Urban labor and wage reforms weaken lifetime job allocation

The decision declared that a planned commodity economy was compatible with socialism and made urban reform a central priority. It gave state enterprises more autonomy, expanded markets and reframed...

Rural industry grew rapidly under local collective and township arrangements, absorbing labor and using household savings and local state support. TVEs offered an alternative to migration into...

The state retained planned prices and quotas while allowing above-quota output and some inputs to trade at negotiated or market prices. This gradual approach avoided a single shock to state allocation...

The central government opened the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and southern Fujian triangle as economic zones. This widened access to foreign capital and technology while channeling...

Agricultural procurement was reorganized so that more products could be traded through negotiated contracts and markets. Farmers gained more choice and price responsiveness, while grain and...

The National People’s Congress adopted the Law on Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises, extending the legal forms available to overseas investors. Chinese authorities sought capital, technology and export...

Contract labor expanded for newly hired workers, while many incumbent employees retained permanent status. The dual arrangement allowed enterprises to test flexible hiring without confronting the...

The Enterprise Bankruptcy Law (Trial Implementation) established procedures for insolvent state enterprises, a significant departure from the assumption that public firms would always be rescued....

Contract responsibility arrangements spread in state industry, allowing firms to retain earnings after remitting agreed revenue to the state. This was an incremental way to grant autonomy without...

The congress argued that China would remain in a primary stage of socialism and should develop productive forces through reform and opening. This ideological formulation legitimized market...