IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v39y2003i4p27-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Township and Village Enterprises in China

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaolan Fu
  • V. N. Balasubramanyam

Abstract

Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) have played a significant role in the growth of the Chinese economy since the economic reforms of 1978. This paper analyses the productive efficiency of a cross section of TVEs in the manufacturing sector. TVEs are found to be much more efficient than comparable state-owned enterprises (SOEs). They are also competitive in the international markets. Their management which responds to market forces and their outward-orientation have contributed to their productive efficiency. The paper concludes that efficient management, which successfully exploits the endowments and resources of the country rather than the nature of ownership of production entities, is crucial to the success of manufacturing firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaolan Fu & V. N. Balasubramanyam, 2003. "Township and Village Enterprises in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 27-46.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:39:y:2003:i:4:p:27-46
    DOI: 10.1080/713869424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713869424
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/713869424?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johnes, Geraint & Johnes, Jill, 1993. "Measuring the Research Performance of UK Economics Departments: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 332-347, April.
    2. Balasubramanyam, V N & Salisu, M & Sapsford, David, 1996. "Foreign Direct Investment and Growth in EP and IS Countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(434), pages 92-105, January.
    3. Leibenstein, Harvey, 1978. "On the Basic Proposition of X-Efficiency Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 328-332, May.
    4. Zheng, Jinghai & Liu, Xiaoxuan & Bigsten, Arne, 1998. "Ownership Structure and Determinants of Technical Efficiency: An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Chinese Enterprises (1986-1990)," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 465-484, September.
    5. Chen, Hongyi & Rozelle, Scott, 1999. "Leaders, managers, and the organization of township and village enterprises in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 529-557, December.
    6. Martin L. Weitzman & Chenggang Xu, 1997. "Chinese Township-Village Enterprises as Vaguely Defined Cooperatives," International Economic Association Series, in: John E. Roemer (ed.), Property Relations, Incentives and Welfare, chapter 12, pages 326-355, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Ehsan U. Choudhri & Dalia S. Hakura, 2000. "International Trade and Productivity Growth: Exploring the Sectoral Effects for Developing Countries," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 47(1), pages 1-2.
    8. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    9. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    10. Chang Chun & Wang Yijiang, 1994. "The Nature of the Township-Village Enterprise," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 434-452, December.
    11. Li, Wei, 1997. "The Impact of Economic Reform on the Performance of Chinese State Enterprises, 1980-1989," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1080-1106, October.
    12. Grossman, Gene M & Helpman, Elhanan, 1990. "Trade, Innovation, and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 86-91, May.
    13. Caves, Richard & Baldwin, John R., 1997. "International Competition and Industrial Performance: Allocative Efficiency, Productive Efficiency, and Turbulence," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 1997108e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    14. Jefferson, Gary H. & Rawski, Thomas G. & Zheng, Yuxin, 1996. "Chinese Industrial Productivity: Trends, Measurement Issues, and Recent Developments," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 146-180, October.
    15. Yamawaki, Hideki, 1991. "Exports and Foreign Distributional Activities: Evidence on Japanese Firms in the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 73(2), pages 294-300, May.
    16. Jin-Tan Liu & Meng-Wen Tsou & James Hammitt, 1999. "Export activity and productivity: Evidence from the Taiwan electronics industry," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 135(4), pages 675-691, December.
    17. Alven H.S. Lam, 2000. "Republic of China (Taiwan)," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(5), pages 327-336, November.
    18. Dong, Xiao-yuan & Putterman, Louis, 1997. "Productivity and Organization in China's Rural Industries: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 181-201, April.
    19. Irene Henriques & Perry Sadorsky, 1996. "Export-Led Growth or Growth-Driven Exports? The Canadian Case," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(3), pages 540-555, August.
    20. Theodore Groves & Yongmiao Hong & John McMillan & Barry Naughton, 1994. "Autonomy and Incentives in Chinese State Enterprises," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 183-209.
    21. Button, Kenneth J & Weyman-Jones, Thomas G, 1992. "Ownership Structure, Institutional Organization and Measured X-Efficiency," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(2), pages 439-445, May.
    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. András Székely-Doby, 2018. "Why Have Chinese Reforms Come to a Halt? The Political Economic Logic of Unfinished Transformation," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(2), pages 277-296, February.
    2. Andy Cosh & Xiaolan Fu & Alan Hughes, 2005. "Management characteristics, collaboration and innovative efficiency: evidence from UK survey data," Working Papers wp311, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    3. Xu, Mengyao & Zhang, Zhengfeng, 2021. "Spatial differentiation characteristics and driving mechanism of rural-industrial Land transition: A case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    4. Yanzhe Cui & Yingnan Niu & Yawen Ren & Shiyi Zhang & Lindan Zhao, 2024. "A Model to Analyze Industrial Clusters to Measure Land Use Efficiency in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-22, July.
    5. Wacker, John G. & Yang, Chen-Lung & Sheu, Chwen, 2006. "Productivity of production labor, non-production labor, and capital: An international study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 863-872, October.
    6. Jiao Wang & David G. Mayes & Guanghua Wan, 2005. "Income Distribution and Labour Movement in China After WTO Membership: a CGE Analysis," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-38, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. C�line Bonnefond & Matthieu Cl�ment, 2012. "An analysis of income polarisation in rural and urban China," Post-Communist Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 15-37, June.
    8. Ito, Junichi, 2006. "Economic and institutional reform packages and their impact on productivity: A case study of Chinese township and village enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 167-190, March.
    9. Abeer Elshennawy & Mohammed Bouaddi, 2021. "Sources of firm-level heterogeneity in labour productivity in Egypt’s manufacturing sector," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 2589-2612, May.
    10. Székely-Doby, András, 2014. "A kínai reformfolyamat politikai gazdaságtani logikája [The politico-economic logic of the Chinese reform process]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(12), pages 1397-1418.
    11. Alberto GABRIELE, 2016. "Lessons from Enterprise Reforms in China and Vietnam," Journal of Economic and Social Thought, KSP Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 265-284, June.
    12. repec:zbw:bofitp:2005_018 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Xiaolan Fu, 2004. "Exports, Technical Progress and Productivity Growth in Chinese Manufacturing Industries," Working Papers wp278, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    14. Guo Yung-Hsing, 2011. "How Low- and Medium-technology Industries in Developing Countries Compete with Multinationals: Lessons from China’s Home Electronics Sector," Chapters, in: Paul L. Robertson & David Jacobson (ed.), Knowledge Transfer and Technology Diffusion, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Fan, C. Simon & Stark, Oded, 2008. "Rural-to-urban migration, human capital, and agglomeration," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 234-247, October.
    16. Xiaolan Fu, 2005. "Exports, technical progress and productivity growth in a transition economy: a non-parametric approach for China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(7), pages 725-739.
    17. Xincai Gao & Zhongyang Ji & Fayyaz Ahmad & Muhammad Umar Draz, 2019. "Financial Support and Growth of Township and Village Enterprises in China: Fresh Evidence From Regional Analyses," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    18. Shenggen Fan & Ravi Kanbur & Shang-Jin Wei & Xiaobo Zhang, 2013. "The Economics of China: Successes and Challenges," NBER Working Papers 19648, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Zeting LIU, 2013. "Les PME dans les politiques de soutien à l’innovation en Chine THE POSITION OF SMES WITHIN THE INNOVATION POLICY IN CHINA," Working Papers 266, Laboratoire de Recherche sur l'Industrie et l'Innovation. ULCO / Research Unit on Industry and Innovation.
    20. Singh, Nirvikar, 2007. "Fiscal Decentralization in China and India: Competitive, Cooperative or Market Preserving Federalism?," Santa Cruz Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt76d8b4hm, Department of Economics, UC Santa Cruz.
    21. Zheng, Lucy & Batuo, Michael Enowbi & Shepherd, David, 2017. "The Impact of Regional and Institutional Factors on Labor Productive Performance—Evidence from the Township and Village Enterprise Sector in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 591-598.
    22. Xiaolan Fu & V.N.Balasubramanyam, 2004. "Exports, FDI, Growth Of Small Rural Enterprises And Employment In China," Working Papers wp286, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    23. Wang, Jiao & Mayes, David & Wan, Guanghua, 2005. "Effects of WTO membership on income distribution and labour movement in China : A CGE analysis," BOFIT Discussion Papers 18/2005, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.

    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. repec:lan:wpaper:4049 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:lan:wpaper:3764 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:lan:wpaper:3655 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Xiaolan Fu, 2004. "Exports, Technical Progress and Productivity Growth in Chinese Manufacturing Industries," Working Papers wp278, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    5. Xiaolan Fu, 2005. "Exports, technical progress and productivity growth in a transition economy: a non-parametric approach for China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(7), pages 725-739.
    6. Ito, Junichi, 2006. "Economic and institutional reform packages and their impact on productivity: A case study of Chinese township and village enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 167-190, March.
    7. Harrison, Ann & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2010. "Trade, Foreign Investment, and Industrial Policy for Developing Countries," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4039-4214, Elsevier.
    8. Harrison, Ann E. & Rodriguez-Clare, Andres, 2009. "Trade, Foreign Investment, and Industrial Policy," MPRA Paper 15561, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Vincent Mok & Godfrey Yeung & Zhaozhou Han & Zongzhang Li, 2010. "Export orientation and technical efficiency: clothing firms in China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(7), pages 453-463.
    10. Lu, Jiangyong & Tao, Zhigang & Yang, Zhi, 2010. "The costs and benefits of government control: Evidence from China's collectively-owned enterprises," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 282-292, June.
    11. Chang, Chun & McCall, Brian P. & Wang, Yijiang, 2003. "Incentive contracting versus ownership reforms: evidence from China's township and village enterprises," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 414-428, September.
    12. Chenggang Xu, 2011. "The Fundamental Institutions of China's Reforms and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1076-1151, December.
    13. Justin Yifu Lin, 2006. "Chinese Rural Industrialisation in the Context of the East Asian Miracle," Working Papers id:647, eSocialSciences.
    14. Zhang, Anming & Zhang, Yimin & Zhao, Ronald, 2002. "Profitability and productivity of Chinese industrial firms: Measurement and ownership implications," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 65-88.
    15. Zheng, Jinghai & Liu, Xiaoxuan & Bigsten, Arne, 2003. "Efficiency, technical progress, and best practice in Chinese state enterprises (1980-1994)," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 134-152, March.
    16. Berkowitz, Daniel & Li, Wei, 2000. "Tax rights in transition economies: a tragedy of the commons?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(3), pages 369-397, June.
    17. Xu, Chenggang & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2009. "The evolution of Chinese entrepreneurial firms: Township-village enterprises revisited," IFPRI discussion papers 854, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    18. Meng, Rujing & Ning, Xiangdong & Zhou, Xianming & Zhu, Hongquan, 2011. "Do ESOPs enhance firm performance? Evidence from China's reform experiment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 1541-1551, June.
    19. Clarke, George R.G., 2005. "Beyond tariffs and quotas : why don't African manufacturers export more?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3617, The World Bank.
    20. Loren Brandt & Hongbin Li & Joanne Roberts, 2001. "Why do Governments Privatize," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 429, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    21. Choe, Chongwoo & Yin, Xiangkang, 2000. "Contract management responsibility system and profit incentives in China's state-owned enterprises," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 98-112.
    22. Yuen, Andrew Chi-lok & Zhang, Anming & Cheung, Waiman, 2013. "Foreign participation and competition: A way to improve the container port efficiency in China?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 220-231.
    23. Helmut Fryges & Joachim Wagner, 2021. "Exports and Productivity Growth — First Evidence from a Continuous Treatment Approach," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Joachim Wagner (ed.), MICROECONOMETRIC STUDIES OF FIRMS’ IMPORTS AND EXPORTS Advanced Methods of Analysis and Evidence from German Enterprises, chapter 6, pages 57-86, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Township and Village Enterprises; managerial efficiency; methods of remuneration; outward-orientation;
    All these keywords.

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Township and Village Enterprises in Wikipedia English

    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:taf:jdevst:v:39:y:2003:i:4:p:27-46. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    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.