Economic Transition and the Case of China

Abstract

Economic reform has become an important and interdisciplinary research field in recent decades. Involved in the historical transition to the market economy are thirty-two former planning economies, which accounted for nearly 30 percent of the world population and over 17 percent of the world gross domestic product (GDP). In 2000, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report pronounced: “The rise and subsequent failure of central planning ranks among the most significant events in the twentieth century, posing major challenges to both economic theory and policy from Prague to Beijing” (IMF 2000: 84, 89, 187). Studies on transition have become a new field crossing over political science and economics and have witnessed the production of a flurry of works.