Rethinking China's path of industrialization

Arbeitspapier

This study shows that China's post-1949 state-led industrialization has closely followed an underlying path that began in the late nineteenth century. It was initiated by pressing national defence needs and has since been motivated by the same and strong incentives for a faster catch-up with the West despite radical regime shifts. Government determined or influenced resource allocation benefited selected industries and hence nurtured vested interest groups connecting and integrating with the ruling elite, which have strengthened and sustained the path. This means that the path is inherently inefficient which is evidenced by a newly constructed dataset. Reform measures can only temporarily improve efficiency performance, but are unable to break the path in the absence of a genuine political democracy.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-9230-443-0
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2011/76

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: Asia including Middle East ; Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology ; Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence ; Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Planning, Coordination, and Reform
• Subject: government engineered industrialization ; path dependence ; central planning ; economic reform ; efficiency

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Wu, Harry X.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (where): Helsinki
• (when): 2011

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/54178
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET