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Is Chinese Variety of Capitalism Really Unique?

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  • Vladimir Popov

    (New Economic School, Moscow)

Abstract

The formal comparison of similarities and differences of Chinese and Western economic models misses the most important point. The uniqueness of China is that it looks very much like a developed country today in terms of institutional capacity of the state, even though it is a developing country according to GDP per capita. Indeed, China should be compared with developing countries today or developed countries a hundred years ago, when their GDP was at the current Chinese level, and this comparison is very much in favour of China. Institutional capacity of the state, according to a narrow definition, is the ability of the government to enforce laws and regulations. While there are a lot of subjective indices (corruption, rule of law, government effectiveness, etc.) that are supposed to measure state institutional capacity, many researchers do not think they help to explain economic performance and instead consider them biased. The natural objective measures of state institutional capacity are the murder rate (noncompliance with the state’s monopoly on violence4) and the shadow economy (non-compliance with the economic regulations). China is rather unique on both measures – one of the lowest indicators in the developing world comparable to developed countries.

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  • Vladimir Popov, 2011. "Is Chinese Variety of Capitalism Really Unique?," Working Papers w0156, New Economic School (NES).
    • Handle: RePEc:abo:neswpt:w0156
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    File URL: https://www.nes.ru/files/Preprints-resh/WP156.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jayati Ghosh, 2007. "Macroeconomics and Growth Policies," Policy Notes 2, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    2. Vladimir Popov, 2006. "Shock Therapy Versus Gradualism Reconsidered: Lessons From Transition Economies After 15 Years Of Reforms," Working Papers w0068, New Economic School (NES).
    3. V. Popov., 2007. "Shock Therapy versus Gradualism: 15 Years Later," VOPROSY ECONOMIKI, N.P. Redaktsiya zhurnala "Voprosy Economiki", vol. 5.
    4. Vladimir Popov, 2007. "Shock Therapy versus Gradualism Reconsidered: Lessons from Transition Economies after 15 Years of Reforms1," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 49(1), pages 1-31, March.
    5. Schneider, Friedrich G., 2007. "Shadow Economies and Corruption All Over the World: New Estimates for 145 Countries," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 1, pages 1-66.
    6. Vladimir Popov, 2009. "Why the West Became Rich before China and Why China Has Been Catching Up with the West since 1949: nother Explanation of the “Great Divergence” and “Great Convergence” Stories," Working Papers w0132, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).
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    1. Popov, Vladimir, 2021. "Why Europe looks so much like China: Big government and low income inequalities," MPRA Paper 106326, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • P30 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems
    • O57 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Comparative Studies of Countries

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