Ligang Song
Ligang Song is Professor of Economics, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University (ANU).

China's Dilemma »
Economic Growth, the Environment and Climate Change
Edited by: Ligang Song, Wing Thye Woo
Publication date: July 2008
China’s Dilemma—Economic Growth, the Environment and Climate Change examines the challenges China will have to confront in order to maintain rapid growth while coping with the global financial turbulence, some rising socially destabilising tensions such as income inequality, an over-exploited environment and the long-term pressures of global warming.
China’s Dilemma discusses key questions that will have an impact on China’s growth path and offers some in-depth analyses as to how China could confront these challenges. The authors address the effect of the global credit crunch and financial shocks on China’s economic growth; China’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and emissions reduction schemes; the environmental consequences of foreign direct investment in China; the relationship between air pollution and mortality; the effect of climate change on agricultural output; the coal industry’s compliance with tougher regulations; and the constraints water shortages may impose on China’s economy. It also emphasises the importance of managing the rising demand for energy to moderate oil price increases and placating domestic and international concerns about global warming.
In the thirty years since China started on the path of reform, it has emerged as one of the largest and most dynamic economies in the world. This carries with it the responsibility to balance the requirements of key industries that are driving its development with the need to ensure that its growth is both equitable and sustainable. China’s Dilemma highlights key lessons learned from the past thirty years of reform in order to pave the way for balanced and sustained growth in the future.

Japan's Future in East Asia and the Pacific »
Edited by: Mari Pangestu, Ligang Song
Publication date: December 2007
Japan’s Future in East Asia and the Pacific takes a ’big-picture‘ approach to Japan’s economic place in East Asia alongside that of China. It analyses Japan’s successes and experiments in trade policy as well as its failures in macro-economic policy. Japan’s diplomatic and economic integration strategies are also examined for their impact on East Asia and on Australia. The collection assesses China’s growth and dynamism and questions the nature of the competition for economic influence between Japan and China.
Contributors to Japan’s Future in East Asia and the Pacific are all graduates of The Australian National University who are making their mark in the region as scholars and economists on East Asian and Pacific affairs.

China: Linking Markets for Growth »
Edited by: Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song
Publication date: August 2007
China’s prosperity is at the core of the emerging Platinum Age of global economic growth. Rapid economic growth has been underpinned by expansion in its domestic markets, and the integration of domestic and international markets in goods, services, capital, labour and foreign exchange. Global commodity prices have reached historic highs, while China’s capital outflows have helped to hold down interest rates worldwide. Linking markets, both domestic and international, has been key to China’s success.
In sustaining its strong economic growth, China has become one of the world’s most voracious consumers of energy. The challenge now facing the government and people of China is in achieving cooperation with the international community to avert the costs–both economic and environmental–of accelerating energy consumption.
China–Linking Markets for Growth gathers together leading scholars on China’s economic success and its effect on the world economy into the next few decades.

The Turning Point in China's Economic Development »
Edited by: Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song
Publication date: August 2006
The profound economic transformation in China is not a linear process. It is subject to fundamental shifts in its underlying structure. One of those structural transformations will be a shift from unlimited to limited supplies of labour in China’s economic development. Is China approaching this turning point? What are the dynamic forces in driving China moving towards this turning point? What are the economic and policy implications of this turning point in China’s economic transformation and development? The book discusses these important issues by focusing on China’s long-term pattern of growth and employment, demographic shifts and rural-urban migration, its agricultural trade and local elections, China’s banking sector reform and its fiscal sustainability, China’s interaction with the international economy and global imbalances, its industrialisation and its resource and energy demand, was well as its environmental concerns. Contributions to this volume are made by leading analysts from China, the United States and Australia.

The China Boom and its Discontents »
Edited by: Ross Garnaut, Ligang Song
Publication date: October 2005
China is shaping the global economy as never before. An insatiable demand for commodities, energy resources and capital, and deepening integration to the world economy has won China acclaim. Yet 25 years of rapid industrial development, far-reaching economic reforms and increasing international competition have also created an array of challenging domestic policy demands.
The China Boom and its Discontents discusses the financial and social challenges that have emerged in the wake of rapid economic growth. Recent research on demographic trends, labour movements, financial development, social security, urbanisation and trade agreements highlight the unfinished progress of reforms in China.



