Demystifying the Chinese Economy

An insightful account of the remarkable transition of the Chinese economy from impoverished backwater to economic powerhouse.

Justin Yifu Lin (Author)

9780521181747, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 October 2011

330 pages, 25 b/w illus. 13 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.52 kg

'A better guide to the Chinese economy, both from a historic and a current aspect would be hard to find … The scope and penetration of this relatively short book is amazing.' Financial Adviser

China was the largest and one of the most advanced economies in the world before the eighteenth century, yet declined precipitately thereafter and degenerated into one of the world's poorest economies by the late nineteenth century. Despite generations' efforts for national rejuvenation, China did not reverse its fate until it introduced market-oriented reforms in 1979. Since then it has been the most dynamic economy in the world and is likely to regain its position as the world's largest economy before 2030. Based on economic analysis and personal reflection on policy debates, Justin Yifu Lin provides insightful answers to why China was so advanced in pre-modern times, what caused it to become so poor for almost two centuries, how it grew into a market economy, where its potential is for continuing dynamic growth and what further reforms are needed to complete the transition to a well-functioning, advanced market economy.

List of figures
List of tables
List of boxes
Preface
1. Opportunities and challenges in China's economic development
2. Why the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions bypassed China
3. The great humiliation and the Socialist Revolution
4. The comparative advantage-defying, catching-up strategy and the traditional economic system
5. Enterprise viability and factor endowments
6. The comparative advantage-following development strategy
7. Rural reform and the three rural issues
8. Urban reform and the remaining issues
9. Reforming the state-owned enterprises
10. The financial reforms
11. Deflationary expansion and building a new socialist countryside
12. Improving the market system and promoting fairness and efficiency for harmonious development
13. Reflections on neoclassical theories
Appendix 1. Global imbalances, reserve currency and global economic governance
Index.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG]