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TERRA ECONOMICUS

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  • Common experience, different strategies: János Kornai and Chinese reforms

Common experience, different strategies: János Kornai and Chinese reforms


TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 20 (no. 4),

The paper examines the history of perception in the PRC of the economic ideas of János Kornai in the context of the Chinese approach to the mastering of foreign theories and the national reform policies. From the 1980s until the end of his life, Kornai maintained contacts with the Chinese economic community and closely followed the progress of transformations in the PRC. Based on the study of the practical experience of the functioning of the socialist system, the “Economics of Shortage” caused a wide resonance in China and contributed to the assimilation by the reformers of the concepts of “soft budget constraints”, investment hunger, paternalism, which became part of the language of Chinese economics. With the help of the “supermarket metaphor”, Kornai warned of the threat of chaos in the case of selective piecemeal reform of the socialist economy. However, Kornai’s strategy of transformation that combines market reforms with political liberalization was rejected by Chinese experts. At the end of his life, Kornai called for the containment of China and regretted his role of adviser to Chinese reformers. Communication with Kornai and mastering his ideas helped the Chinese scholarly community to deepen their understanding of the variety of ways to reform the centrally planned economy and draw an independent conclusion about the unacceptability of radical recipes for the transition to a market economy.
Citation: Borokh O.N. (2022). Common experience, different strategies: János Kornai and Chinese reforms. Terra Economicus 20(4), 59–74 (in Russian). DOI: 10.18522/2073-6606-2022-20-4-59-74
Acknowledgment: The paper is based on the presentation at the XXIII Yasin (April) International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development (April 2022). The author would like to thank the participants of Conference discussion for their comments. The author is grateful to the anonymous reviewers of the journal for valuable suggestions.


Keywords: China; economic reforms; socialist system; shortage; market economy; transition; political liberalization

JEL codes: B24, B31, B51, P20, P21, P31, P51

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Publisher: Southern Federal University
Founder: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606