Chinese named as World Bank's chief economist

Justin Lin Yifu, a top economist from China has just been named the next chief economist by the World Bank. Yifu, who is PhD. In Economics from the University of Chicago is one of the front runner of development economics. He is also the first person from a developing country to hold that prestigious appointment and with this many is hoping that this will help World Bank to better understand the needs of the developing countries to implement effects policies and investment in the developing countries.

Is China ready ?

Heavy blizzards in January have left China's transportation system and power networks disrupted leaving a chaos of Chinese travelers stranded, days before the Chinese New Year. Such a disaster hitting the fastest growing country in the world will make you ponder if China is ready for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The disruption in transportation systems is a sign that the country is reaching the “physical growth limits” as the WSJ puts it. Millions of their rural people have migrated to the urban areas like Shanghai and Beijing to experience the phenomenal economics growth in the region. Such a large migration to and for the rural and urban areas make a significant strain on the transportation system which is most train networks.

So looking a how fragile China's infrastructure is, will China be ready for their big event this year – the 2008 Beijing Olympics ? Where the influx of millions of spectators and tourists to the country during that period will certainly post a logistical problem to the country.

The answer is, most probably they would be. Billions has been spent by the Chinese government to develop the infrastructure in Beijing including the a major expansion to the subway station in Beijing. When it is ready, the subway network will have double the number of lines that they currently have. Furthermore, extra thousands of buses and cabs will be made available at that time. These developments show that Beijing would have the infrastructure capability to handle the extra capacity in August, as most of the development have been concentrated here. The current disaster only shows the gross misallocation of resources that have been concentrated in the urban areas of China.

How does the top economists rank in terms of research

I got this off Greg Mankiw's blog, the rankings of economist in terms of the research output by REPEC (Research Papers in Economics).

The rankings, which Robert Barro tops, is found here.

Also, there rankings of economic institutions are also presented here. Sadly, I do not see NUS anywhere in the list.

Is Yahoo enough for Microsoft to compete with Google ?

Microsoft's attempt to break Google's Internet dominance by buying up Yahoo has brought shock waves around the tech and financial industry. The takeover bid of US$45 billion would be the biggest the industry has ever seen. But the important question is, is Yahoo worth it ?

Market share
Google remains unshakable with about 60 percent (and growing) of the search engine market share. Microsoft and Yahoo combined would only bring their to about 15 percent. With such a large gap, Google may just feel a ripple, though that has not stop the Internet Giant from accusing the takeover as monopolistic.

Benefits
If the bid goes through, Microsoft will gain Yahoo's rich web applications (like Flickr, del.icio.us, community groups) to compete with the Google Apps. Furthermore, research and development by both companies could lead to the integration of Microsoft desktop application with Yahoo's web application. If that happens, Yahoo might just be worth the money.