IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v9y1997i6p865-875.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

POLICY ARENA: Can Large Firms Be Run Efficiently Without Being Bureaucratic?

Author

Listed:
  • Ha-Joon Chang

    (Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge, UK)

  • Ajit Singh

    (Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge, UK)

Abstract

The article is a critical commentary on the World Bank's analysis of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), as exemplified in its recently-published Report, Bureaucrats in Business. While noting the positive contributions made by the Report, the article criticises the World Bank's understanding of the issues involved in the management of large-scale enterprises, by applying modern theories of the firm. It then critically examines a number of policy issues emphasised in the Report, including the political economy of SOE reform, macroeconomic consequences of SOE reform, the relationship between SOE reform and the financial sector reform, and finally the interpretation of the recent Chinese experience. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Ha-Joon Chang & Ajit Singh, 1997. "POLICY ARENA: Can Large Firms Be Run Efficiently Without Being Bureaucratic?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(6), pages 865-875.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:9:y:1997:i:6:p:865-875
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1328(199709)9:6<865::AID-JID489>3.0.CO;2-S
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nolan, Peter, 1996. "Large Firms and Industrial Reform in Former Planned Economies: The Case of China," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-29, January.
    2. Chang, Ha-Joon, 1993. "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Korea," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 17(2), pages 131-157, June.
    3. McMillan, John & Naughton, Barry, 1992. "How to Reform a Planned Economy: Lessons from China," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 8(1), pages 130-143, Spring.
    4. Ajit Singh, 1994. "Du plan au marché : la réforme maîtrisée en Chine," Revue Tiers Monde, Programme National Persée, vol. 35(139), pages 659-684.
    5. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ha-Joon Chang & Ali Cheema & L. Mises, 2002. "Conditions For Successful Technology Policy In Developing Countries—Learning Rents, State Structures, And Institutions," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(4-5), pages 369-398.
    2. Jiang, Kun & Wang, Susheng, 2017. "A contractual analysis of state versus private ownership," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 142-168.
    3. Ismail Issham & Abdul Samad M Fazilah & Yen Siew Hwa & Anton Abdulbasah Kamil & Azli Azli Ayub & Meor Azli Ayub, 2008. "Economic value added (eva) as a performance measurement for glcs vs non-glcs: evidence from bursa malaysia," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2008(2), pages 168-179.
    4. Christopher Cramer, 2000. "Privatisation and Adjustment in Mozambique: a 'Hospital Pass'?," Working Papers 111, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    5. Wu, Hsueh-Liang, 2011. "Can minority state ownership influence firm value? Universal and contingency views of its governance effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(8), pages 839-845, August.
    6. Jamee K. Moudud, 2010. "Strategic Competition, Dynamics, and the Role of the State," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4241.
    7. He, Xiaolong & Wang, Chaoyi & Yang, Xiaowei & Lai, Zhoujing, 2021. "Do enterprise ownership structures affect financial performance in China's power and gas industries?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    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. Yao, Shujie, 1997. "Profit Sharing, Bonus Payment, and Productivity: A Case Study of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 281-296, June.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Lawrence J. Lau & Yingyi Qian & Gerard Roland, 2000. "Reform without Losers: An Interpretation of China's Dual-Track Approach to Transition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 120-143, February.
    5. 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.
    6. Regina M. Abrami & Yu Zheng, 2010. "The New Face of Chinese Industrial Policy: Making Sense of Anti-Dumping Cases in the Petrochemical and Steel Industries," Harvard Business School Working Papers 11-042, Harvard Business School.
    7. William Jefferies, 2021. "China’s Accession to the WTO and the Collapse That Never Was," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(2), pages 300-319, June.
    8. Cull, Robert & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2000. "Bureaucrats, State Banks, and the Efficiency of Credit Allocation: The Experience of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-31, March.
    9. Helu Jiang & Yu Zheng & Lijun Zhu, 2023. "Entry Barriers and Growth: The Role of Endogenous Market Structure," Working Papers 956, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    10. Jin, Zhangfeng & Pan, Shiyuan, 2020. "Incentive Pay and Firm Productivity: Evidence from China," GLO Discussion Paper Series 479, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    11. Luo, Yadong, 2002. "Partnering with foreign businesses: perspectives from Chinese firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(6), pages 481-493, June.
    12. 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.
    13. O'Connor, Neale G. & Deng, Johnny & Luo, Yadong, 2006. "Political constraints, organization design and performance measurement in China's state-owned enterprises," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 157-177, February.
    14. McGoldrick, Peter & Walsh, P. Paul, 2007. "Successful Factor Market Competition Pre-Privatisation? China`s eclectic.com," Research Technical Papers 3/RT/07, Central Bank of Ireland.
    15. Bai, Chong-en & Wang, Yijiang, 1998. "Bureaucratic Control and the Soft Budget Constraint," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 41-61, March.
    16. ., 2013. "The Needham Puzzle, the Weber Question and China's Miracle: Long Term Performance since the Sung Dynasty," Chapters, in: D. S.P. Rao & Bart van Ark (ed.), World Economic Performance, chapter 3, pages 42-87, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Burawoy, Michael, 1996. "The state and economic involution: Russia through a China lens," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1105-1117, June.
    18. 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.
    19. Johnson, Simon & Kouvelis, Panos & Sinha, Vikas, 1997. "On Reform Intensity under Uncertainty," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 297-321, December.
    20. McMillan, John, 1994. "Policy Paper 11: China’s Nonconformist Reforms," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt9cn9b13c, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.

    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:wly:jintdv:v:9:y:1997:i:6:p:865-875. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    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.