"Inside the Matter", first published in 2021. It organically integrates economic principles with the practice of China's economic development, takes local government investment and financing as the main line, discusses China's economic development in a simple and easy-to-understand manner, and adopts the research results of scholars in various fields. Through the discussion of China's political and economic system, the author concisely describes the basic ways in which local governments conduct economic governance, and points out that the Chinese government has gradually promoted the establishment of market mechanisms while developing the economy through deep involvement in the process of industrialization and urbanization. and perfection, achieving an economic miracle in a way that is different from the experience of so-called developed countries. Based on the review and analysis of the reform process and social contradictions, the author also interprets the current market-oriented reforms and government transformation in the book to help readers enhance their grasp of China's development reality.
Lan Xiaohuan received a bachelor's degree in economics from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in 2001, a master's degree in economics from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2006, and a doctorate in economics from the University of Virginia in the United States in 2012. The main research fields are labor economics, development economics, political economics, public finance, etc.
Table of Contents Part 1 Micro-mechanism Chapter 1 Powers and Affairs of Local Government Section 1 Characteristics of Government Governance Section 2 Externalities and Economies of Scale Section 3 Complex Information Chapter 2 Finance, Taxation and Government Behavior Section 1 Tax Sharing System Reform Section 2 Land Finance Section 3 Vertical Imbalance and Horizontal Imbalance Chapter 3 Government Investment, Financing and Debt Section 1 Urban Investment Companies and Land Finance Section 2 Local Government Debt Section 3 Local officials in attracting investment Chapter 4 The role of government in industrialization Section 1 BOE and Government Investment Section 2 Photovoltaic Development and Government Subsidies Section 3 Government Industrial Guidance Fund Next article Macroscopic phenomena Chapter 5 Urbanization and Imbalance Section 1 House Prices and Resident Debt Section 2 Imbalance and Factor Market Reform Section 3 Economic Development and the Gap between Rich and Poor Chapter 6 Debt and Risk Section 1 Debt and Economic Recession Section 2: Why the Debt Is Building: Lessons from Europe and the United States Section 3 China’s Debt and Risks Chapter 7 Domestic and International Imbalances Section 1 Low Consumption and Overcapacity Section 2 Sino-US Trade Conflict Section 3 Rebalancing and Domestic Cycle Summary of Chapter 8: Government and Economic Development Section 1 Inter-regional competition Section 2 Development and Transformation of Government Section 3 Development Goals and Development Process
The vitality that a society can burst out of is inseparable from how it is organized. The same population and natural resources can produce completely different efficiencies under different national systems. To deeply understand a country's economy, one cannot bypass its political institutions. From the unification of the six kingdoms by Qin Shihuang in 211 BC to the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, China has experienced more than 2,000 years of social evolution, and various political systems and reforms have emerged in the past dynasties. According to statistics, the relatively stable period of unification lasted for more than 950 years, accounting for about 45% of this period. The changes in the rise and fall of chaos are inseparable from the system at that time. There are often differences between theoretical systems and actual operations, and this difference affects the stability and development of the country. Fortunately, today we can not only study China's own history through vertical comparison but also compare the history of China with other countries. We can even make horizontal comparisons and analyze the political and economic situations of different countries in the same period. The fundamental purpose of all these efforts is to find a more efficient political and economic system.
A problem often becomes complex because the number of objects involved in the problem increases dramatically. The national economic and political systems we see today are complex and dizzying, but this was not always the case at the beginning. In fact, many laws and regulations are gradually improved and developed through continuous practice. Tracing complex problems back to their origins often leads to simpler starting points. Starting from these simple situations and gradually understanding them in depth is the key to grasping the essence of the problem. For example, in computer science, many algorithms for processing big data are often created because the original intuitive methods are no longer applicable as the amount of data increases. As we need to process more and more information, just as population density, geographical conditions, and language and cultural differences must be considered when dividing administrative regions, we have to seek new solution strategies.
There is a Chinese proverb: "The mountains are high and the emperor is far away", which means that it is difficult for a central power to extend to remote areas. Whether it’s a country, a company, or a small team, if you want to reach your full potential, you must be as flexible and efficient as a healthy human body. In this process, the flow of information from the center to the end, and then from the end back to the center must be unobstructed. If the information transmitted from the end to the center is distorted, the center will make wrong judgments. Just like we see, hear, and feel wrong, wrong information can lead to unreasonable coping behaviors. On the other hand, the instructions from the center to the terminals must also be executed smoothly and effectively. For example, a waist injury may cause damage to the main arteries of the spine, affecting the nervous system, and making it impossible to effectively transmit instructions from the center to the end, leading to limb paralysis or coordination disorders. In the same way, even if instructions are conveyed, if the center cannot ensure that these instructions are implemented at all levels, it will cause inflexibility in organizational actions. Therefore, in a sense, the circulation of information is equivalent to the extension of power. The more efficient the flow of information, the more efficiently power can be extended.
One of the key functions of local government is to attract investment, not only at the domestic level but also at the international level. If a city can attract residents and funds from other domestic cities, its development prospects will be very bright. Furthermore, if the attractiveness of a city can transcend national borders and affect other countries around the world, then the development of the city and even the entire country will experience explosive growth. On the contrary, if the original inhabitants of a city, that is, those who have been born and raised here, begin to consider moving away and investing their money in other areas, then the decline of the city is not difficult to foresee. There are many factors that inhibit investment promotion, such as war, poor public security, harsh natural environment, and low quality of residents. In contrast, factors such as good natural conditions, high quality of residents, and superior government policies can significantly enhance the attractiveness of a city. From a broader perspective, everyone should also work on making themselves more attractive to others, rather than pushing them away.
To truly understand government behavior, one must understand its fiscal and taxation status, because without funds, no matter how good the plan is, it will be difficult to implement it. In fact, this principle applies not only to governments but also to individual behavior analysis. We look not only at where a person spends his money but also at what proportion of his or her available funds these expenditures represent. "Voting with your feet" refers to the direction of population flow and reflects people's real needs and desires. Likewise, people are "voting with their hands," that is, expressing their wishes and ideas about where to invest the material resources they control. Therefore, it is not reliable to just follow someone's words, you must see where they go and where they spend their money. Whether it is economics, politics, or management, they cannot escape the influence of economic issues. Not to mention "ruling the country and bringing peace to the world", even if we just pursue "cultivating ourselves and bringing order to the family", it will be difficult to achieve without an economic foundation. "With a basket of food and a ladle of drink, in a back alley, people can't bear their worries, but they won't change their happiness even when they return home." How many people have been able to do this in the past and present? For ordinary people like us, who are still troubled by basic survival issues in our daily lives, how can we spare the energy to think about higher-level spiritual pursuits?
From 1980 to 1994, my country mainly adopted the contract economic model. The contract system greatly stimulated local economic creativity and effectively revitalized the rigid planned economic system. However, a significant shortcoming of this system is that it gradually weakens the central government's proportion of national revenue, resulting in the weakening of the central government's fiscal power. After all, the power of the government comes not only from the "barrel of the gun" but also from the "pocket bag." This is the fundamental reason for the implementation of the tax-sharing reform in 1994. Its core purpose is to allow the central government to regain financial power. For those with vested interests, such as Guangdong and other economically developed regions, such changes in the system are naturally difficult to accept. Therefore, Premier Zhu Rongji invested a lot of energy in promoting this reform and tried hard to persuade provincial leaders. You can imagine how difficult this process is. The public usually only sees the results of policies, not the complex game process behind them. Whether a policy can be successfully implemented depends not only on the merits of the policy itself but also requires extensive top-to-bottom support to ensure the smooth implementation of the policy.
In 1998, two major events occurred in China. First, urban units stopped welfare housing allocation and gradually realized the monetization of housing allocation. This means that in the future, people can no longer rely on units to solve their housing problems, but must buy them on the market themselves. At the same time, if rural collective land is to be converted into urban construction land, it must be expropriated by the state and turned into state-owned land. This gives the city government a monopoly on land construction. Especially around 2000, the land bidding, auction, and listing systems were opaque, and there was a huge gray space in the process of converting rural land into construction land. After entering 2000, real estate became one of the main sources of income for local governments, and housing prices also soared. The generation that was young in 2000 has now entered middle age. The class gap between those who could afford to buy property back then and those who couldn't has widened dramatically. Their next generation, that is, my generation, looking back 20 years later, can clearly see the huge gap between rich and poor caused by real estate. This huge gap makes many young people feel hopeless, powerless, and desperate, hence the self-deprecating saying "lying flat". However, both domestically and globally, the degree of change today is greater than it was 20 years ago. Who can predict whether there will be new policies or events that may lead to a reshuffle of wealth? Those young people around the year 2000 may have felt just as confused and uncertain about the future as we do today.
Very good, the book has a significant number of typos and grammatical mistakes, but they don't really take away from substance. My criticism would be directed at the author's seeming tendency to see the west, and really only America (as it is the only country that he really touches on specifically and any slight detail) as a reference and model for China to pursue as it moves to a higher stage of development, i.e. for him to a further embrace of the market. He mentions healthcare and education as key sectors that need to expand and their comparative % of gdp with respect to the US and Europe. America's healthcare and education segments of the gdp are pristine examples of how terrible unfettered market direction of the service economy can be. The more I look at Chinese intellectuals that aren't associated with the party the more and more I'm convinced that these people would have seen to it that China was way poorer and with far less prospects than it has now and it wouldn't really matter in the slightest to them as long as the results were the result of the sacred Market.
Probably the best book I have read published in mainland China about the internal logic of the Chinese bureaucracy system, its relation with the Party, and its role in society and the economic developement.
From the very beginning, the author proposed that "it is not realistic to consider the role of the Chinese government without taking its band with the Party into consideration". That's true. But still, the previous three administrations of Chinese have also revealed the subtle but importance difference between them.
Back to the economic perspective of understanding the Chinese government, its special training and selection system is a core. In the past three decades, GDP is the most important metric to evaluate a local officer. But now, this system is experiencing a change. Also, the author emphasize the risk in the debt of local governments, which is now like a bomb to blow the Chinese economy, especially considering its challenge from the real estate market.
Pretty informative for me and hit quite a few of the questions I have had.
The beginning with tax inform was useful but slow going. I do really like how the author not only references but also discusses view points from other economists around the world along with actual comparisons. The recommended books are great too especially since the author took time to highlight a few in each chapter and shared explicitly why he recommended these books. I really appreciate the author deep diving into why he thinks some specific situations in China cannot firefly follow the US and global practices as well as what he sees as risks in the current China system.
The one part I hope the author would have done more is on domestic spend. As that’s the huge unlock it would be good to go to more detail on the issue, maybe from tier one cities to the rural. The author mostly tackled from a macro solve in terms of moving away from infrastructure investment.
This book is a good review of what happened in China in the past few decades. Even if you are already familiar with the economic history of China, you may still find some interesting new details. The author covered little about what should have been done or what should be done now. Lastly, as for interpretability, the author resorts to the uniqueness of the Chinese economy. This is often heard in China. It is true that China is different from the "West" in its development in the past 40 years. However, there are lots of similarities if one does research in developing countries like South Africa, Brazil, India, eastern European countries. Or if we shift the time horizon by one or two decades, there are lots of similarities compared to other Asian countries. Researchers in any fields should not be satisfied with just recording what happened, but look for interpretability. More work needs to be done in this area.
A comparative framework would be helpful for an illiterate Amerikkan like myself. I can't help but wonder if it's possible to write a similar book, particularly the first half, about governance in the USA (a very inward looking impulse but I can't help myself)? Not sure.
Case studies show that 2008 stimulus was a major opportunity for growth, not so in the Atlantic world.
Could use a more historical approach, and it's pretty dry and non-ideological (but it's literally a textbook so idk what I was expecting). Useful footnotes and references. Doesn't answer all of my questions about modern Chinese political economy, but a solid starting point for future studies. will revisit this later at some point.
This book can offer you a bit of a structure of China's economy and its interactions with the government, but since it's students and public oriented it cannot provide more in-depth details. Some arguments in chapters in the second part are not very convincible. And the author is too optimistic about the current China, which is apparently contradicts to today's China, underlying that he could not capture the real picture or he dare not to speak for it and thus it falls into the cliche and cannot offer enough profound insights.
The author does provide an easy to follow explanation of how land economy has been working and not working in China. An insightful read for folks who don’t have too much expertise in China. The 2nd half of the book felt lacking depth though, which is understandable as too much criticism to the status quo would be strictly prohibited in current China.
Interesting that it’s a few years after the book was done and there have not been a sign of reversal of the property and real estate crisis in China.
Great read for this shanghai covid lockdown 2022. really took my mind of our everyday struggle here, and offered comfort in getting to know my country better while locked up. the list of recommended book is great! you feel the author really really cares, and want readers to really learn something, rather than those typical academic showoffs. just got a paper copy online, hope to hold it in my hands soon.
An easy-to-read book to understand the current Chinese economy, especially how it has been and is being shaped by the Chinese governmental policy.
After reading the book, I have a deeper understanding of the problems of the current Chinese social economy. For some governmental policies, I started to look at the reasons behind it, rather than just criticizing them.
Afterall, development means keep solving problems.
It appears to be a conclusion to the traditional concept of how China took off, focusing on micro-level evidence compared to the "championship" literature. But I'm not sure if this model still works in the "new normal." And everyone must recognize that this system is fragile and susceptible to political power, as we saw in Shanghai.