How reform worked in China
Subtitle: the transition from plan to market
By: Yingyi Qian
Publisher: The MIT Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 402
ISBN-13: 9780262534246
Subjects: Mixed economy; Federal government; Central-local government relations; Decentralization in government; Central planning; Economic policy
Description: As China has transformed itself from a centrally planned economy to a market economy, economists have tried to understand and interpret the success of Chinese reform. As the Chinese economist Yingyi Qian explains, there are two schools of thought on Chinese reform: the "School of Universal Principles," which ascribes China's successful reform to the workings of the free market, and the "School of Chinese Characteristics," which holds that China's reform is successful precisely because it did not follow the economics of the market but instead relied on the government. In this book, Qian offers a third perspective, taking certain elements from each school of thought but emphasizing not why reform worked but how it did. Economics is a science, but economic reform is applied science and engineering. To a practitioner, it is more useful to find a feasible reform path than the theoretically best way. The key to understanding how reform has worked in China, Qian argues, is to consider the way reform designs respond to initial historical conditions and contemporary constraints. Qian examines the role of "transitional institutions"--Not "best practice institutions" but "incentive-compatible institutions" - in Chinese reform; the dual-track approach to market liberalization; the ownership of firms, viewed both theoretically and empirically; government decentralization, offering and testing hypotheses about its link to local economic development; and the specific historical conditions of China's regional-based central planning.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgments; title: Introduction: a perspective on reform; title: How reform worked in China; title: Reform without losers : an interpretation of China's dual-track approach to transition / with Lawrence J. Lau and GÃrard Roland; title: Pareto improving economic reforms through dual-track liberalization / with Lawrence J. Lau and GÃrard Roland; title: Institutional environment, community government, and corporate governance : understanding China's township-village enterprises / with Jiahua Che; title: Insecure property rights and government ownership of firms / with Jiahua Che; title: Public vs. private ownership of firms : evidence from rural China / with Hehui Jin; title: Federalism, Chinese style : the political basis for economic success in China / with Gabriella Montinola and Barry R. Weingast; title: Federalism as a commitment to preserving market incentives / with Barry R. Weingast; title: Regional decentralization and fiscal incentives : federalism, Chinese style / with Hehui Jin and Barry R. Weingast; title: Why China's economic reforms differ : the m-form hierarchy and entry/expansion of the non-state sector / with Chenggang Xu; title: Incentives, information, and organizational form / with Eric Maskin and Chenggang Xu; title: Coordinating reforms in transition economies / with GÃrard Roland; title: Notes.