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China's Agricultural Crisis and Famine of 1959-61: A Survey and Comparison to Soviet Famines

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Author Info
Dennis Tao Yang

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Abstract

China?s Great Leap Forward (GLF) of 1958-61, a campaign of unprecedented mobilization efforts to achieve rapid industrialization, ended as a catastrophe. National grain production collapsed and a widespread famine claimed millions of human lives. This paper reviews a growing economic literature on this historical crisis. While multiple causes are hypothesized, empirical findings suggest that the collapse of grain production was primarily attributable to a systematic failure in central planning, involving the diversion of agricultural resources to industry and excessive grain procurements that precipitated malnutrition among peasants and decimation of labor productivity. The resulting decline in grain availability, as well as urban bias in China?s food distribution system, became the main culprits of the enormous famine. In light of the Chinese experience, this paper also explores the role of defective planning in the Soviet famines of 1931-3 and 1947.

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File URL: ftp://128.173.173.165/Papers/Yang/Survey-CES-Yang-VT.pdf
File Format: application/pdf
File Function: First version, 2007
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number e07-4.

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Length: 42 pages
Date of creation: 2007
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:vpi:wpaper:e07-4

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Postal: Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
Web page: http://www.econ.vt.edu
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Keywords: central planning food supply famine urban bias China USSR

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Lin, Justin Yifu & Yang, Dennis Tao, 1998. "On the causes of China's agricultural crisis and the great leap famine," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 125-140. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Sherwin Rosen, 1999. "Potato Paradoxes," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages S294-29, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Gale Johnson, D., 1998. "China's great famine: Introductory remarks," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 103-109. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Wei Li and Dennis Tao Yang, 2005. "The Great Leap Forward: Anatomy of a Central Planning Disaster," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(4), pages 840-877, August.
  5. Sen, Amartya, 1983. "Development: Which Way Now?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 93(372), pages 742-62, December.
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This page was last updated on 2008-8-11.


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