IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rjapxx/v13y2008i2p168-179.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rent seeking and economic liberalization: why are China and Vietnam different from Eastern Europe?

Author

Listed:
  • Qiangbing Chen

Abstract

Why did a gradualist transition approach achieve different performances among socialist economies in the 1980s? Why did some socialist economies never try a gradualist approach to economic liberalization? This paper develops a model to show that the liberalization of a socialist economy has two opposite effects on the rent captured by government. The initial economic condition determines the relative strength of the two effects, and consequently the transition path and performance. In addition, a gradualist reform strategy adopted by a rent-seeking government cannot finish the transition toward a complete market economy. To achieve that goal, a new constitutional order and the rule of law are necessary.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiangbing Chen, 2008. "Rent seeking and economic liberalization: why are China and Vietnam different from Eastern Europe?," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(2), pages 168-179.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rjapxx:v:13:y:2008:i:2:p:168-179
    DOI: 10.1080/13547860801923566
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860801923566
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13547860801923566?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gérard Roland, 2004. "Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets, and Firms," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026268148x, April.
    2. Olivier Blanchard & Andrei Shleifer, 2001. "Federalism With and Without Political Centralization: China Versus Russia," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(4), pages 1-8.
    3. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Wing Thye Woo, "undated". "Understanding China'S Economic Performance," Department of Economics 97-04, California Davis - Department of Economics.
    4. Yingyi Qian, 1999. "The Institutional Foundations of China's Market Transition," Working Papers 99011, Stanford University, Department of Economics.
    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. Suzuki, Taku & Mizobata, Satoshi, 2019. "Social Confusion and Corruption: Investigating the Causes and Effects of a Breakdown of Ethics," Discussion Paper Series 690_v2, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Frye, Timothy M. & Iwasaki, Ichiro, 2011. "Government directors and business–state relations in Russia," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 642-658.

    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. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    2. Sean M. Dougherty & Robert H. McGuckin, 2001. "The Effect of Ownership Structure and Jurisdictional Governance on Productivity in Chinese Enterprises," Economics Program Working Papers 02-01, The Conference Board, Economics Program, revised Jan 2002.
    3. Sonin, Konstantin, 2010. "Provincial protectionism," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 111-122, June.
    4. Enikolopov, Ruben & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2007. "Decentralization and political institutions," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(11-12), pages 2261-2290, December.
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/50oojv2kpq972a1928dqj0v6at is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Djankov, Simeon & Glaeser, Edward & La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei, 2003. "The new comparative economics," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 595-619, December.
    7. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/50oojv2kpq972a1928dqj0v6at is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Irina Slinko & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya & Evgeny Yakovlev, 2005. "Laws for Sale: Evidence from Russia," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 7(1), pages 284-318.
    9. Polishchuk, Leonid, 2010. "Misuse of Institutions: Lessons from Transition," WIDER Working Paper Series 075, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Huang, Xianfeng & Li, Ping & Lotspeich, Richard, 2010. "Economic growth and multi-tasking by state-owned enterprises: An analytic framework and empirical study based on Chinese provincial data," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 160-177, June.
    11. Bruno Meessen & Gerald Bloom, 2007. "Economic Transition, Institutional Changes and the Health System: Some Lessons from Rural China," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 209-231.
    12. Guido Friebel & Sergei Guriev, 2005. "Attaching Workers through In-Kind Payments: Theory and Evidence from Russia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 19(2), pages 175-202.
    13. Sergei Guriev, 2019. "Gorbachev versus Deng: A Review of Chris Miller's The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(1), pages 120-146, March.
    14. Leonid Polishchuk, 2010. "Misuse of Institutions: Lessons from Transition," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-075, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Bruno Meessen & Gerald Bloom, 2007. "Economic Transition, Institutional Changes and the Health System: Some Lessons from Rural China," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 209-231.
    16. Mr. Ehtisham Ahmad & Li Keping & Mr. Raju J Singh & Mr. Thomas J Richardson, 2002. "Recentralization in China?," IMF Working Papers 2002/168, International Monetary Fund.
    17. Pierre Salmon, 2013. "Reforms and decentralization: friends or foes?," Chapters, in: Francisco Cabrillo & Miguel A. Puchades-Navarro (ed.), Constitutional Economics and Public Institutions, chapter 5, pages 68-89, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Wing Thye Woo, 2003. "Recent Claims of China's Economic Exceptionalism: Reflections Inspired by WTO Accession," Working Papers 13, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    19. Sumon Bhaumik & Saul Estrin, 2003. "Why Transition Paths Differ: Russian and Chinese Enterprise Performance Compared," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 525, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    20. Полтерович В.М., 2006. "Стратегии Институциональных Реформ. Перспективные Траектории," Журнал Экономика и математические методы (ЭММ), Центральный Экономико-Математический Институт (ЦЭМИ), vol. 42(1), январь.
    21. Sergei Guriev, 2019. "Gorbachev versus Deng: A Review of Chris Miller's The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(1), pages 120-146, March.
    22. Leonid POLISHCHUK, 2008. "Misuse of Institutions: Patterns and Causes," The Journal of Comparative Economic Studies (JCES), The Japanese Society for Comparative Economic Studies (JSCES), vol. 4, pages 57-80, December.

    More about this item

    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:rjapxx:v:13:y:2008:i:2:p:168-179. 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/rjap .

    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.