Performance and mechanisms of the Maoist economy – a holistic approach, 1950-1980

Kent Deng, Jim Huangnan Shen and Jingyuan Guo

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This article probes performance and mechanisms of the Maoist economy from 1950 to 1980, a period commonly regarded as a turning point that ushered in a bumpy but new path for China’s new economic fortune, including industrialisation and modernisation. Mao and his government have often been regarded as a developer and moderniser for China. This study questions it. To that end, the Maoist economy is re-conceptualised, re-examined, and re-assessed with qualitative and quantitative evidence including empirical modelling. The key findings suggest that the Maoist economy was a closed one with industrial dependence on agriculture in an urban-rural zero-sum. In the end, despite the official propaganda agriculture declined, industrial workforce stagnated, and the population was poor. This gloomy performance justified the post-Mao reforms and opening up, a game changer that put China on a very different trajectory of growth and development.

Keywords: Maoism; closed economy; zero-sum; industrial dependence on agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2024-12-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-his
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Published in Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 5, December, 2024, 67, pp. 646 – 701. ISSN: 0022-4995

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/124262/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Performance and mechanisms of the Maoist economy: a holistic approach, 1950-1980 (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:124262

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