A Review of Articles

Romance of the three Quarters and Schrdingers

Panda
Name: G.V.S Deepak| Roll No: UM15203

Introduction:
The two articles Romance of the three quarters and Schrdingers Panda
talk about the actions of China in two different fields namely Economy and
Scientific Research. Although the fields are different the actions that are
impacting these fields if observed carefully seems to reflect a behavioral
pattern. In this review I have tried to explore the reasons for this kind of
pattern in behavior. Taking a look at summaries of the articles would be
helpful before we delve into the details of the pattern.
Summary of article Romance of Three Quarters
The article talks about the Ups and downs in the Chinese economy in the
recent past. The various economic indicators appear to be strengthening but
this is nowhere close to the double digit growth that China achieved
effortlessly over the past decade. Things have changed for Chinese economy
from 2012. The economy started showing a downward trend despite a
sequence of rapid Ups and Downs. The force behind these fluctuations is the
government of China which provided the Monetary and Fiscal stimulus
whenever growth seems to flatten to keep it line with its annual GDP targets.
Providing the stimulus for economy is a good thing but china has overdone it
which resulted in piles of debt because each leg up in the cycle required
large amounts of lending and a series of policy incentives. This in turn led to
property rally in big cities. This method cannot be sustained because again
when the growth slows down government will not be in a position to give the
necessary push without further increasing the debt. The regulators are
already trying to undo some of these excesses by cracking down on leverage
in financial markets which was the major source of financing in the recent
period. But these reforms will not be sufficient China should resort to more
stringent measures even it means the economy slows down because China
had already passed a stage where it can avoid pain now it has to suffer the
pain rather than much worse later on.
Summary of article Schrdingers Panda
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The article talks about the Chinese obsession with quantity rather than
quality in the field of Scientific Research. The Chinese spending on research
has more than doubled since 2000 reaching to 2.1% of GDP by 2014 while
GDP has almost trebled in the period. The OECD says China will be the
largest spender on R&D by 2019.

Latest announcement by the president Xi Jinping about Chinas Intention to

become a dominant scientific country by 2049(a date chosen because it is
the 100th anniversary of communist takeover) justifies the increasing
expenditure on R&D.
But the problem lies in the fact that despite increasing R&D expenditure
most of the published work remains insubstantial and a worrying amount
fraudulent. Various acclaimed journals have retracted many papers by
Chinese researchers because of suspected fraudulent activity. These
incidents reflect the poor oversight and dodgy research culture both rooted
in academics.
So, Is the huge spending on R&D by china meaningless?? No China is about
to reap some benefits of the spending. Worlds largest single aperture
telescope is due to open this September in Guizohu province and China is
building largest particle collider. There is also some evidence of improving
quality of research. The number of citations of papers by Chinese
researchers has increased from 2011. But this is not enough because the
Americans had 3 times more citations than Chinese with almost same R&D
expenditure.
China has to address the issues of hierarchy and politicization of academics
before it can lead the world in quality and quantity.
Thematic Link
If we look at the above two summaries we can observe the Chinese
obsession with quantity rather than quality. In case of economy they have
tried to boost the growth with debt even though they knew its not the best
way to do it and incase of academics they wanted to be a dominant scientific
country and started spending huge amounts to build largest laboratories and
produce insubstantial publications instead of addressing more fundamental
problems in academics. In both cases the Chinese were aware of the
consequence but still they took those measures. This is what intrigued me.
So I turned to behavioral Science to seek answers. Behavioral research says
the behavior stems from deeply rooted beliefs.

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Now I have turned to Chinese literature to understand the belief that

stimulated this kind of behavior. Then I found the concept of Mainzi or the
concept of face. What this states is that saving the face is the strong
motivating factor for Chinese. Some idioms I have found reflect this ideology.
Men cant live without face, trees cant live without bark.
ren hou lian, shu hou pi

A familys ugliness (misfortune) should never be publicly aired

jai chou bu ke wai yang

Face project
mian zi gong chen
For example, That new expensive airport is just another face project for
local officials to suck up to their bosses.

Evidences of this ideology can be found even in Reality shows like Super
Girl Contest where the prize money is typically shared by winners and losers
unlike the win-lose mentality in other countries.

In the light of above concept the behavior of Chinese makes sense because
in both cases they were trying to save their face. After experiencing double
digit growth for almost a decade they could not accept the fact of slowing
economy so in order to protect their face they have resorted to pumping
more money to stimulate growth even though it meant piling of debt. Similar
is the case of increased spending in R&D, as one of the biggest economies
china has always competed with developed nations and it wanted to
compete in research as well and in order to save its face as a major

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competitor for developed countries it increased spending in R&D hoping it

would help them rather than addressing the institutionalized problems.

Conclusion:
The review of these two articles gave me an insight into how deeply held
beliefs can affect the behavior of even nations and direct their progress.
Being aware of beliefs a country holds can help to build a better informed
Economics and a better policy in the long run.

References:
1. http://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-literature
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_literature
3. http://www.china-mike.com/chinese-culture/understanding-chinesemind/cult-of-face/
4. http://www.2knowmyself.com/how_beliefs_affect_behavior
5. http://rickwarren.org/devotional/english/our-beliefs-determine-ourbehavior
6. Filipe R Compante ,David H Yanagizawa-Drott Does religion affect
economic growth and happiness? evidence from Ramadan , NBER
working paper No-19768,Issued in December 2013.
7. Fedrico Togoni, Elisa Flamini ,How does culture affect economic
development,
8. Luigi guiso, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales, Does Culture affect
Economic Outcomes? Prepared for Journal of Economic Perspectives,
Published in January 2006.

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