China's Rural Economy Research Articles

The rural economy in China and Russia – what is different? Is there a lesson for Russia?

Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. Title Rural Economy in China and Russia What is Different? Is there a Lesson for Author(s) Cuddy, Michael.; Lijun, Qian. Publication Date 2004 Publication Information Lijun, Q., Cuddy M., (2004) The Rural Economy in China and Russia What is Different? Is there a Lesson for Russia? (Working Paper No. 0083) Department of Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway. Publisher National University of Ireland, Galway

China’s rural economy and the path to a modern industrial state

In examining China's rural economy and the path to modernization,we focus our works on three of the important development indicators:agricultural productivity,commodity and land rental markets.China's agricultural RD system is capable of generating technologies and technology-driven growth has become one of the main means of raising the returns in agriculture.Commodity markets are becoming remarkably integrated within and across regions.Although the emergence of land markets has been fairly recent,in the past decade they have begun to develop fairly quickly.These results imply that China is making strong progress in generating sustained growth environment in the path to modernization.

FOSTERING OR STRIPPING RURAL CHINA: MODERNIZING AGRICULTURE AND RURAL TO URBAN CAPITAL FLOWS

The present study focuses on the flow of fiscal and financial resources in China's rural economy during the first two decades of reform. Specifically, we seek to quantify the nature and direction of the capital flows between agriculture and the non-agricultural sectors and between the rural and non-rural sectors. We track identify the flows of three main sources of capital: fiscal flows, financial shifts through the formal banking system, and the implicit taxes that are moving through the grain system as a result of payment of in-kind (e.g., delivery quotas by farmers). Through this analysis, we provide policy makers with a set of measures showing that although in recent years the agriculture-to-industry and rural-to-urban flows have appeared to reverse themselves, as late as 2000 it does not appear as if the government is not directing enough resources into the rural economy. Greater flows, however, are needed if rural China is to modernize.

Trade and Investment Liberalization and China's Rural Economy: Impacts and Policy Responses

While the forces of development and transition have been in part responsible for generating the progress that rural China has experienced during the past 20 years as well as being responsible for some of the remaining barriers, the nation's efforts at pushing ambitious Trade and Investment Liberalization (TIL) policies threaten to further accentuate the trends in rural China. Surprisingly, however, even though the potential for gain and for damage is great, almost no literature exists to answer some of the most basic questions about the proposed efforts to push TIL. On balance, will TIL policies help or hurt rural residents? How will they affect rural incomes? How will they affect rural employment in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors? What policies can the government adopt to reduce the harmful effects and enhance the positive benefits? The general goal of my essay will be to begin the discussion of these critical questions. In particular, I will attempt to meet this broad goal by pursuing four objectives: First, I will review the rural economy's record on income generation. Second, I will review the rural economy's record on employment. Third, I will attempt to assess the net results of the positive and negative impacts that TIL policies may have on rural incomes and employment. Finally, I will discuss a number of alternative policies that leaders may consider adopting to reduce TIL's costs and increase its benefits. To meet this goal, I will organize the rest of this paper as follows. In the first section, I will first review China's macro setting and discuss a number of the important macro-forces that may have important impacts on rural incomes. I then trace out the record of rural incomes during the reform era. In the second section, I examine in more detail the record on employment in the rural economy during the past two decades. The purpose of the first two sections will be to motivate the third section: a discussion of how TIL policies may help and hurt incomes and employment in rural China. Finally, the last section concludes with a discussion of policies that may assist policy makers in dealing with the cost and benefits of TIL policies.

The Impact of Trade Liberalization on China's Agriculture and Rural Economy

This paper analyzes the effect of China's trade liberalization process on the nation's rural economy. Although some leaders fear there will be substantial negative effects on China's rural sector and food security, a closer examination shows that the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession is part of a longer-term, efficiency-enhancing process of liberalization and opening to the outside world. When analyzed from this angle, the impacts of WTO reform, while not trivial, reflect trends already evident, many of which are positive. For example, while WTO accession may accelerate price decreases for certain crops, such as wheat and corn, prices should rise and export opportunities should increase for commodities such as meats, fruit, and fish. Rural wages in most sectors that employ rural workers should also rise. Finally, this paper describes a number of different ways that China and its rural residents will be able to protect themselves after trade rules are liberalized.

Emerging markets, evolving institutions, and the new opportunities for growth in China's rural economy

In this essay, our goal is to assess the state of China's rural economy and examine whether rural China is capable of participating in the sequence of economic events that will lead to modernization. We examine how agricultural productivity has changed, the nature of the shift of labor moving from rural to urban areas, how commodity markets have evolved, and how the rural industrial sector is adjusting the recent reforms. According to our own work and that of others, we show how the rural economy is beginning to be fundamentally transformed and is contributing to China's modernization.

China's rural economy in the first decade of the 21st century: problems and growth constraints

China's rural economy in the first decade of the 21st century: problems and growth constraints

Land Rights in Rural China: Facts, Fictions and Issues

China's rural economic reforms radically altered land tenure in rural China. With the granting of land use rights and residual income rights to farming households between 1979 and 1983, agriculture shifted from a collective-based to a familybased system. Land was not privatized, however. Ownership remained "collective", with local officials, typically at the village level, exercising a major influence over the allocation of land and the way households could use land. The initial land allocations to families were typically based on household size, household labour supply, or both. The central government's policy was that these allocations were supposed to be for 15 years. In some villages, land use contracts have been respected; in other villages, however, local leaders have periodically redistributed land among households and have intervened throughout the reform period to determine how farmers are able to use the land. The initial reforms triggered an unprecedented acceleration of agricultural growth in China. From 1979 to 1984, the gross value of agricultural output increased in real terms at an annual rate of 7.6 per cent, and grain production rose by 4.9 per cent annually.' Empirical studies attribute a significant part of this increase to enhanced incentives, as farmers were able to keep the output and

Wang An-kuo's Jade Rewards and Millet Dream (review)

502 China Review International: Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 1997 All in all, this book is filled with fascinating insights into China's rural economy at an important stage in its development. Ben Stavis Temple University Ben Stavis is an associate professor ofpolitical science and Director ofthe Asian Studies Program at Temple University. He has a long-standing interest in rural development in China. Jonathan Pease. WangAn-kuo's Jade Rewards and Millet Dream. American Oriental Society Series, vol. 77. New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1994. iv, 106 pp. Hardcover $18.00, isbn 0-940490-77-3. Jonathan Pease's tide reflects the discrepancy between ambition and reality in the life ofWang Anshi's younger brother, Wang Anguo 315SrS (1028-1074). Wang Anguo himselfhinted at this discrepancy in the third couplet of his "Plum Blossoms " (flgfb): mtntämöm Wade into the world; why not for white jade disks? Flowing years may not reach [even] the Yellow Millet. This is my translation (cf. pp. 4 and 60), but though Pease and I read the second line differentiy, I think we see the same ambivalence in the poet's attitude. Most ofWang's contemporaries would have aligned themselves (if not in life, at least in verse) with Zhuangzi's scorn for the white ceremonial jade disks that would have been his reward for accepting the post ofprime minister in Chu; and when they alluded to the tale of the man experiencing in dream the anguish of an up-thendown official career in the time it took to cook yellow millet for his dinner, they would have done so as a warning against ambition. Wang Anguo's rejection of these commonplaces is unusual, but he cannot reject them without evoking them, and so they remain along the borders ofhis consciousness. Having read Pease's biography of the man, we know that despite the bravado of this couplet, Anguo© 1997 by University. (b± ° m*m&± ° ^p??2&& ' T-mñ2Mm (Peiwenyunfu, 2020.2). If this is relevant at all to Wang's use of "self and "that one"/"other," he may be saying that he wishes to remain detached from the world of sense impressions and the emotional turmoil that comes with it. Pease's line permits this reading but requires a gloss. Page 65, ^FittUd (error for: H) / InBMhAMB: "those do not seem to be willows dangling / that yet fly / into the deep-doored chamber / blossoms" misses the point that "you are not as good as the willows / that still know enough to let fly their blossoms / into my deep-doored chamber." My translation could be revised depending on whether one thinks the speaker is a woman addressing the man, or the man addressing his dreaming soul, but the italicized part is crucial. Page 66, Ills]B^ Ï?MU: for "when dreams bring back bright moons that pierced the curtain" I suggest "my dream returns—the bright moon pierces the curtain." Pease's version has the advantage of a pleasant meter, and his idea that the poet is recalling several occasions on which the moon was seen is expressed ingeniously by pluralizing "moon," but for hui to have a transitive meaning ("bring back") here would be most unusual. [Pease] Noble footsteps glad to rank with the mountains' daring; In probing them you hope To pit against the sea for depth, (p. 76) [Sargent] On that fine outing, who cared that a mountain must be steep? Probing deeply you would contest with the sea for profundity. I'm not sure I have grasped what Wang Anshi is trying to do here, although he must be referring to the Yangtze island Jinshan and perhaps a certain monk, both ofwhich figure in the theme of the poem. My suggestions are on the level oflexicon . Shengjian (Pease's "noble footsteps") is used once by Su Shi, with the meaning of "an unusually scenic spot [where one has come] to walk." Ken lun (Pease's Reviews 509 "glad to rank with") is probably equivalent to the rhetorical JaUr, "how could one care whether. ..." Whether or not Wang Anshi is alluding to it, I think Han Yu's line "[the essence of] a fine spot is yet in its being steep...

Rural-to-urban migration in China.

"One consequence of economic reform in China has been the greatly accelerated migration of labour from rural areas to cities. Estimates suggest an annual migrant labour flow of around 50-60 million people, of whom 10-15 million have settled permanently in cities. This article surveys the information that has become available from a number of population and labour surveys. It covers the volume, spatial and temporal dimension of rural-to-urban migration, the characteristics of migrant labourers, the determinants of migration and the impact of migration on China's rural and urban economy."

Technological change: Rediscovering the engine of productivity growth in China's rural economy

This paper focuses on measuring the relative importance of the role of technology versus that of institutional innovation in China's rural economy. A six-equation rice sector model explaining provincial-level technology adoption, yield, and factor demand are econometrically estimated using data from China's 13 rice growing provinces for the period 1975–1990. Growth decomposition analysis identifies technology adoption as the most important determinant of rice yield growth during 1978–1984, accounting for nearly 40 percent the change; institutional reform accounted for 35 percent of the growth. In 1985–1990, technology accounts for all of the increase in rice yields. The study demonstrates earlier studies may have over-estimated the impact of decollectivization.

Stagnation Without Equity: Patterns of Growth and Inequality in China's Rural Economy

When China's leaders launched rural reforms in the late 1970s, they acknowledged the nation's need to modify its commitment to egalitarianism.1 Slogans such as Tt is glorious to be rich!' and 'Some areas will lead; others will follow!' signalled this fundamental shift in ideology. Leaders backed up these exhortations with a series of concrete policy actions ? establishing the Special Economic Zones and implementing the East Coast-first policy, introducing financial reforms, and initiating the rural industrialization movement. In China's version of the 'trickle down' theory, certain core areas were to take the lead in the modernization process and provide models for other areas to later emulate. Adopting strategies that had been employed

Control in a dynamic village economy: The reforms and unbalanced development in China's rural economy

A dynamic control framework is used to model the Chinese village economy in order to explain the rural sector's unbalanced growth in the post reform period. Village leaders are assumed to maximize a multi-attribute utility function by manipulating local policy instruments subject to the structural relationships in the economy. The model's parameters are estimated econometrically using a data set from forty villages in eastern China. The empirical results identify important linkages between agriculture and rural industry in village economies. Unbalanced growth can partially be explained by the way economic incentives induce individuals in rural areas to move resources toward the rural industrial sector and away from agriculture.

Decision-Making in China's Rural Economy: The Linkages Between Village Leaders and Farm Households

In the 1990s a much clearer picture has emerged of the structure of the reform policies and their effects on the different sectors of the Chinese economy. Researchers have described the mechanisms of agricultural, industrial, financial and other reforms, and have identified factors, mostly at the macro level, that contributed to their successes and shortcomings. Several studies have adopted a “micro” approach and attempted to measure the responses to specific reform measures of different groups of individuals. The general conclusion drawn by many of the researchers working in this field is that institutional constraints and remaining structural rigidities have caused reform policies to produce unintended outcomes. These imperfections have frequently resulted in some degree of negative efficiency, equity or developmental consequences.

Agricultural cooperation and the family farm in China

The emergence of family farms and the dissolution of the people's communes in the early 1980s initiated the transformation of China's rural command economy toward a market-oriented, family-centered...

Development of Rural Industries and Transformation of China's Rural Economy

Development of Rural Industries and Transformation of China's Rural Economy

China's Surplus Agricultural Labour Force: It's Size, Transfer, Prospects for Absorption and Effects of the Double‐Track Economic System*

The commune economy had two basic characteristics: one was its three‐grade pyramid‐type structure of organisation which integrated government administration and economic management; and the other was its “self‐sufficient” and “closed‐door” character. Under this system farmers had no free choice about their occupation and place of residence. With the collapse of the commune system, institutional reorganisation of China's rural economy occurred. Farmers had more choice now about their production, their occupation and place of residence based on the development of a modern commodity and market economy. In this process of institutional reorganisation, transfer of surplus agricultural labour is a key factor. The concept of the agricultural labour surplus is discussed and discussions in English of this concept and associated theory and policy are reviewed.With reform of rural economy and improvement of agricultural labour productivity, the quantity of surplus labour in rural China has increased. Greater labour absorption is required in both agricultural and non‐agricultural sectors, but particularly in non‐agricultural sectors. In China, several impediments to transfer of surplus agricultural labour still exist.The transfer of surplus agricultural labour in contemporary China occurs in the context of a nationwide “double‐track” economic system (a market‐oriented economic system harnessed to a centrally planned and controlled economic system) and a “dual economy” in which modern industries exist alongside a traditional indigenous agricultural economy. Income gains provide the main motivation for farmers to transfer to non‐agricultural activities. It is the income difference between farming and non‐farming activity, not whether the marginal labour productivity in farming is zero that is important. By building and developing free or open markets one provides a suitable climate for labour transfer and migration. In the absence of free or open markets, farmers have little free choice. The continuing system of household registration is a serious institutional barrier to transfer or migration by farmers. Furthermore, the system of equal farmland contracts also hinders the process of transfer or migration. This might be overcome by allowing the transfer of rights to use farmland and facilitating “part‐time” transfer of agricultural labour.Withdrawal of “surplus labour” from farming can cause grain output to drop. This can occur because if “better” farmers leave agriculture, the quality of farm labourers as a whole declines and because of a rigid price system which discriminates against agricultural products. While current transfers of surplus agricultural labour in China may well have increased income inequality between rural residents and between regions, if there had been greater freedom of migration this might have resulted in less income inequality. To the extent that market reform in China has resulted in greater freedom of economic choice, it appears to have increased the level of production obtained from China's limited resources. This is not to say that the market system will result in a perfect solution even though the economic results can be expected to be much superior to the commune system adopted in the past by China.

Dualism and Reform in China

According to the dual economy tradition of economic development models, less developed economies at an early stage of development are marked by a dichotomy between a modern sector, in which workers are hired at an institutional wage in numbers that rise with the growth of the industrial capital stock, and a traditional sector, in which workers subsist at an income level that is somewhat below the indus-

Agricultural library and information systems in China

The development of agriculture, and the reform of the rural economy in China in the last decade has brought about great changes, which have raised increased demand for information and highlighted the madequate performance of existing agricultural library and information systems. An effec tive system calls for systematic allocation of information re sources. and efficient information dissemination, which implies sound information policies to ensure cooperation, resource sharing and networking among libraries and information services. A critical overview of China's agricultural library and information systems is given, with particular emphasis on the future importance of networking.

The political economy of collective farms: an analysis of China's post-Mao rural reforms

This book examines the case for and against collective farms in developing countries. Basing his account on a careful analysis of China's rural economy from the 1950s to the 1980s, the author argues that collective farms have serious shortcomings and that they are not the most suitable institutional form for rural economic development in poor countries. Nolan sets his argument within the context of debates, stemming from the clash between Stalin and Bukharin in the 1920s, about the value of collectivization of the peasantry and about the relationship between central planning and the market. He traces the impact of these debates on development strategies in China and elsewhere. In assessing these strategies, Nolan provides a detailed account of the rural economy in China under Mao and of the post-1978 rural reforms, highlighting some of the problems that have yet to be resolved. This book should appeal to second or third year university students in developmental economics and the sociology of development.