IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/5935.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding China's Economic Performance

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey D. Sachs
  • Wing Thye Woo

Abstract

Broadly speaking, two schools of thought have emerged to interpret China's rapid growth since 1978:the experimentalist school and the convergence school. The experimentalist school attributes China's successes to the evolutionary, experimental, and incremental nature of China's reforms. Specifically, the resulting non-capitalist institutions are said to be successful in (a) agri- culture where land is not owned by the farmers; (b) township and village en- terprises (TVEs) which are owned collectively by rural communities; and (c) state owned enterprises (SOEs) where increased competition and increased wage incentive, not privatization, have been emphasized. The convergence school holds that China's successes are the result of its institutions being allowed to converge with those of non-socialist market economies, and that China's economic structure at the start of reforms is a major reason for the fast growth. China had a high population density heavily concentrated in low-wage agriculture which was favorable for labor-intensive export-led growth in other parts of East Asia. The convergence school also holds that China's gradualism results mainly from a lack of consensus over the proper course, with power divided between market reformers and old-style socialists; and that the 'inno- ative economic circumstances. Perhaps the best test of the two approaches is whether China's policy choices are in fact leading to institutions harmonized with normal market economies or to more distinctive innovations. The recent policy trend has been towards institutional harmonization rather than institutional innovation, suggesting that the government accepts that the ingredients for a dynamic market economy are already well-known.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey D. Sachs & Wing Thye Woo, 1997. "Understanding China's Economic Performance," NBER Working Papers 5935, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5935
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w5935.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Woo Wing Thye & Hai Wen & Jin Yibiao & Fan Gang, 1994. "How Successful Has Chinese Enterprise Reform Been? Pitfalls in Opposite Biases and Focus," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 410-437, June.
    2. Aimin Chen, 1994. "Chinese Industrial Structure in Transition: The Emergence of Stock-offering Firms," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 36(4), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Martin L. Weitzman & Chenggang Xu, 1997. "Chinese Township-Village Enterprises as Vaguely Defined Cooperatives," International Economic Association Series, in: John E. Roemer (ed.), Property Relations, Incentives and Welfare, chapter 12, pages 326-355, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Parker, Elliott, 1997. "The effect of scale on the response to reform by Chinese state-owned construction units," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 331-353, April.
    5. Jiahua Che & Yingyi Qian, "undated". "Insecure Property Rights and Government Ownership of Firms," Working Papers 97050, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    6. Wing Thye Woo, "undated". "Chinese Economic Growth: Sources And Prospects," Department of Economics 96-08, California Davis - Department of Economics.
    7. Chang Chun & Wang Yijiang, 1994. "The Nature of the Township-Village Enterprise," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 434-452, December.
    8. David D. Li, 1996. "A Theory of Ambiguous Property Rights in Transition Economies: The Case of the Chinese Non-State Sector," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 8, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    9. Chongen Bai & David D. Li & Yijiang Wang, 1997. "Why Is the Productivity Analysis Misleading for Gauging State Enterprise Performance?," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 344., Boston College Department of Economics.
    10. Gary H. Jefferson & Thomas G. Rawski, 1994. "Enterprise Reform in Chinese Industry," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 47-70, Spring.
    11. Minami, Ryoshin & Hondai, Susumu, 1995. "An Evaluation of the Enterprise Reform in China: Income Share of Labor and Profitability in the Machine Industry," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 36(2), pages 125-143, December.
    12. Anders Åslund & Peter Boone & Simon Johnson, 1996. "How to Stabilize: Lessons from Post-communist Countries," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 27(1), pages 217-314.
    13. Naughton, Barry, 1994. "Chinese Institutional Innovation and Privatization from Below," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 266-270, May.
    14. Rawski, Thomas G, 1994. "Chinese Industrial Reform: Accomplishments, Prospects, and Implications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 271-275, May.
    15. Woo Wing Thye, 1994. "The Art of Reforming Centrally Planned Economies: Comparing China, Poland, and Russia," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 276-308, June.
    16. Dwight H. Perkins, 1994. "Completing China's Move to the Market," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(2), pages 23-46, Spring.
    17. Sachs, J.D. & Woo, W.T., 1994. "Structural Factors in the Economic Reforms of China, Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union," Papers 94-01, California Davis - Institute of Governmental Affairs.
    18. Parker Elliott, 1995. "Shadow Factor Price Convergence and the Response of Chinese State-Owned Construction Enterprises to Reform," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 54-81, August.
    19. Peter Murrell, 1995. "The Transition According to Cambridge, Mass," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 164-178, March.
    20. Huang,Yiping, 1998. "Agricultural Reform in China," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521620550.
    21. Justin Yifu Lin & Fang Cai & Zhou Li, 1994. "China's economic reforms : pointers for other economies in transition?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1310, The World Bank.
    22. Theodore Groves & Yongmiao Hong & John McMillan & Barry Naughton, 1994. "Autonomy and Incentives in Chinese State Enterprises," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 183-209.
    23. Li, David D., 1996. "A Theory of Ambiguous Property Rights in Transition Economies: The Case of the Chinese Non-State Sector," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-19, August.
    24. Perkins, Dwight Heald, 1988. "Reforming China's Economic System," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 601-645, June.
    25. Wing Thye Woo, "undated". "Chinese Economic Growth: Sources And Prospects," Department of Economics 96-08, California Davis - Department of Economics.
    26. Groves, Theodore & Yongmiao Hong & John McMillan & Barry Naughton, 1995. "China's Evolving Managerial Labor Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(4), pages 873-892, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yingyi Qian, 1999. "The Institutional Foundations of China's Market Transition," Working Papers 99011, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    2. Jeffrey Sachs & Wing Thye Woo, 2003. "China's Economic Growth After WTO Membership," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 1-31.
    3. Wang, Yijiang & Chang, Chun, 1998. "Economic transition under a semifederalist government: The experience of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23.
    4. Mario Biggeri & Danilo Gambelli & Christine Phillips, 1999. "Small and medium enterprise theory: evidence for Chinese TVEs," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(2), pages 197-219.
    5. Ito, Junichi, 2006. "Economic and institutional reform packages and their impact on productivity: A case study of Chinese township and village enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 167-190, March.
    6. Chang, Chun & McCall, Brian P. & Wang, Yijiang, 2003. "Incentive contracting versus ownership reforms: evidence from China's township and village enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 414-428, September.
    7. Goodhart, C. A. E. & Xu, Chenggang, 1996. "The rise of China as an economic power," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3753, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Philippe Dulbecco & Marie-Françoise Renard, 2003. "Permanency and Flexibility of Institutions: The Role of Decentralization in Chinese Economic Reforms," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 16(4), pages 327-346, December.
    9. Jeffrey Sachs & Wing Thye Woo & Xiaokai Yang, 2000. "Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 1(2), pages 423-479, November.
    10. Chenggang Xu, 2011. "The Fundamental Institutions of China's Reforms and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1076-1151, December.
    11. Kung, James Kai-sing & Lin, Yi-min, 2007. "The Decline of Township-and-Village Enterprises in China's Economic Transition," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 569-584, April.
    12. Xu, Cheng-Gang, 2010. "The Institutional Foundations of China?s Reforms and Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 7654, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. C. Goodhart & C. Xu, 1996. "The Rise of China as an Economic Power," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 155(1), pages 56-80, February.
    14. Choe, Chongwoo & Yin, Xiangkang, 2000. "Contract management responsibility system and profit incentives in China's state-owned enterprises," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 98-112.
    15. Bhaumik, Sumon Kumar & Estrin, Saul, 2007. "How transition paths differ: Enterprise performance in Russia and China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 374-392, March.
    16. Harvie, C., 1999. "China's Township and Village Enterprises and their Evolving Business Alliances and Organizational Change," Economics Working Papers wp99-6, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    17. Xu, Cheng-Gang & Guo, Di & Jiang, Kun & Yang, Xiyi, 2017. "Clustering, Growth, and Inequality in China," CEPR Discussion Papers 12543, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Lu, Jiangyong & Tao, Zhigang & Yang, Zhi, 2010. "The costs and benefits of government control: Evidence from China's collectively-owned enterprises," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 282-292, June.
    19. Maria Dacosta & Wayne Carroll, 2001. "Township and Village Enterprises, Openness and Regional Economic Growth in China," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 229-241.
    20. Tian, Guoqiang, 2000. "Property Rights and the Nature of Chinese Collective Enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 247-268, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:5935. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.