This book is a detailed study of rural reform in China. After the death of Mao, and with the ascendency of Deng Xiaoping in 1978, China began a programme of agricultural reform intended to increase productivity. Three major changes moved the agricultural sector from a centrally planned system to a more market-oriented system. First, replacement of collective teams by farming by households. Second, an increase in free markets for rural products, and increase in state prices for farm products, and the partial elimination of the two-tier price system. Third were changes in the economic structure that facilitied greater productivity and a 250% increase in average real rural incomes between 1979 and 1986. This book is unique in that it studies a single township (Dahe in Hebei Province) in depth over the two periods, thus providing a great deal of data about the effects of the reform at the village level.

This book brings together classic writings on the economic nature and organization of firms, including works by Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Michael Jensen and William Meckling, as well as more recent contributions by Paul Milgrom, Bengt Holmstrom, John Roberts, Oliver Hart, Luigi Zingales, and others. Part I explores the general theme of the firm s nature and place in the market economy; Part II addresses the question of which transactions are integrated under a firm s roof and what limits the growth of firms; Part III examines employer-employee relations and the motivation of labor; and Part IV studies the firm s organization from the standpoint of financing and the relationship between owners and managers. The volume also includes a consolidated bibliography of sources cited by these authors and an introductory essay by the editors that surveys the new institutional economics of the firm and issues raised in the anthology. The collection aims to introduce the core literature to advanced undergraduates, business and economics graduate students, and scholars in allied disciplines, including law, sociology, and organization and management.

This book brings together classic writings on the economic nature and organization of firms, including works by Ronald Coase, Oliver Williamson, and Michael Jensen and William Meckling, as well as more recent contributions by Paul Milgrom, Bengt Holmstrom, John Roberts, Oliver Hart, Luigi Zingales, and others. Part I explores the general theme of the firm s nature and place in the market economy; Part II addresses the question of which transactions are integrated under a firm s roof and what limits the growth of firms; Part III examines employer-employee relations and the motivation of labor; and Part IV studies the firm s organization from the standpoint of financing and the relationship between owners and managers. The volume also includes a consolidated bibliography of sources cited by these authors and an introductory essay by the editors that surveys the new institutional economics of the firm and issues raised in the anthology. The collection aims to introduce the core literature to advanced undergraduates, business and economics graduate students, and scholars in allied disciplines, including law, sociology, and organization and management.

A new and unique collection of essays on the relationship between economic institutions and values, this book's original premise is that the way an economy and society are organized is determined in part by the preferences we call "values." This book challenges economists and scholars in related fields to explore the two-way interaction between economic arrangements and values. Contributors include leading scholars from such diverse fields as game theory and economic history, as well as political philosophy, sociology and psychology. Designed for a wide readership, the book has no existing counterparts.

In this clear and engaging book, economist Louis Putterman places the economy and the study of economics in a broad historical and social perspective. He explores the history of the discipline, the history of the modern economy, different perspectives on the market economy, and the relations between economic matters and questions of human nature, social aspiration, and justice. Putterman connects the field of economics with other important spheres of life, building bridges of understanding that are too often absent in the study of economics.

This book explains economic ideas in nontechnical language and is accessible to readers with little background in economics. Recognizing that abstract models and theories can leave readers puzzling over the meaning and significance of economics, Putterman addresses such questions as: Why is the economy organized the way it is? Can economic efficiency and economic justice coexist? Will those who live in the world's poor countries be able to join the well-off? Is the economy optimally arranged for maintaining the life-sustaining capacity of our planet? The author encourages readers to think more deeply and widely about economic issues and offers notes and recommendations for further reading at the end of each chapter.