[The paper highlighted today is a ‘preprint’ which means it’s still rough around the edges. Take a look here, Ultra-High-Voltage Lines and Grid Productivity if you wish but I think I’ve got the main points below.] The researcher, Shoi Ming Shoi Ming from the Nanjing University believes this study may be a first in terms […]
Author: Nial Gooding
[For the record, I think the notion AI ‘winners’ is naive. Moreover, the comparison between AI and the introduction of printing is a flawed analogy. However, today’s paper has merit in terms of taking a novel approach to understanding the workings of China’s economic model. If Herr Schumpeter is new to you there’s a primer […]
Justin Ko, (whom I take to be a student) attached to the Harvard University – Harvard Law School; University of Macau, Faculty of Law has noticed China’s local F&B champions are breaking out. In more of a monograph than a paper he wonders why and how this is occurring? Unlike with more well established multinational […]
The IMF write with authority on China as their analysts have good access to the planners. A recent ‘Working Paper’ from Yizhi Xu, Fan Zhang, Rongyu Cui, and Ding Hua takes a look at the current top-of-mind problem in China i.e. personal consumption. Or lack thereof. First, a quick reminder of an important aspect of […]
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The China Rambler – December 2025 Wrap
In a study that’s the subject of today’s highlighted paper Genia Kostka and Hui Zhou, working at the Freie Universität Berlin, present the first cross cultural study of why and how people are using AI for counseling, comfort and emotional support. The table below presents some interesting cultural bias. Chinese users seem to especially enjoy […]
Yinghua Fan, Guanhao Feng and Dashan Huang believe they’ve produced a first in terms of modelling the complete spectrum of investors at work in China’s A-share markets (due to data constraints the study was of just Shanghai from 2007~2023, Shenzhen had to be left out). Many believe stock markets in China are driven by no-nothing […]
I read through most of the paper highlighted today in a bit of harrumph. What I thought Andrew W. Torrance (et al.), from the University of Kansas School of Law writing in an article for the Houston Law Review, was trying to do was set up a ‘straw man’ argument to tear it down. In […]
Like so much that China has done, and is doing, nothing like it in the history of humanity has been seen before. In the case of the paper highlighted today the subject is the extraordinary expansion of higher education that’s taken place starting from 1999. Zhaoxuan Wang from the University of British Columbia has taken […]
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The China Rambler – November 2025 Wrap
In this edition: how we know China stocks are still largely unloved, from a Chongqing visit what their subway tells us about China’s future growth, why Haier Smarthome #06690 is a good company at a fair price and teeing up some of 2025s ‘mulligans’ for 2026.
[I’m not sure highlighting academic work that supports any of my key investing criteria is a smart idea. Especially when it’s a favorable anomaly I’ve benefited from for years. In this case it’s the importance of brand (or market leadership as I prefer to express it). Oh well, sharing is caring, right?] Yigit Atilgan (et […]
When and why has Europe gone so wrong; and what, if anything, can be done about it? These are the issues the trio responsible for today’s paper, from the London School of Economics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the European University Institute, take a closer look at. When did Europe go wrong? Seems to […]
The paper highlighted today provides an analysis of 36 of the largest Bank Holding Companies (BHCs) in the U.S. and finds a one standard deviation increase in AI investment produces a 24% increase in quarterly operational losses. Ouch! The more banks have incorporated AI into their operations the higher risk they’ve exposed themselves to and […]
Writing in a Working Paper for the Institute for New Economic Thinking Servaas Storm from the Delft University of Technology explains how and why the U.S. is inflating an AI-bubble, and concludes this will end badly. The paper makes three main points: For most this (below) may be the most apposite section i.e. the one […]
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The China Rambler – October 2025 Wrap
[An aside: I went to a presentation at the Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts recently to hear about ‘Agentic AI’. The talk was given by a Microsoft representative who was, naturally, praising ‘Copilot’. The audience via their questions could barely suppress their frustration with both AI and their experience with the Copilot. To remind, […]
Writing in an Asian Development Bank Working Paper (#812) Shu Cai, a Professor at Jinan University (et al.) takes a look at a specific example of microfinance in the PRC. This study is important as in recent years the effectiveness of microfinance has been questioned. Studies elsewhere have shown either limited, insignificant or no effects […]
[Me, I’m big on law and order. Not so much the punishment bit as it’s practiced in most of the world. That doesn’t seem to work well in terms of stamping out the problem and is very expensive. Prevention is my preferred route so I was very interested in the findings of the work highlighted […]
[As a useful companion to the paper highlighted today I’d recommend the new(-ish) book ‘Apple in China’ by Patrick McGee. It’s the most useful ‘China Book’ I’ve read in a long while. The book sheds light on how Apple has used China to its advantage but in the process transferred know-how to an ecosystem that […]
Writing in an HKU Business School paper (HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute Paper Series) Marcin T. Kacperczyk of Imperial College London (et al.) set out test whether or not extemporaneous live streaming interviews of fund managers make any difference in terms of assets subsequently flowing into their funds. There’s a large body […]