International collaboration is considered to exert a positive effect on research performance. However, the impact of international collaboration on the performance of research institutions is under-documented. This paper fills the void in the literature by utilizing InCites data of 1,067 Chinese research organizations. The main results show that international collaboration promotes the performance of research organizations in general, but the effect varies according to the types of institutions. The organizations in less-developed regions are more affected by international collaborations than those in developed regions. The empirical results also demonstrate that the United States is the most important scientific collaborator of China.

The emergence of production networks has changed the structure of international trade, which is characterized by a large share of intra-regional trade flows and a rising value of intermediate goods trade or network trade between countries within the same region. This paper investigates the change in impact of trade determinants with the formation of regional production networks. At the global level, the results show that intermediate goods exports are more sensitive to trade barriers than total goods exports. At the regional level, the comparison reveals that, despite the efforts directed toward export market diversification in East Asia, the region is still more dependent on other regions’ economic conditions than the European Union is.

This paper investigates the impacts of financial development, urbanization, and globalization on income inequality in China by applying a regression-based inequality decomposition approach to panel data on Chinese provinces. Provincial data on urbanization and globalization are combined with new data collected from a unique database of financial development in China compiled at the county level. Our findings suggest that financial development, urbanization, and globalization have a positive impact on income. However, our inequality decomposition suggests that financial development may be particularly important for promoting inclusive growth, since financial development not only stimulates economic growth but is also found to be a factor that reduces inequality.

This paper aims to evaluate whether national science and technology programs in China help boost private investment in research and development and improve firms’ productive efficiency and innovation performance. The empirical analysis is based on a survey of 443 innovative firms in China during the period of 2008–11. A matching estimator together with a difference-in-difference approach is employed to investigate the effect of undertaking national science and technology programs. The results show that the effectiveness of national science and technology programs may be over-estimated. There are also heterogeneous effects across firms of different sizes and ownership and with different programs.

Profitability provides a yardstick for judging the operational efficiency, growth, and survival of a business enterprise. This study investigates the determinants of firm profitability in the Chinese manufacturing sector, with a focus on the impact of foreign entry on the profitability of domestic firms. Our findings show an inverted-U relationship between foreign entry and the profitability of domestic firms. Furthermore, we also find that the effect of foreign entry on domestic firm profitability varies according to the ownership structure of domestic firms and the export intensity of foreign newcomers.