China's Economy: Rural Reform And Agricultural Development : Rural Reform and Agricultural Development

Containing ten quality chapters on China's rural reforms and agricultural development, this first volume from the Series on Developing China : Translated Research from China emphasizes the importance of countryside, agriculture and the role of peasants in China's economy. While the Chinese revolution has traveled a path of "encircling the cities from the rural areas", Chinese reforms were likewise started in promoting the household contract responsibility system in the rural areas - the majority of its population living in the countryside makes it the focus of the reforms. Such structural issues that readjustment of interests entailed as urban-rural divide and poor-rich gap are closely related to the rural reform. For this, a rural study centered on the three rural issues (agriculture, rural areas and peasants), or peasantography, is actually an academic "gold mine", which contains the richest possibilities for Chinese social science to contribute to the world. The above mentioned chapters cover an extensive range of issues in rural reform and agricultural development in China, including property right, food trade structure, the Township and Village Enterprises, non-agricultural employment, the mobility of labor force, land distribution, taxation and saving behavior. The research approach ranges from a macro- to microeconomics level, while in terms of research methodology, property theory, game model and quantitative economics are used, in combination with historiography and empirical case studies Contents 6 Chief Editor 8 List of Contributors 10 Series on Developing China —Translated Research from China Editorial Committee 12 Preface Paying Attention to Chinese Interpretations Pan Shiwei 14 Introduction Academic Inquiries into the “Chinese Success Story” Deng Zhenglai 26 1. World Structure and China as the Subject: A Chinese Perspective on Globalization 28 2. Counter-Hegemony and Internationalization: A Knowledge Reform for Chinese Social Science 32 3. Rural Reform as the Starting Point for Academic Inquiries into the “Chinese Success Story” 37 References 43 Chapters Gender Inequality in the Land Tenure System of Rural China Zhu Ling 46 Abstract 46 1. Women’s Land Rights 47 2. Gender Inequality in the Security of Land Rights 50 3. Impact of Land Right Insecurity on Women’s Status 55 4. Conclusion 59 References 60 The Allocation of Decision-Making Power and Changes in the Decision-Making Style: Systematic Thoughts on China’s Rural Problems Zhang Shuguang, Zhao Nong 62 Abstract 62 1. Theoretical Summary: Private Decisions and Public Decisions 63 2. Collective Land Right and Restricted Private Decision and “Quasi-Tenancy System” 69 2.1. Historical retrospect and reference 69 2.2. Agricultural collectivization: Disappearance of private decision and formation of monotonous public decision 73 2.3. Rural reform: Regression towards private decision 77 2.4. Collective land right and restricted private decision 82 2.5. Collective land right and “quasi-tenancy system” 89 3. State Monopoly, Government Regulation and Policy Discrimination 95 3.1. Dual monopoly of the state over the product market in rural area 95 3.2. Government regulation on rural financial market 102 3.3. Policy discrimination against farmers 110 4. Rural Public Products and Farmers’ Burden 117 5. Conclusion 128 Farmers’ Tax Burden in Rural China: A Political Economy Analysis Tao Ran, Liu Mingxing, Zhang Qi 130 Abstract 130 1. Introduction 131 2. Rural Tax and Fee Burden in China: History and Facts 133 2.1. State tax 135 2.2. Local fees 136 3. Tax and Fee Burden of Farmers: Tax Rate is Regressive or Excessively Increased? 139 4. Governmental Regulation and Rural Tax Burden 143 4.1. Endogeneity and theoretical origin of regulatory policies 145 4.2. Regulatory policies and economic growth 149 4.3. Regulatory policies and tax and fee burden 151 4.4. Interregional disparity of regulatory policy and regressivity of tax and fee apportionment 153 4.5. Governmental structure expansion, corruption and public goods supply 156 4.6. History course of loosening and enhancing regulation 159 5. Evaluation on Related Academic Viewpoints26 162 5.1. Theory of property defect 163 5.2. Theory of fiscal decentralization 165 5.3. Theory of urban-rural dualistic division 166 5.4. Theory of democratic politics 166 5.5. Theory of conflict between population and land 167 5.6. Policy dilemma of loosening regulation 168 5.6.1. Potential risk of reform 168 5.6.2. Difficulties in political and economic reform in rural China 170 References 175 Appendix 180 A brief commentary on current situation of rural tax reform — Can we get out of the strange circle in Chinese history? 180 Problems of new rural tax system 182 Effects of Labor Out-Migration and Income Growth and Inequality in Rural China Li Shi 186 Abstract 186 1. Introduction 187 2. Rural-Urban Divide in the Labor Market and the Size of Rural Migration 188 2.1. The urban-rural divide and control of labor mobility 188 2.2. The size and pattern of labor migration in recent years 190 3. Empirical Results 191 3.1. Income of households with and without out-migrants 194 3.2. The estimated effects of rural out-migration on the income growth of rural households 195 3.3. Effects of migration on income distribution 200 4. Conclusions 208 References 209 Grain versus Food: A Hidden Issue in China’s Food Policy Debate Lu Feng 212 Abstract 212 1. Introduction 213 2. Structural Pattern of Food Trade during a Rapid Industrialization: The Evidence 215 2.1. Taiwan’s experience 215 2.2. Evolving pattern of China’s food trade 218 3. Comparative Advantage and China’s Food Trade Pattern 224 3.1. The structural features of China’s factor endowment 225 3.2. Factor intensity and cost structure for different food commodities as farm products 226 3.3. Factor intensity for selected food commodities as manufactured products 229 3.4. Domestic consumption pattern and the influence of distance 233 4. China’s Food Export and Structural Changes in the World Food Markets 236 5. Summary and Policy Implications 240 References 244 Saving Behavior in a Transition Economy: An Empirical Case Study of Rural China Wan Guanghua, Shi Qinghua, Tang Shumei 248 Abstract 248 1. Introduction 249 2. Data Issues: Construction of Saving Rate 250 3. Model Speci.cation 252 4. Model Estimation and Results 259 5. Summary and Further Discussions 267 References 268 Township Enterprises and Their Interest Distribution in Reform: A Three-Player Game Model Ke Rongzhu 272 Abstract 272 1. Introduction 272 2. Model and Theory 274 2.1. Existence of optimal equity distribution without supervision 275 2.2. Existence of the optimal stock right distribution with possible supervision 281 3. Conclusion and Discussion 285 4. Appendices 288 4.1. Appendix 1 288 4.2. Appendix 2 291 4.3. Appendix 3 299 4.4. Appendix 4 299 4.5. Appendix 5 306 4.6. Appendix 6 306 4.7. Appendix 7 307 4.8. Appendix 8 311 4.9. Appendix 9 311 4.10. Appendix 10 311 References 312 Rural Interregional Inequality and Off-Farm Employment in China Zhang Ping 314 Abstract 314 1. The Changing Tendency of Interregional Income Inequality in Rural China 315 1.1. Changes in regional income differentials at different stages in the transition period 315 1.2. Aggregate inequality and its breakdown into intraprovince and interprovince components 317 2. The Influence of Regional Factors on Income 318 3. Decomposing Interregional Inequality by Source 324 4. Inequality of Wages and Employment Opportunities among Regional TVEs 327 5. Tendency of Future Regional Inequality 330 6. Conclusions 332 References 333 Food Demand and Nutritional Elasticity in Poor Rural Areas of China Zhang Juwei, Cai Fang 334 Abstract 334 1. Introduction 335 2. Food Demand in Poor Rural Areas 338 3. Is the Nutritional Demand Elastic? 346 3.1. OLS estimation of the elasticity of nutritional demand 348 3.2. Does OLS over-estimate the elasticity of nutritional demand: Results of 2SLS 351 4. Conclusion and Policy Implications 357 References 359 Reform in China’s Rural Areas: The Changes in the Relationship between the State and Land Ownership —A Retrospect on the Changes in Economic Institutions Zhou Qiren 362 Abstract 362 1. Previous Discussions: Ownership and State 363 1.1. Paradox of ownership 363 1.2. Puzzle of north 366 1.3. A new hypothesis 368 2. State-Controlled Collective Economy 369 2.1. What is collective economy? 369 2.2. State industrialization versus equal division of land rent by population 371 2.3. Deprive the farmers of private ownership 373 2.4. State-created ownership 375 2.5. Three kinds of private land ownership 375 2.6. Why is collective economy inefficient? 378 2.7. The administrative level substitutes the residual claim 379 3. Famine Due to Crop Failure, Retreating and Making Changes According to Speci.c Conditions 381 3.1. First impetus of institutional reform 381 3.2. The income and expense of the state control of the rural economy 381 3.3. Political failure or policy retreat 387 3.4. Long-term influence of short-term adjustment 388 3.5. Make voice, exit and go slow 390 3.6. Partial exit right 391 3.7. Anti-substitution 394 3.8. Privileges of supervisors 395 3.9. “Collective capitalism” 397 4. Transaction-Generated Ownership 401 4.1. Second retreat of the state 402 4.2. Bottom reform 403 4.3. Difficulties of the land privatization 406 4.4. Decentralized decision-making 408 4.5. Central policies formed by local policies 412 4.6. Step-by-step progressing transactions 414 4.7. Transaction-generated ownership 415 4.8. All-round exit and stability 417 4.9. General picture 418 5. Conclusive Review 422 References 425 Index 430 Containing Ten Quality Chapters On China's Rural Reforms And Agricultural Development, This First Volume From The Series On Developing China: Translated Research From China Emphasizes The Importance Of Countryside, Agriculture And The Role Of Peasants In China's Economy.--book Jacket. Editor, Deng Zhenglai. Originally Published In Chinese By Truth & Wisdom Press, Shanghai Century Publishing Company Ltd., 2009. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.