IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/afc/cliome/v6y2012i1p89-114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food availability, food entitlements, and radicalism during the Chinese great leap forward famine: an econometric panel data analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Matthieu Clément

    (GREThA, UMR CNRS 5113, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the socio-economic as well as the political, institutional, and ideological causes of the Chinese famine of 1959–1961. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the radical policies implemented as part of the Great Leap Forward resulted in agricultural output decline (i.e., availability issues), and in the implementation of an ineffective food distribution policy affecting rural populations (i.e., accessibility issues). An econometric analysis, based on provincial panel data from the 1954–1966 period, stresses the effect of ill-advised economic policies in handling the famine. This analysis also confirms that the increase in mortality rates during the famine was caused by the simultaneous collapse in food availability and food accessibility in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthieu Clément, 2012. "Food availability, food entitlements, and radicalism during the Chinese great leap forward famine: an econometric panel data analysis," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 6(1), pages 89-114, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:6:y:2012:i:1:p:89-114
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-011-0065-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11698-011-0065-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to journal subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11698-011-0065-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roser Alvarez-Klee & Ramon Ramon-Muñoz, 2024. "Demographic crises during the Maoist period. A case study of the Great Flood of 1975 and the forgotten famine," Working Papers 0269, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    2. Zhang, Zihan & Kim, Jun Hyung, 2023. "The Inheritance of Historical Trauma: Intergenerational Effects of Early-Life Exposure to Famine on Mental Health," IZA Discussion Papers 16385, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Evan W. Osborne, 2020. "Captive of One's Own Theory: Joan Robinson and Maoist China," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 17(1), pages 191–227-1, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Great leap forward; Famine; Food availability; Entitlements; Dynamic panel data models; Generalized method of moments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N55 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Asia including Middle East
    • O21 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Planning Models; Planning Policy
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    • P32 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Collectives; Communes; Agricultural Institutions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:afc:cliome:v:6:y:2012:i:1:p:89-114. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/afcccea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.