This volume, which brings together papers from a seminar held in Beijing in 1996, contains contributions written by Chinese participants as well as by visiting experts from the West. The different experience of the several authors is represented in the unique balance of the book: all the Chinese contributions point out the importance of the environment in economic development, expressing a determination to measure effects as a means to the successful management of natural resources. They concentrate on rather specific issues within the constraints of the prevailing economic situation, where identification and asset pricing tend to be specified by administrative norms. Several of these papers contain interesting and useful statistical information. The papers by the visiting experts also stress the importance of taking account of environmental aspects in deriving indicators relating to economic development.
All the papers, however, reveal that work in this area is still evolving very quickly, sometimes in unexpected directions. This particular juxtaposition of approaches is a valuable record of the situation at a particular point in time when concern about the environment in China is developing rapidly.