Overview
The transformation and growth of China's economy stands among the most significant economic developments of the late 20th century. It raised the living standards for one-fifth of the world's population and provided indirect benefits for many more. This book rests on two premises:
1. the key to China's dramatic economic transformation is its industrialization and
2. the real story of China's industrialization is unfolding at the level of the individual Chinese enterprise and factory.
This volume seeks to document the impact of economic reforms on China's industrial sector and explain why China's reforms, which appear meager relative to the more ambitious reform programs of Eastern Europe and even Russia, have had such wide-reaching effects. This book differs from much of the research and analysis of China's economy as it:
• provides the first in-depth comparative look at different owner-ship systems, going well beyond the standard state/non-state contrast to illustrate the real organizational, behavioral, and performance differences among China's systems of ownership;
• analyzes the extent to which specific reforms have altered the behavior and performance of Chinese enterprises across differences among the country's systems of ownership;
• examines how the millions of enterprises in China interact with their institutional and international environments to create a dynamic reform process that has greatly magnified the impact of reform initiatives from the center;
• attempts to distinguish, evaluate, and reconcile various perspectives or schools of thought regarding the nature of China's reform.