Incremental Reform and Distortions in China’s Product and Factor Markets

Zhang, Xiaobo and Tan, Kong-Yam (2007): Incremental Reform and Distortions in China’s Product and Factor Markets. Published in: World Bank Economic Review , Vol. 2, No. 21 (2007): pp. 279-299.

Abstract

The purpose of economic reform is to reduce distortions and enhance efficiency. However, when reforms are partial and incremental, individuals and local governments are often able to capture the rent inherent in the gradual transition process. Young (2000) warned that such rent-seeking behavior might lead to increasing market fragmentation. Empirical studies have shown the opposite in the product market. This article argues that as the rent from China’s product market has been squeezed out due to deepening reforms, rent-seeking behavior may have shifted to the capital market. Further reforms are needed in the capital market to squeeze out these rent-seeking opportunities, just as those from the product and labor markets were squeezed out earlier.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Market integration; China; rent seeking
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O5 - Economywide Country Studies > O53 - Asia including Middle East; D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D33 - Factor Income Distribution; P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies > P23 - Factor and Product Markets ; Industry Studies ; Population