Chinese township village enterprises as vaguely defined cooperations

Martin Weitzman and Chenggang Xu

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

Abstract: This paper concerns the paradoxes and dilemmas that the very successful "Chinese model" presents for transition theory. The "Chinese model" is centered on the development of township-village enterprises. The main purpose of this paper is to make the case that TVE's are not just some form of disguised capitalist institution; they are much better described as "vaguely defined cooperatives" - meaning an essentially communal organization extremely far removed from having a well defined ownership structure. That a transition strategy based on vaguely defined cooperatives should be so successful presents a severe challenge for traditional property rights theory. We speculate that to address this challenge properly, traditional property rights theory should be extended by including a dimension corresponding to the degree of individualism/cooperation existing in a society. A model of the required extension is described. Implications and applications are discussed.

JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 1993-06-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Chapter: Chinese Township-Village Enterprises as Vaguely Defined Cooperatives (1997)
Journal Article: Chinese Township-Village Enterprises as Vaguely Defined Cooperatives (1994)
Working Paper: Chinese Township Village Enterprises as Vaguely Defined Cooperations (1993)
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