UNDERSTANDING CHINA’S ECONOMIC TRANSITION: SOME ANALYTICAL ISSUES

The economic transition that started some two-and-half decades ago1Since the 1990s, studies on issues confronting the transition economies have grown in volumes and sophistication.has been one of the most profound experiments in the modern history, with the livelihood of about 30% of the world population being directly affected in every way imaginable. Disappointed with the slow improvements in the standard of living, pronounced economic inefficiency, and serious resource misallocation, countries that installed the Soviet-type command system have all made attempts, at a varying degree, to break away from it. The effort is intended to overcome the shortcomings of the previous practice by putting the economies onto a more market-based, outward-looking, and private-sector-led growth path