China in the Global Economy
Failure and Success
Keywords:
China, Economic growthAbstract
China’s present economic performance is frequently attributed to market reforms that have opened up the economy to foreign trade and investments. In this article we suggest that a historical comparative approach may cast new light on China’s present success. In imperial China the power of the mandarinate put limits on equality of opportunity and development of human capital, factors crucial for modern economic growth. Reforms and structural change in agriculture and expansion of primary and secondary education during the planning system paved the way for a subsequent market-led economic growth by providing the social capability for China’s economic catch-up.
References
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41. Wallerstein, I. (1974), The Modern World System I. Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press).
2. Abramovitz, M. (1995), The Elements of Social Capability, in B.H. Koo and D. H. Perkins eds., Social Capability and Long-Term Economic Growth (London: Macmillan).
3. Allen, R.C. (2001), The Great Divergence in European Wages and prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War. Explorations in Economic History, 38:411-47.
4. Allen, R.C., J-P Bassino, D. Ma, C. Moll-Murata and J.L. van Zanden (2007), Wages, Prices and Living Standrards in China, 1738-1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India, University of Oxford, Department of Economics Discussion Paper Series, No. 316.
5. Arrighi, G., T. Hamashita and M. Selden (2003), The Resurgence of East Asia. 500, 150 and 50 year perspectives (London: Routledge).
6. Bin Wong, R. (2003), The Role of the State in Long-distance Commerce, paper presented at the first GEHN Conference, Bankside, London 2003.
7. Broadberry, S. and B. Gupta (2006), The Early Modern Great Divergence: Wages, Prices and Economic Development in Europe and Asia, 1500-1800. Economic History Review, 59:2-31.
8. Broadberry, S. and B. Gupta (2005), Monetary and Real Aspects of the Great Divergence Between Europe and Asia, 1500-1800, working paper.
9. Chang, C.-L. (1962), The Income of the Chinese Gentry (Seattle: University of Washington Press).
10. David, P.A.. (2005), From Keeping ‘Nature’s Secrets’ to Institutionalization of ‘Open Science’, in Ghosh ed., CODE: Collaborative ownership and the digital economy (Cambridge MA: MIT Press).
11. de Vries, J. (1993), Between purchasing power and the world of goods: understanding the household economy in early modern Europe, in J. Brewer and R. Porter eds., Consumption and the World of Goods (London: Routledge).
12. de Vries, J. (1994), The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution, Journal of Economic History, 54:249-70.
13. Frank, A.G. (1998), ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age (Berkeley: University of Californa Press).
14. Goldstone, J. (2003), Feeding the People, Starving the State: China’s Agricultural Revolution of the 17th/18th Centuries, paper prepared for a conference in London, September 2003.
15. Elvin, M. (1973), The Pattern of the Chinese Past (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
16. Headrick, D.R. (2000), When Information Came of Age. Technologies of Knowledge in the Age of Reason and Revolution, 1700-1850 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
17. Huang, P. (1990), The Peasant Family and Rural Development in the Lower Yangzi Region, 1350-1988 (Stanford: Stanford University Press).
18. Israel, J. I. (2002), Radical Enlightenment. Philosophy and the Making of Modernity,1650-1750 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
19. Jacob, M. C. (1997), Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West ( New York: Oxford University Press).
20. Jacob, M. C. and L. Stewart (2004), Practical Matter. Newton’s Science in the Service of Industry and Empire, 1687-1851 (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press).
21. Landes, D. (1998), The Wealth and Povery of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (New York: W.W. Norton).
22. Kuznets, S (1964). Economic growth and the contribution of agriculture: Notes on measurement, in Eicher, C and Witt, L eds. Agriculture in economic development, McGraw-Hill Book Company.
23. Lal, D. (2001), Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowment, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance (Cambridge, Ma: MIT Press).
24. Lee, J. Z. and Wang Feng, 2001, One Quarter of Humanity: Malthusian Mytologies and Chinese Realities (Cambridge, Ma.: Harvard University Press).
25. Lewis, W.A. (1984), The State of Development Theory. American Economic Review ,vol 74, no 1, 1-10.
26. Li, B. (2005) Farm Labour Productivity in Jiangnan, 1620-1850, in Allen, R., Bengtsson, T and M. Dribe, Living Standards in the Past- New Perspectives on Well-being in Asia and Europe (New York: Oxford University Press).
27. Lin, J.Y. (1995), The Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution Did Not Originate in China. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 43: 269-92.
28. Lindert, P.H., and Willamson, J. (1982), Revising England’s Social Tables 1688-1812,. Explorations in Economic History, 19:385-408.
29. Ljungberg, J. 2004, Technology and Human Capital in Historical Perspective: An Introduction, in Ljungberg, J. and J-P Smits eds., Technology and Human Capital in Historical Perspective (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
30. Maddison, A. (2004), When and why did the west get richer than the rest?, in S. Heikkinen and J.L. van Zanden eds., Explorations in Economic Growth (Amsterdam: Aksant).
31. Mokyr, J. (2002), The Gifts of Athena. Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy (Princeton , NJ: Princeton University Press).
32. oore Jr, B. (1967), Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (Boston: Beacon Press).
33. Needham, J. (1969), The Grand Titration. Science and Society in East and West (London: George Allen & Unwin).
34. Pei, X. (1998), The Institutional Root of China’s Rural Industry and Gradual Reform, Lund: Lund Studies in Economic History 7.
35. Perdue, P. (2005), China’s Environment, 1500-2000: Is there Something New under the Sun?, paper for a Conference at Franklin Center, Duke University 2005.
36. Pomeranz, K. (2000), The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the Making of the Modern World Economy (Princeton; Princeton University Press).
37. Pomeranz, K. (2005), Standards of Living in Eighteenth-century China: Regional Differences, Temporal Trends and Incomplete Evidence, in Allen, R., Bengtsson, T and M. Dribe,
38. Living Standards in the Past- New Perspectives on Well-being in Asia and Europe (New York: Oxford University Press).
39. Rawski, T.S. (1989), Economic Growth in pre-war China (Berkeley: University of California Press).
40. van Zanden, J.L. (1999), Wages and the Standard of Living in Europe, 1500-1800. European Review of Economic History, 3: 175-97.
41. Wallerstein, I. (1974), The Modern World System I. Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press).
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Published
2018-07-25
How to Cite
Gunnarsson, C., & Ljungberg, J. (2018). China in the Global Economy: Failure and Success. Thailand and The World Economy, 26(4), 1–32. Retrieved from https://so05.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/TER/article/view/136590
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