Demystifying the Chinese Economy

China was the largest and one of most advanced economies in the world before the eighteenth century, yet declined precipitately thereafter and degenerated into one of the world's poorest economies by the late nineteenth century. Despite generations' efforts for national rejuvenation, China did not reverse its fate until it introduced market-oriented reforms in 1979. Since then it has been the most dynamic economy in the world and is likely to regain its position as the world's largest economy before 2030. Based on economic analysis and personal reflection on policy debates, Justin Yifu Lin provides insightful answers to why China was so advanced in premodern times, what caused it to become so poor for almost two centuries, how it grew into a market economy, where its potential is for continuing dynamic growth and what further reforms are needed to complete the transition to a well-functioning, advanced market economy.

Author: Justin Yifu Lin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 12/30/2011
Pages: 330
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9780521191807

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2012
New York Times Book Review 09/27/2012 pg. 81

About the Author
Lin, Justin Yifu: - Justin Yifu Lin is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank. He obtained his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago in 1986 and returned to China in 1987, the first PhD in social sciences to return from abroad after China started economic reform in 1979. He was the founding director of China Center for Economic Research at Peking University from 1994 to 2008 and is the author of seventeen books, including The China Miracle (1996), State-Owned Enterprise Reform in China (2001) and Economic Development and Transition (Cambridge, 2009).

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