State capacity and leadership: Why did China take off?

Haiwen Zhou

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: For a large economy trying to achieve industrialization, it needs to develop indigenous technological capacities to make growth sustainable. Industrialization can be challenging to achieve because it might be difficult to develop technologies without changing culture and political institutions which are useful to maintain ruling. Rulers in ancient China choose institutions to prevent internal rebellions. Industrialization was a new goal for the Qing government in the 19th century, and previous institutions were not designed to handle this issue. China’s high growth rates after 1978 resulted from internal reforms to increase efficiency and external openness to absorb foreign capital, knowledge, and technologies. China’s state capacity and leadership supported developing technological capacities in the catch-up process.

Keywords: China; economic development; technological capacity; political economy; state capacity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N95 O14 O53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-his
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Journal Article: State Capacity and Leadership: Why Did China Take off? (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:112163

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