This paper seeks to understand how market imperfections affect the behavior of consumers in China's rural economy. A theoretical and empirical model is developed and estimated using a household-level data from six counties in Hebei Province. The results show that market development plays an...

"This paper accounts for the structural changes now taking place in China ... and suggests that China is not likely to become either an enormous importer or exporter of grain. Ultimately, though, China's grain balances will depend on decisions made by Chinese policymakers rather than natural...

The future of China's grain economy has been the subject of much debate. Some observers predict rapidly increasing grain imports that will strain the world's productive capacity. Most of China's own economists disagree: researchers in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have long...