Rural industry is the most dynamic sector in China. I argue that rural industrialization is funded by agricultural accumulation, driven by surplus labor, and sustained by human capital. Rural reforms since 1978 have allowed Chinese peasants to retain a larger share of agricultural surplus to be...

Scientists who make breakthrough discoveries can receive above-normal returns to their intellectual capital, with returns depending on the degree of natural excludability, that is whether necessary techniques can be learned through written repons or instead require hands-on experience with the...