This book is an investigation into China's reform process during the period 1979 to 1987, with especial reference to the effect of the process on the industries (mostly manufacturing) that are still owned by the state. The data on which this book is based results from a large-scale study in which the authors collaborated with the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. This was a survey of the managers of about 380 enterprises, documenting their responses to the new environment created by the reforms. The statistical information gained has been used as the basis for detailed econometric analysis. This book analyses, drawing on the authors' expertise in industrial economics, virtually every aspect of enterprise behaviour - production and costs, employment, profit margins and profitability, finance, investment decisions, and autonomy. It asks whether the reform programme was successful in the state-owned sectors, and concludes that the answer is a qualified `yes', and that in many respects the enterprises began in the eighties to behave like Western firms. Hay and Morris also construct a model of Chinese state-owned enterprise, and use it to simulate the results of further reform programmes. The authors conclude that state-ownership remains a major constraint on market-led behaviour and efficiency. They argue that the next stage of reform must be to transfer these large enterprises to share- rather than state-ownership.
Reviews
A balanced assessment of the extent to which the reforms have actually altered state enterprise behaviour in China ... This study is the first book-length product of an enormous research project which has included field research at more than 30 state-owned enterprises, as well as survey data from more than 1,000 enterprises. Clearly the research has to date produced far more data than could usefully be included in a single monograph, and further publications are eagerly awaited ... the opening section surveying the different phases of reform is a model of clarity and conciseness ... What really makes this book indispensable is its wealth of statistical data on all aspects of enterprise operations and relationships under the reforms ... the case is thoughtfully made, and is a timely contribution to the debate on ownership and reform of state-owned enterprises. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
Hay and co-authors provide a significant, multi-faceted entry into the already substantial body of sophisticated statistical work on Chinese enterprises ... those interested in the progress of the economic reforms in the industrial sector need not miss, and should not overlook, the major conclusions which are, fortunately, fairly clearly laid out in the conclusions to each chapter ... their work contributes valuably setting out the puzzle that future work must strive to explain. * Louis Putterman, China Quarterly, Vol. 146, June '96 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198288459
Author Donald Hay
Format Hardback
Page Count 508
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1g
Dimensions(mm) 243mm * 161mm * 33mm