IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v21y2010i4p639-649.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding China's grain procurement policy from a perspective of optimization

Author

Listed:
  • SHEA, Esther Y.P.

Abstract

This paper develops an optimization model to analyze the policy formulation under China's dual-track grain procurement system. By capturing the redistribution objective and the urban food security objective in a political preference function, we provide some rigorous explanations of three important aspects of China's grain policies: the choice of the dual-track procurement system over the lump-sum tax scheme as a means of extracting economic surpluses from the grain sector; the suppression of the procurement price to its minimum until the mid-1990s; and the switch from taxing to subsidizing grain production at end-1996. Our findings underscore the paramount importance of the urban food security objective behind the evolution of China's grain procurement policy, including the liberalization of the system in the 2000s.

Suggested Citation

  • SHEA, Esther Y.P., 2010. "Understanding China's grain procurement policy from a perspective of optimization," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 639-649, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:21:y:2010:i:4:p:639-649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043-951X(10)00078-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wu, Ziping & Merlean, Seamus, 2003. "Market efficiency in the reformed Chinese grain marketing system," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 115-130.
    2. Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott & Rosegrant, Mark W., 1999. "China'S Food Economy To The 21st Century: Supply, Demand, And Trade," 1999 Conference (43th), January 20-22, 1999, Christchurch, New Zealand 171896, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    3. Lawrence J. Lau & Yingyi Qian & Gerard Roland, 2000. "Reform without Losers: An Interpretation of China's Dual-Track Approach to Transition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(1), pages 120-143, February.
    4. Bruce Gardner, 1983. "Efficient Redistribution through Commodity Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 65(2), pages 225-234.
    5. Lau, Lawrence J. & Qian, Yingyi & Roland, Gerard, 1997. "Pareto-improving economic reforms through dual-track liberalization," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 285-292, August.
    6. Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott & Rosegrant, Mark W, 1999. "China's Food Economy to the Twenty-first Century: Supply, Demand, and Trade," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 47(4), pages 737-766, July.
    7. Sicular, Terry, 1988. "Plan and Market in China's Agricultural Commerce," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(2), pages 283-307, April.
    8. Gardner, Bruce L, 1987. "Causes of U.S. Farm Commodity Programs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(2), pages 290-310, April.
    9. Gordon C. Rausser & William E. Foster, 1990. "Political Preference Functions and Public Policy Reform," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 72(3), pages 641-652.
    10. Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2006. "The emergence of agricultural commodity markets in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 266-280.
    11. Dae-Seob Lee & P. Lynn Kennedy, 2006. "A Political Economic Analysis of U.S. Rice Export Programs to Japan and South Korea: A Game-Theoretic Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(2), pages 420-431.
    12. David S. Bullock, 1994. "In Search of Rational Government: What Political Preference Function Studies Measure and Assume," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(3), pages 347-361.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Pieralli, Simone & Dominguez, Ignacio Perez, 2017. "The Uncertain Effects of Chinese Policy Reforms on Maize: The Return of China as a Maize Exporting Giant?," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258106, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bullock, D. S. & Salhofer, K., 1998. "Measuring the social costs of suboptimal combinations of policy instruments: A general framework and an example," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 249-259, May.
    2. Daowei Zhang & David Laband, 2005. "From Senators to the President: Solve the lumber problem or else," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 393-410, June.
    3. Bullock, David S., 2008. "Simulating the Effects of Supply and Demand Elasticities on Political-Economic Equilibrium," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper Series 48636, World Bank.
    4. Rausser, Gordon C., 1991. "Predatory versus productive government: the case of U.S. agricultural policies," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt21913950, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    5. Gordon C. Rausser, 1992. "Predatory versus Productive Government: The Case of U.S. Agricultural Policies," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 133-157, Summer.
    6. Roland, Gerard & Verdier, Thierry, 2003. "Law enforcement and transition," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 669-685, August.
    7. John Bennett & Huw Dixon & Helen X.Y. Hu, 2008. "The Effects of Reforming the Chinese Dual-Track Price System," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 08-14, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    8. Bennett, John & Dixon, Huw & Hu, Helen X.Y., 2013. "The transition from dual-track pricing to a market system: Winners and losers," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 30-44.
    9. Lee, Dae-Seob & Kennedy, P. Lynn, 2002. "A Game Theoretic Analysis Of U.S. Rice Export Policy: The Case Of Japan And Korea," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19686, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    10. Acharya Sanjaya & Signorelli Marcello & Vojinovic Borut & Oplotnik Žan Jan, 2013. "Alternative Approach to Economic Restructuring to Benefit the Poor – Sam Multipliers Analysis as Alternative Approach," Scientific Annals of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 60(1), pages 182-201, July.
    11. D. MacLaren, 1991. "Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis And International Trade Theory: A Review Of Recent Developments," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 250-297, September.
    12. Swinnen, Johan F. M. & Banerjee, Anurag N. & Gorter, Harry de, 2001. "Economic development, institutional change, and the political economy of agricultural protection: An econometric study of Belgium since the 19th century," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 25-43, October.
    13. Che, Jiahua & Facchini, Giovanni, 2004. "Dual Track Liberalization: With and Without Losers," Working Papers 04-0100, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    14. Xiaobing Wang & Futoshi Yamauchi & Jikun Huang, 2016. "Rising wages, mechanization, and the substitution between capital and labor: evidence from small scale farm system in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(3), pages 309-317, May.
    15. Lyons, Robert F. & Rausser, Gordon C. & Simon, Leo K., 1996. "Putty-clay politics in transition economies," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt0t30p88v, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    16. Marchant, Mary A. & Neff, Steven A. & Xiao, Mei, 1997. "Political Economy of United States and European Union Dairy Policy Choice," 1997 Occasional Paper Series No. 7 198045, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Lu Ming & Zhao Chen & Yongqin Wang & Yan Zhang & Yuan Zhang & Changyuan Luo, 2013. "China’s Economic Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14502.
    18. Che, Jiahua & Facchini, Giovanni, 2007. "Dual track reforms: With and without losers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2291-2306, December.
    19. Zhu, Jing & Zhu, J., 2003. "Public Investment And China'S Grain Production Competitiveness Under Wto," 2003 Annual Meeting, August 16-22, 2003, Durban, South Africa 25825, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Crommelynck, Anja & Kola, Jukka & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 1998. "Determinants Of Agricultural Protection In Finland (1931-1990)," PRG Working Papers 31878, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.

    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:eee:chieco:v:21:y:2010:i:4:p:639-649. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    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.