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China's Economic Transformation, 2^nd Edition

Gregory C. Chow

China's total output will exceed that of the United States by 2020.

In the last two and a half decades, reform in China has resulted in phenomenal economic growth for the world's most populous country. In this second edition of the successful book China's Economic Transformation, Gregory Chow uses insights gained from over twenty years of teaching and traveling, as well as his work with government officials and academics, to address the reasons behind China's economic success. Combining historical-institutional and theoretical-quantitative approaches, Chow provides a penetrating and comprehensive analysis of the factors that have contributed to China’s economic evolution. Introducing the reader to the inner workings of the Chinese economy and detailing the process of its development into a market economy, Chow observes the economics of institutional changes taking place, the role of China’s government, and the significance of the historic and cultural traditions of the country. This new edition examines a diverse set of important issues including environmental restraints, income distribution, rural poverty, the education system, healthcare, exchange rate policies, monetary policies, and financial regulation.

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Gregory C. Chow

The author is the Class of 1913 Professor of Political Economy and Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Princeton University. His previous books include Analysis and Control of Dynamic Economic Systems (1975), Econometrics (1983), The Chinese Economy (1985), Understanding China’s Economy (1994), Asia in the Twenty-first Century (1997) and Dynamic Economics (1997). He has advised top government officials in Taiwan and Mainland China and in May 2001 the Econometric Research Program at Princeton was named the Gregory C. Chow Econometric Research Program in his honor.

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"Gregory Chow shows effectively that the powerful tools of modern economics fully apply to China, particularly if allowance is made for its special history and unique institutions. I strongly recommend this book not only to economists and students but to all persons who want to know more about the economy of a nation that is likely to become one of the leaders of this century."

Gary Becker, University of Chicago

“Gregory Chow’s China’s Economic Transformation has become the definitive text for the study of the world’s most dynamic economy. The new second edition improves on the magisterial first edition with more extensive discussion of a broad range of current policy issues: corruption, inflation and money supply, education, healthcare, income inequality, and rural development.”

James Heckman, University of  Chicago

“Gregory Chow has parlayed his knowledge of Chinese history, culture, economic development, together with his expertise in modern econometric methods into an assessment of China's economic progress since 1980 and into this new century. His book provides an authoritative interpretation of a strategic world area about which outsiders know too little, yet need to know much more.”

Lawrence Klein, University of Pennsylvania

“Few economists know as much about China as Gregory Chow.  This is an encyclopedic achievement, and the first edition has already become a standard reference.” 

Oliver Blanchard, MIT

"In China's Economic Transformation Gregory Chow brings together his insights as an economist and more than two decades of significant contact with China's economy and numerous public officials and academics. He is remarkably successful in combining historical and institutional information with numerous examples of systematic economic analysis. The economic analyses are explained in a lucid manner, making the book accessible to economists and general readers alike."

D. Gale Johnson, University of Chicago

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