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High Corruption Income in Ming and Qing China

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Abstract

We develop an economic model that explains historical data on government corruption in Ming and Qing China. In our model, officials extensive powers result in corrupt income matching lands share in output. We estimate corrupt income to be between 14 to 22 times official income resulting in about 22% of agricultural output accruing to 0.4% of the population. The results suggest that eliminating corruption through salary reform was possible in early Ming but impossible by mid-Qing rule. Land reform may also be ineffective because officials could extract the same rents regardless of ownership. High officials incomes and the resulting inequality may have also created distortions and barriers to change that could have contributed to Chinas stagnation over the five centuries 1400-1900s.

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  • Shawn Ni & Pham Hoang Van, 2005. "High Corruption Income in Ming and Qing China," Working Papers 0503, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.
    • Handle: RePEc:umc:wpaper:0503
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    Cited by:

    1. Bai, Ying, 2019. "Farewell to confucianism: The modernizing effect of dismantling China's imperial examination system," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Tuan-Hwee Sng & Chiaki Moriguchi, 2014. "Asia’s little divergence: state capacity in China and Japan before 1850," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 439-470, December.
    3. Pei Gao, 2015. "Risen from Chaos: What drove the spread of Mass Education in the early 20th century China," Working Papers 0089, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    4. Sng, Tuan-Hwee & Moriguchi, Chiaki, 2013. "Taxation and Public Goods Provision in China and Japan before 1850," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 35, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    5. Yang, Li & Milanović, Branko & Lin, Yaoqi, 2023. "Anti-corruption campaign in China: An empirical investigation," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-052, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Jiwei Qian & Tuan‐Hwee Sng, 2021. "The state in Chinese economic history," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 359-395, November.
    7. Logan (Geng) Li & Zhengwei Wang, 2022. "Understanding the long‐term effects of Keju: The case of entrepreneurship in China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 665-689, October.
    8. Yang, Li & Milanovic, Branko & Lin, Yaoqi, 2023. "Anti-Corruption Campaign in China: An Empirical Investigation," SocArXiv b3jze, Center for Open Science.
    9. Van-Ha Le & Jakob de Haan & Erik Dietzenbacher & Jakob de Haan, 2013. "Do Higher Government Wages Reduce Corruption? Evidence Based on a Novel Dataset," CESifo Working Paper Series 4254, CESifo.
    10. Sng, Tuan-Hwee, 2014. "Size and dynastic decline: The principal-agent problem in late imperial China, 1700–1850," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 107-127.

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    Keywords

    Corruption; China;

    JEL classification:

    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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