Teaching Comparative

Economic policies 3

The global economic and financial crisis offers an opportunity to look at policy making in various political systems. We can ask questions about how the policy making process works; about what ideas are most influential; about which people and groups vie for influence in making policies; and about who seem to be the winners and the losers in the process.

Then we can put our comparative hats on and make some

• generalizations about economic policy making
• comparisons of the policy making process and the policies and
• evaluations of the effectiveness of the policies

The third example comes from Chnina.

China's top economic planners explain economic stimulus measures

"China will try to distribute public resources to areas directly benefiting ordinary people, when carrying out the economic stimulus package announced on Nov. 9.

"The statement was made Tuesday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the nation's top economic planning agency...

"The agency said priority would be given to projects improving people's livelihood, including those in rural areas, housing projects for low-income earners in urban areas, and social undertakings...

"Meanwhile, infrastructural construction, embracing railroads, highways and water conservancy projects, and biological conservation and environmental protection as well as post-disaster rebuilding, will also be put on top of the development agenda in the coming two years, according to NDRC..."

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There are links to several related articles at the end of the one cited.

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China VAT reform to help firms cope with financial turmoil

"A senior Chinese official said on Tuesday that the country's value-added tax (VAT) reform would help domestic enterprises to tide over the adverse effects of the financial crisis. ..

"China announced last month to extend its value-added tax (VAT) reform to all industries nationwide from Jan. 1, 2009, as part of the 4 trillion yuan (584 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package in the next two years to buttress economic growth.

"The reform was aimed at shifting from the existing production-based to a consumption-based VAT regime, which would enable companies to get tax deductions on spending on fixed assets, Zheng said, adding that this would reduce the tax burden on companies by more than 123 billion yuan next year..."

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Labels: China, economics, policy, politics

posted by Ken Wedding @ 6:03 AM