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From Mao to market

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Andrew Wedemen argues that China succeeded in moving from a Maoist command economy to a market economy because the central government failed to prevent local governments from forcing prices to market levels. Having partially decontrolled the economy in the early 1980s, economic reformers baulked at price reform, opting instead for a hybrid system wherein commodities had two prices, one fixed and one floating. Depressed fixed prices led to 'resource wars', as localities battled each other for control over undervalued commodities while inflated consumer goods prices fuelled a headlong investment boom that saturated markets and led to the erection of import barriers. Although local rent seeking and protectionism appeared to carve up the economy, in reality they had not only pushed prices to market levels and cleared the way for sweeping reforms in the 1980s, they had also pushed China past the 'pitfalls' of reform that entrapped other socialist economies.

Title From Mao to market : rent seeking, local protectionism, and marketization in China / Andrew H. Wedeman.
Edition 1st ed.
Publisher Cambridge : Cambridge University Press
Creation Date 2003
Notes Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-271) and index.
English
Content 1. The Pitfalls of Reform -- 2. Policy and Institutional Change -- 3. Rent Seeking and Local Protectionism -- 4. Export Protectionism -- 5. Import Protectionism -- 6. Marketization -- 7. Escaping from the Pitfalls.
Series Cambridge modern China series
Extent 1 online resource (xi, 277 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
Language English
National Library system number 997010709573205171
MARC RECORDS

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