This book was completed with the support of many people. First of all, I am very grateful to Professor Christopher Findlay for his encouragement, valuable comments and substantive advice on drafting and publishing this book.

I would like to thank the three referees for their valuable comments and constructive suggestions on the book proposal. I also would like to thank Dr Yan Wu for his technical assistance with the regressions in Chapter 6.

I wish to thank Crawford School of Public Policy of the Australian National University for providing such excellent research facilities. I would like to thank Dr Susanne Holzknecht for her excellent editing of the work. And I also would like to thank Edward Elgar Publishing for publishing the book.

Finally, I would like to give my special thanks to my family for their love, encouragement and support. The understanding and support especially from my wife Tessia have been of immeasurable value throughout the course of my writing this book.