of cities as growth centers to the existence of economic zones, and joint venture and localization laws as influences on foreign automobile companies. Thus, while the economic zones and investors in this study operate in a more cooperative and competitive environment, it is just as likely those non-coastal economic zones in less developed cities than Chongqing, and non-automobile investors, experience a differentiated comparison |
| Database: |
书籍类 |