Stanford University

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in China

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The purpose of this paper is to present estimations of indicators of direct and indirect interventions of China's government in agriculture. In order to put these indicators in context, the paper reviews China's experience with policy reforms since the 1950s and the measures the effects of these reforms on the agriculture sector. Unfortunately, due to data constraints, we can only produce quantitative measures of distortions since the early 1980s, that is for the past 25 years. Due to the nature of China's agricultural experience over the last six decades, this review emphasizes the sectoral and macroeconomic policies and elements of the institutional framework that have influenced the incentive framework facing the sector and factor markets. The tradeand price/marketing-policy-related changes in incentives for different products are reflected in estimated rates of government assistance (Nominal Rates of Assistance, NRAs, Direct Rates of Assistances, DRAs and consumer subsidies).

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Working Papers
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Scott Rozelle

Reforming Intellectual Property Rights, Bio-safety Management and the Bt Cotton Seed Industry in China: Who Benefits from Policy Reform?

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China has been one of the leaders in agricultural biotechnology research and the adoption of transgenic plants. Despite this, critics argue that Chinese biotechnology policies could be improved to provide more benefits to farmers and more incentives to companies for greater research. The objective of the paper is to examine if policy changes could improve the welfare of producers and consumers and others in the cotton industry. The paper first reviews recent changes in laws and policies that affect China's plant biotechnology sector, IPR legislation, changes in bio-safety regulation and seed industry reforms. Next, using a primary data set collected from more than 1700 plots from a sample of farmers in northern China in 1999, 2000 and 2001, we econometrically estimate the effect of changes to intellectual property rights (IPR), bio-safety regulation and seed industry reform on farmer pesticide use and yields. The results are used as the basis of a simulation exercise designed to measure the size and distribution of the benefits (and costs) of reform. We find that improvements to the IPR environment, enhanced enforcement of China's bio-safety management regulation and greater commercialization of the seed industry positively affect the benefit of producers, consumers and technology providers.

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Scott Rozelle

Journal of Korean Studies, volume 11

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Between 1979 and 1992, the Journal of Korean Studies became a leading academic forum for the publication of innovative in-depth research on Korea. Now under the editorial guidance of Gi-Wook Shin and John Duncan, this journal continues to be dedicated to quality articles, in all disciplines, on a broad range of topics concerning Korea, both historical and contemporary.

This edition's contents:

In Memoriam: James B. Palais

Special Section: Globalization and Korean Society

  1. Introduction: Globalization and Transformation in Contemporary Korean Society - Michael Robinson
  2. The 2002 World Cup and a Local Festival in Cheju: Global Dreams and the Commodification of Shamanism - Kyoim Yun
  3. Consuming Visions: The Crowds of the Korean World Cup - Rachael Miyung Joo
  4. Korean Medicine's Globalization Project and Its Powerscapes - Jongyoung Kim
  5. The Politics of the Family Law Reform Movement in Contemporary Korea: A Contentious Space for Gender and the Nation - Ki-young Shin

Articles

  1. Nation Re-Building and Postwar South Korean Cinema: The Coachman and The Stray Bullet - Kelly Jeong
  2. Is the Samguk yusa Reliable? Case Studies from Chinese and Korean Sources - Richard D. McBride, II

Book Reviews

  1. New Korean Cinema edited by Chi-Yun Shin and Julian Stringer
  2. South Korean Golden Age Melodrama: Gender, Genre, and National Cinema edited by Kathleen McHugh and Nancy Abelmann. Reviewed by Nikki Ji Yeon Lee, Yonsei University
  3. The Guest by Hwang Sok-yong. Reviewed by Jin-kyung Lee, University of California, San Diego
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Books
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Rowman & Littlefield
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Gi-Wook Shin

Michael Mcfaul, Director of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, comments on the political situation in Thailand

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Explaining the apathetic response of the U.S. administration towards the military coup in Thailand, Michael A. McFaul noted that "nobody wants to go to bat for Thaksin. He's just an odious figure." The problem with this approach, he added, is that "democracy's not about picking winners and losers, it's about defending institutions."
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Tsung Chi

Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Visiting Scholar
Chi,_Tsung.JPG PhD

Dr. Tsung Chi is professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles where he teaches comparative politics, East Asian politics, Chinese politics, and research methodology. At Occidental College, he was chair of the Department of Politics from 1999-2002 and chair of the Department of Asian Studies from 2005-2006. His most recent publication is East Asian Americans and Political Participation. He received his B.A. in political science from National Chengchi University in Taiwan and Ph.D. in political science from Michigan State University.

Taiwan's Current Political Dilemma and the Prospects of the Cross-Strait relations

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This is a Special Seminar within the CDDRL Taiwan Democracy Program (co-sponsored with Shorenstein APARC).

Tang Fei was the first premier of Republic of China on Taiwan under the current Chen Shui-bian Government in 2000. Before he was appointed premier, Tang served as minister of national defense (1999-2000), chairman (1998) and vice chairman (1995-98) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commander-in-chief of the Air Force. He also served overseas as a deputy military attaché to the United States (1972-75) and as chief military attaché to South Africa (1979-82).

Premier Tang was a visiting scholar with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in 2002.

In this special seminar, Premier Tang will address the internal conflicts and external challenges that Taiwan has faced since power transition in 2000.

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Tang Fei Former Premier of Republic of China on Taiwan Speaker
Seminars

In North Korea before the War

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For many Koreans, their country's "northern regions" are locked in memory and even mystery. Families that once lived in North Korea still think of their lost hometowns with longing and nostalgia. Wherever they have ended up--in South Korea, America, Europe or elsewhere--and in succeeding generations, there remains an unceasing sense of unrequited loss.

It may seem strange, but Westerners who once lived in North Korea--as missionaries, traders, and, oddly enough, refugees--also share something of these sentiments. They think of missionary childhoods, lost stakes in business, Korean friends, and the special physical qualities of the landscape as part of their own emotional experience.

Donald Clark addressed this foreign experience in his book entitled Living Dangerously in Korea: the Western Experience, 1900-1950 (EastBridge, 2003). This lecture is based on materials in the chapters that deal with foreign life in the north, particularly P'yongyang, in the gold mines in the Unsan district, and in the Russian refugee colony on the northeast coast. It is illustrated from family albums of people who lived there in the 1930s.

Philippines Conference Room

Donald N. Clark Professor Speaker Trinity University
Seminars
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

U.S.-ROK Relations and Korean Perspectives on America: Reflections on a Peace Corps Experience

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Using his personal recollections of his life in the Peace Corps, Michael Robinson will discuss the issues of an evolution of Korean national identity and reflect as well on how political attitudes, perceptions of the U.S., ROK strategic policy, U.S. Cold War posturing, and Peace Corps idealism coexisted and produced its own baffling mix of political, cultural, and social cleavages.

His discussion will continue on how the disconnection of Korean youth from their parents' experience in the ambiguous political culture fostered by Cold War ideology during the late 1960s frees them to be a new kind of patriot and global citizen.

Michael Robinson earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Washington in 1979. He taught at the University of Southern California for sixteen years after which he moved to Indiana University where he is Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and an adjunct Professor of History. He has written extensively on the origins and evolution of Korean nationalism. His first book, "Cultural Nationalism in Colonial Korea" focused on nationalist ideology formation during the 1920s. More recently he has become interested in popular culture and the origins and development of modernity in Korea. With Gi-Wook Shin his "Colonial Modernity in Korea" examined a number of nodes of modernity appearing during the period of Japanese occupation. He has just finished a new book, "Korea's Twentieth Century Odyssey: a Short History" that will be published by the University of Hawaii Press in spring 2007.

Philippines Conference Room

Michael E. Robinson Professor Speaker Indiana University
Seminars
Korean Studies Colloquium Series
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