The Chinese Experiment: Opening Markets Reduces Poverty
- >
- Teachers
- >
- Teacher Resources
- >
- Lesson Plans
- >
- Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
- >
- The Chinese Experiment: Openi…
Introduction
In 1980, about 60% of those living on less than the equivalent
of $1 U.S. /day lived in China and India, 600-700 million of
those in China. According to China’s own poverty
line (equivalent to approximately $.70/day U.S.) 245 million
people were extremely impoverished. Most of the severely
impoverished were rural peasants on communal farms. The
system of communal agriculture had produced consistently poor
economic results characterized by periodic famines and the need
for massive food aid from the United Nations.
Between 1977 and 1999 that number dropped to 33 million.
In December of 2003, the UN announced that China would be asked
to change its status from recipient to donor, in honor of ending
its 25-year dependency on international food aid.
The secret to China’s remarkable success:
“China has introduced truly revolutionary reforms
. . . opening the economy to foreign trade and investment, and gradually
making the legal regulatory changes that have permitted the domestic
private sector to become the main engine of growth” (Dollar 16).
Opening Markets to Competition – Domestically and
Internationally
Over the past 25 years, China has taken steps toward both privatization
– opening internal markets to greater competition, and
globalization – opening its economic borders to increased
international trade. Although we would still place China
toward the “less capitalist” end of the institutional spectrum
we constructed in the Lesson 1 activities, it is instructive
to note the reductions in poverty produced by even these beginning
steps in conferring private property rights and opening markets
to competition.
Timeline of 20th Century Chinese Economic Reform
1950’s | Agrarian Reform Law (1950)
|
---|---|
1960’s | Continuation of closed, non-competitive system
|
1970’s | 11th Chinese Party Congress (1978)
|
1980’s | Reforms increased competition
|
Outcomes
- The right to enter the market with their produce drastically changed
the incentives facing Chinese farmers. Faced with the opportunity
to affect their own well-being, the farmers responded as our model
predicts; they produced much, much more than they had produced when
they could not sell the fruits of their labor. - This institutional reform led to a dramatic surge in grain production
in China and fueled a spectacular poverty reduction between 1977
and 1987. - Rural per capita income doubled.
- Agricultural and industrial output grew by about 10% per year.For example:
“. . . [L]and-short Hong Kong industries were
allowed to expand their operations into special zones.
As a part of this arrangement Chinese farmers were able to sell
foodstuffs directly to them at whatever prices the peasants’
produce could command. At the same time the state reduced
the village rice quotas by 40% and eliminated other quotas all
together. Indeed within months the government’s procurement
office for agricultural produce was closed down in the commune
market town, and in its stead wholesalers from Hong Kong were
allowed to set up buying stations. They purchased fresh
produce at prices several times higher than those previously
available from the state. This allowed Chen families to
put most of their cultivation efforts into lucrative vegetable
plots and they were also able to convert some rice paddies into
commercial fish ponds for Hong Kong’s dinner tables.”
(Chan)
The reforms also made an impact on non-agricultural sectors of the
Chinese economy.
- Foreign direct investment grew from $916 million in 1983 to more
than $3.5 billion in 1990.
1990’s | The success of 80s reforms served to highlight remaining problems:
Deng Xiaoping was, however, convinced that China was headed
|
---|
Outcomes
The Chinese economy has become noticeably more market-oriented:
Composition of National Industrial Output (%) | ||
---|---|---|
1978 | 1999 | |
State-owned | 77.6 | 28.5 |
Collective-owned | 22.2 | 38.5 |
Private | 0.2 | 33.0 |
Composition of National Retail Sales (%) | ||
1978 | 1999 | |
State-owned | 54.6 | 24.3 |
Collective-owned | 43.3 | 18.2 |
Private | 2.1 | 51.5 |
Source: Statistical Yearbook of China; China
Economic Information Network (www.cei.gov.cn),
January 31, 2000. from “China’s Economic Reform:
Past, Present and Future,” by the Overseas Young Chinese Forum. http://www.oycf.org/Perspectives/5_043000/china.htm
(accessed March 4, 2004)
- In December of 2001, China formalized an agreement on conditions
allowing it to enter the World Trade Organization (WTO):- China agreed to reduce its average tariff rates from 21.2%
to 17% by 2004. - China agreed to eliminate non-tariff trade restrictions on
wheat, rice, corn, cotton, soybean oil, sugar, and wool. - China agreed to open its financial service industry to foreign
banks and investors by 2007.
- China agreed to reduce its average tariff rates from 21.2%
- 1998 exports of agricultural products totaled $26.2 billion,
a 150% increase over 1980. - In 2002, China became the world’s top destination for foreign
direct investment, with $53 billion in investment flows. - 2003 GDP was 8 times as big as it was 25 years earlier, in 1978.
- 2003 share of global trade was 6 times as big as it was in 1978.
Conclusion
While China has certainly not abandoned communism, the government has
taken steps to incorporate some forms of the property rights and
market institutions characteristic of capitalism. Most noticeable
have been the opening of domestic markets through increased privatization,
and the globalization of the Chinese economy through entry into
international markets. The fact that China has experienced
such great poverty reduction as a result of having taken only small
steps toward incorporating markets offers impressive evidence of
the ability of capitalist institutions to generate wealth and raise
standards of living. Economic growth is the key to increasing standards
of living, and clearly, China’s willingness to begin opening markets
to competition has reaped the predicted benefits of lower prices,
higher incomes, and rising standards of living. Since 1980,
fledgling market institutions in China have resulted in a soaring
rate of economic growth that has outpaced not only developing countries
but also the United States and other western nations. The
beneficiaries of that growth are the millions of nameless Chinese
no longer included in the world’s “extremely impoverished.”
Average Annual Percentage Growth in GDP
GDP | Agriculture | Industry | Manufacturing | Services | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980-1990 | 1990-2001 | 1980-1990 | 1990-2001 | 1980-1990 | 1990-2001 | 1980-1990 | 1990-2001 | 1980-1990 | 1990-2001 | |
China | 10.3 | 10.0 | 5.9 | 4.0 | 11.1 | 13.1 | 10.8 | 12.1 | 13.5 | 8.9 |
U.S. | 3.5 | 3.4 | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.0 | 3.7 | 3.1 | 4.1 | 3.4 | 3.7 |
High income countries | 3.3 | 2.5 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 3.0 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 3.5 | 3.0 |
Middle income countries | 2.9 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 2.1 | 3.2 | 2.7 | 3.7 | 5.7 | 3.2 | 3.7 |
Low income countries | 4.5 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 2.6 | 5.5 | 2.9 | 7.7 | 3.0 | 5.5 | 5.1 |
Source: http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2003/pdfs/table%204-1.pdf
Case Study Sources:
Berg, Andrew and Anne Krueger. “Lifting All
Boats: Why Openness Helps Curb Poverty.” Finance and Development 39.3 <http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/09/berg.htm>
Chan, Anita. Chen Village Under Mao and Deng. Berkeley, CA: U of California P, 1992.
Chang, Chun. “Progress and Peril in China’s
Modern Economy.” The Region (Dec. 2003). Reserve
Bank of Minneapolis. 3 March 2004 <http://minneapolisfed.org/pubs/region/03-12/chang.cfm>.
“China Takes Steps to Protect Private Ownership
of Land.” Guardian Newspapers 22 Dec. 2003. Buzzle.com.
4 Mar. 2004 <http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-22-2003-48869.asp>.
Chow, Gregory. “Free to Choose in China.”
Conference Paper: The Legacy of Milton and Rose Friedman’s Free to Choose: Economic Liberalism at the Turn of the 21st Century. Texas: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, 23-24 Oct.
2003.
Dollar, David. “Capitalism, Globalization and
Poverty.” Consignment research paper written for The Foundation
for Teaching Economics. Mar. 2003.
Gilbert, John, and Thomas Wahl. “Agricultural
Reform in China: Impacts on Welfare and Rural-Urban Incomes.”
Unpublished Paper written at Washington State University.
“Growth of Output.” 2003 World Development
Indicators. New York: World Bank Group, 2003.
The World Bank Group. 4 Mar. 2004 <http://www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2003/pdfs/table%204-1.pdf >.
Krueger, Anne. “Trading Phobias – Governments,
NGOs and the Multilateral System.” The Seventeenth Annual
John Bonythom Lecture. Melbourne, Australia. 10
October 2000.
Stern, Nicholas et. al. Globalization,
Growth, and Poverty – Building an Inclusive World Economy.
New York: World Bank and Oxford UP, 2002. 111.
Waldrom, Scott, and Colin Brown. “State Sector
Reform in China: Structural Considerations in Agriculture.”
Lecture delivered at the Proceedings of the 15th Annual
Conference of the Association for Chinese Economics Studies in Australia
(ASCEA).
Wu, Jinglian. “China’s Economic Reform:
Past, Present and Future.” Perspectives 1.5. 15 Mar.
04 <http://www.oycf.org/Perspectives/5_043000/china.htm>.
Ying, Du. “China’s Agricultural Restructuring
and System Reform Under Its Accession to the WTO.” ACIAR China
Grain Market Policy Project Paper No. 12 (Department of Policy
and Law, Ministry of Agriculture, China). Presented at Adelaide
University School of Economics: Canberra, Australia, November 2000.

Do Summer Programs Help With College Admissions?
On Point with the Executive Director Do Summer Programs Help With College Admission? In my role as Executive Director of…

FTE Staff Spotlight – Austin Green
FTE Mentor Teacher, high school teacher, adjunct professor, Chick-fil-A fanatic – there are many titles for Austin Green. As a…

Book Club Recap – Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through The Unfree World
Jamie Wagner is a Professor and Teaching Fellow with the Foundation for Teaching Economics, as well as an Associate Professor…