Incentive Effects of Price Rises and Payment-System Changes on Chinese Agricultural Productivity Growth

John McMillan, John Whalley, Zhu Li Jing

NBER Working Paper No. 2148
Issued in 1987
NBER Program(s):   ITI   IFM

This paper analyzes the relative importance of the major factors underlying the post-1978 increase in China's agricultural productivity. We present a method for assessing the role of price increases and strengthened individual incentives due to the introduction of the responsibility system. Data on pre- and post-1978 Chinese agricultural performance are used to calculate incentive indices, giving the fraction of their marginal product that peasants received under the pre-1978 regime.

(202 K)

(134 K)

Published: Journal of Political Economy, vol. 97 (4), August 1989, pp. 781-807."The Impact of China's Economic Reforms on Agricultural Productivity Growth"

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