"The book reports and interprets results from a detailed study of the contemporary private sector in China. It is based on the Technical Report on Private Enterprise Development in China commissioned by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the State Economic and Trade Commission...

During our sample period from 1987 to 2002, Chinese villages completed the transition from government‐appointed village leaders to elected ones. This article examines if and how much democratic elections of the village leaders affected consumption insurance by Chinese village residents....

Using a sample of households in 48 Chinese villages for the period 1986-2002, this paper studies the dynamic effects of major health shocks on household income and the role played by village elections in mitigating these effects. Our results show that in the first 15 years after a shock, a...

The efficiency hypothesis of institutional change is formulated in a general economic setting. The validity of this hypothesis depends on the specification of the new institution and the political process governing the institutional change. The issue is formulated as an implementation problem...

This paper contributes to the debate over land in rural China by conceptualizing and measuring multiple dimensions of property rights in a way which elucidates the competing interests which are affected by the property rights regime. Utilizing a unique village level data set on property rights,...