Economic reform and state-owned enterprises in China, 1979-1987

Economic Reform and State-Owned Enterprises in China is a comprehensive and detailed investigation into China's reform process during the period 1979 to 1987, with especial reference to the effect of the reforms on the industries (mostly large-scale) that are still owned by the state. The data on which this book is based resulted from a statistical survey and questionnaire of the managers of approximately 380 enterprises, documenting their responses to the new environment created by the reforms.

The survey was undertaken by a team from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

Donald Hay and Derek Morris have a distinguished reputation for their work in applied industrial organisation. This book takes the statistical data collected and gives a thorough analysis of virtually every aspect of enterprise behaviourproduction and costs, employment, profit margins and profitability, finance, investment decisions and autonomy.

The constant question is whether the reform programme was successful in the state-owned sectors, and the authors conclude that the answer is a qualified 'yes' and that in many respects the enterprises began in the eighties to behave like Western firms.

The authors also succeed in constructing a model of Chinese state-owned enterprise, and in using this to simulate the results of further reform programmes. They conclude that state-ownership remains a major constraint on market-led behaviour and efficiency. The authors argue that the next stage of reform must be to transfer these large enterprises to share- rather than state-ownership.

A comprehensive analysis, packed with statistical data, this book will be essential for all those interested in China's economic reform process and the role of the state.