IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/cidhav/43.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey D. Sachs
  • Wing Thye Woo
  • Xiaokai Yang

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between economic reforms and constitutional transition, which has been neglected by many transition economists. It is argued that assessment of reform performance might be very misleading if it is not recognized that economic reforms are just a small part of large scale of constitutional transition. Rivalry and competition between states and between political forces within each country are the driving forces for constitutional transition. We use Russia as an example of economic reforms associated with constitutional transition and China as an example of economic reforms in the absence of constitutional transition to examine features and problems in the two patterns of transition. It is concluded that under political monopoly of the ruling party, economic transition will be hijacked by state opportunism. Dual track approach to economic transition may generate very high long-term cost of constitutional transition that might well outweigh its short-term benefit of buying out the vested interests.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey D. Sachs & Wing Thye Woo & Xiaokai Yang, 2000. "Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition," CID Working Papers 43, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
  • Handle: RePEc:wop:cidhav:43
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidwp/pdf/043.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shleifer, Andrei, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Scholarly Articles 33077889, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    2. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    3. Yingyi Qian, 1994. "Incentives and Loss of Control in an Optimal Hierarchy," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(3), pages 527-544.
    4. Qian, Yingyi & Roland, Gerard, 1998. "Federalism and the Soft Budget Constraint," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(5), pages 1143-1162, December.
    5. 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.
    6. Gérard Roland, 2004. "Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets, and Firms," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026268148x, December.
    7. Kreps,David M. & Wallis,Kenneth F. (ed.), 1997. "Advances in Economics and Econometrics: Theory and Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521589819.
    8. Yew-Kwang Ng & Xiaokai Yang, 2005. "Specialization, Information, And Growth: A Sequential Equilibrium Analysis," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: An Inframarginal Approach To Trade Theory, chapter 20, pages 447-474, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. 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.
    10. North, Douglass C, 1994. "Economic Performance through Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(3), pages 359-368, June.
    11. Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1997. "Federalism as a Commitment to Reserving Market Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 83-92, Fall.
    12. Cheung, Steven N S, 1974. "A Theory of Price Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 17(1), pages 53-71, April.
    13. Granick, David, 1990. "Chinese State Enterprises," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226305882, October.
    14. Jian, Tianlun & Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Warner, Andrew M., 1996. "Trends in regional inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21.
    15. Andrei Shleifer, 1998. "State versus Private Ownership," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 133-150, Fall.
    16. Yang, Xiaokai & Wang, Jiangou & Wills, Ian, 1992. "Economic growth, commercialization, and institutional changes in rural China, 1979-1987," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(1), pages 1-37.
    17. Qian, Yingyi, 1994. "A Theory of Shortage in Socialist Economies Based on the "Soft Budget Constraint."," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 145-156, March.
    18. Gary Burtless, 1995. "International Trade and the Rise in Earnings Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(2), pages 800-816, June.
    19. North, Douglass C. & Weingast, Barry R., 1989. "Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 803-832, December.
    20. Andrei Shleifer & Robert Vishny, 1992. "Pervasive Shortages under Socialism," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 23(2), pages 237-246, Summer.
    21. Steven N. S. Cheung, 1996. "A Simplistic General Equilibrium Theory Of Corruption," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 14(3), pages 1-5, July.
    22. Xiaokai Yang & He-Ling Shi, 2005. "Specialization And Product Diversity," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: An Inframarginal Approach To Trade Theory, chapter 12, pages 249-259, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    23. Xiaokai Yang & Yew-Kwang Ng, 2006. "Theory Of The Firm And Structure Of Residual Rights," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Christis Tombazos & Xiaokai Yang (ed.), Inframarginal Contributions To Development Economics, chapter 10, pages 231-258, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    24. Li, Wei, 1997. "The Impact of Economic Reform on the Performance of Chinese State Enterprises, 1980-1989," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1080-1106, October.
    25. Kreps,David M. & Wallis,Kenneth F. (ed.), 1997. "Advances in Economics and Econometrics: Theory and Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521589833.
    26. Hehui Jin & Yingyi Qian, 1998. "Public Versus Private Ownership of Firms: Evidence from Rural China," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 113(3), pages 773-808.
    27. Byrd, William, 1983. "Enterprise-Level Reforms in Chinese State-Owned Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(2), pages 329-332, May.
    28. Alwyn Young, 1998. "Growth without Scale Effects," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(1), pages 41-63, February.
    29. Heling Shi & Xiaokai Yang, 2006. "A New Theory Of Industrialization," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Christis Tombazos & Xiaokai Yang (ed.), Inframarginal Contributions To Development Economics, chapter 17, pages 437-460, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    30. Naughton Barry, 1994. "What Is Distinctive about China's Economic Transition? State Enterprise Reform and Overall System Transformation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 470-490, June.
    31. Li, D.D., 1994. "The Behavior of the Chinese State Enterprises Under the Dual Influence of the Government and the Market," Papers 94-07, Michigan - Center for Research on Economic & Social Theory.
    32. Kornai, Janos, 1992. "The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287766.
    33. Chang Chun & Wang Yijiang, 1994. "The Nature of the Township-Village Enterprise," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 434-452, December.
    34. Jiahua Che, 2000. "From the Grabbing Hand to the Helping Hand," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 58, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    35. 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.
    36. Chong-En Bai & David D. Li & Yingyi Qian & Yijiang Wang, 1999. "Anonymous Banking and Financial Repression: How Does China's Reform Limit Government Predation without Reducing Its Revenue?," Working Papers 99014, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    37. Kornai, Janos, 1986. "The Hungarian Reform Process: Visions, Hopes, and Reality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(4), pages 1687-1737, December.
    38. Xiaokai Yang & Robert Rice, 2006. "An Equilibrium Model Endogenizing The Emergence Of A Dual Structure Between The Urban And Rural Sectors," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Christis Tombazos & Xiaokai Yang (ed.), Inframarginal Contributions To Development Economics, chapter 8, pages 167-194, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    39. Perkins, Dwight Heald, 1988. "Reforming China's Economic System," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 601-645, June.
    40. Xiaokai Yang, 1994. "Endogenous vs. exogenous comparative advantage and economies of specialization vs. economies of scale," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 60(1), pages 29-54, February.
    41. Kreps,David M. & Wallis,Kenneth F. (ed.), 1997. "Advances in Economics and Econometrics: Theory and Applications," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521589826.
    42. Naughton, Barry, 1994. "Chinese Institutional Innovation and Privatization from Below," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 266-270, May.
    43. Yew-Kwang Ng & Xiaokai Yang, 2005. "Specialization, Information, And Growth: A Sequential Equilibrium Analysis," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: An Inframarginal Approach To Trade Theory, chapter 20, pages 447-474, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    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. Liu, Wai-Man & Ngo, Phong, 2012. "Voting with Your Feet: Political Competition and Internal Migration in the United States," MPRA Paper 43601, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Shiuh-Shen Chien & Ian Gordon, 2008. "Territorial Competition in China and the West," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 31-49.
    3. Yang, Xiaokai, 2001. "China's entry to the WTO," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 437-442.
    4. Huaide Wen & Jun Dai, 2021. "Green Technological Progress and the Backwardness Advantage of Green Development: Taking the Sustainable Development Strategy of Central and Western China as an Example," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Rangamohan V. Eunni & Tatiana S. Manolova, 2012. "Are The Bric Economies Entrepreneur-Friendly? An Institutional Perspective," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(02), pages 171-202.
    6. Labrousse, Agnès, 2010. "Nouvelle économie du développement et essais cliniques randomisés : une mise en perspective d’un outil de preuve et de gouvernement," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 7.
    7. Wang, Chan, 2012. "A very preliminary survey on growth and development," MPRA Paper 39037, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Sean M. Dougherty & Robert H. McGuckin, 2001. "The Effect of Ownership Structure and Jurisdictional Governance on Productivity in Chinese Enterprises," Economics Program Working Papers 02-01, The Conference Board, Economics Program, revised Jan 2002.
    9. Xiaowen Tian, 2017. "Learning breakdown in latecomer multinational enterprises," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 823-850, December.
    10. Justin Lin & David Rosenblatt, 2012. "Shifting patterns of economic growth and rethinking development," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 171-194.
    11. Jeffrey Sachs & Xiaokai Yang & Dingsheng Zhang, 2005. "Globalization, Dual Economy, And Economic Development," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: An Inframarginal Approach To Trade Theory, chapter 16, pages 349-382, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    12. Justin Yifu Lin, 2007. "Development and Transition : Idea, Strategy, and Viability," Development Economics Working Papers 22709, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    13. Cheng, Wenli & Yang, Xiaokai, 2004. "Inframarginal analysis of division of labor: A survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 137-174, October.
    14. Jian Li & Kunrong Shen & Ru Zhang, 2011. "Measuring Knowledge Spillovers: A Non-appropriable Returns Perspective," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 12(2), pages 265-293, November.
    15. Tran, Hien Thu & Santarelli, Enrico, 2018. "Successful Transition to a Market Economy in Vietnam: An Interpretation from Organizational Ecology Theory," GLO Discussion Paper Series 181, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Enrico Colombatto, 2006. "Law, Economics and the Institutional Approach to Development and Transition: towards an Evolutionary Perspective," ICER Working Papers 7-2006, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    17. Piet van Gennip, 2005. "Loan Extension in China: a Rational Affair," DNB Working Papers 037, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    18. Shaomin Li & Kiran Karande & Dongsheng Zhou, 2009. "The Effect of the Governance Environment on Marketing Channel Behaviors: The Diamond Industries in the U.S., China, and Hong Kong," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(3), pages 453-471, October.

    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. Cheng, Wenli & Yang, Xiaokai, 2004. "Inframarginal analysis of division of labor: A survey," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 137-174, October.
    3. Xu, Cheng-Gang, 2010. "The Institutional Foundations of China?s Reforms and Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 7654, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Loren Brandt & Hongbin Li & Joanne Roberts, 2001. "Why do Governments Privatize," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 429, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    7. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    8. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Wing Thye Woo, "undated". "Understanding China'S Economic Performance," Department of Economics 97-04, California Davis - Department of Economics.
    9. Nauro F. Campos & Abrizio Coricelli, 2002. "Growth in Transition: What We Know, What We Don't, and What We Should," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(3), pages 793-836, September.
    10. 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.
    11. Wang, Qian & Wong, T.J. & Xia, Lijun, 2008. "State ownership, the institutional environment, and auditor choice: Evidence from China," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 112-134, September.
    12. Jiahua Che, 2003. "The Life Cycle of Government Ownership," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 2003-627, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    13. Boudewijn Bouckaert, 2007. "Bureaupreneurs in China: we did it our way," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 169-195, April.
    14. Hsiao, Cheng & Nugent, Jeffrey & Perrigne, Isabelle & Qiu, Jicheng, 1998. "Shares versus Residual Claimant Contracts: The Case of Chinese TVEs," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 317-337, June.
    15. 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.
    16. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3860 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Cull, Robert & Xu, Lixin Colin & Yang, Xi & Zhou, Li-An & Zhu, Tian, 2017. "Market facilitation by local government and firm efficiency: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 460-480.
    18. Patrick Francois & Joanne Roberts, 2003. "Contracting Productivity Growth," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 59-85.
    19. Che, Jiahua, 2002. "Rent Seeking and Government Ownership of Firms: An Application to China's Township-Village Enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 787-811, December.
    20. Yang, Qing Gong & Temple, Paul, 2012. "Reform and competitive selection in China: An analysis of firm exits," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 286-299.
    21. Thorsten Beck & Luc Laeven, 2006. "Institution building and growth in transition economies," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 157-186, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    constitutional transition; economic reform; division of labor; debate of shock therapy vs gradualism; debate of convergence vs institutional innovation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K1 - Law and Economics - - Basic Areas of Law
    • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist
    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • P20 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wop:cidhav:43. 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: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ciharus.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.