Biographical note: Justin Yifu Lin is founding director and professor at the China Centre for Economic Research at Peking University. From 2008 to 2012, he served as chief economist and senior vice president of the World Bank. His many books include "Demystifying the Chinese Economy" and...

How poor countries can ignite economic growth without waiting for global action or the creation of ideal local conditionsContrary to conventional wisdom, countries that ignite a process of rapid economic growth almost always do so while lacking what experts say are the essential preconditions...

Active economic policies by developing countries’ governments to promote growth and industrialization have generally been viewed with suspicion by economists, and for good reasons: past experiences show that such policies have too often failed to achieve their stated objectives. But the...

Contents: 1. Introduction / Jan Svejnar and Justin Yifu Lin -- Part I: Recent policies and performance: 2. Path to prosperity: China's transition to market economy in the last four decades / Justin Yifu Lin -- 3. China's performance and prospects in the world economy / Jan Svejnar -- 4. The role...