Cheng Jin is Associate Research Fellow in the Institute of Public Policy at the South China University of Technology, China. His research areas include imperial China's land market, and China's fiscal management from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1. Township and village enterprise and economic duality

1.2. Implications of TVE studies: macro and micro perspectives

1.3. Empirical and theoretical considerations: the definition of economic environment

1.4. Research Method and Methodology

1.5. The purpose of this study and the structure of the book

Chapter 2. TVEs: Theories and Methodology

2.2. A general macro-level theory review

2.3. Comments on macro issues and theories

2.4. Reviews of micro theory: ownership structure and entrepreneurship

2.5. Implications

Chapter 3. Township and Village Enterprises: History and Institutions (1958-1997)

3.1. Introduction

3.2. Commune-Brigade Enterprises (CBEs) in the Pre-Reform Period: 1958-1978

3.3. From Commune-Brigade Enterprises (CBEs) to Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs): 1978-1984

3.4. T

3.5. Conclusion

Chapter 4. Ownership Structure of TVEs: TVE and Local Politics

4.1. Introduction

4.2. From CBE to TVE: Changes in Incentives

4.3. The Nature of TVE Property Rights

4.4. Conclusion

Chapter 5. The Fall and Rise of State-Owned Enterprises (I): The Dual-Track Price System

5.1. Introduction

5.3. SOEs after 1998: Monopoly and Primogeniture of the State

5.4. The rise of SOEs: Accident or Inevitability?

Chapter 6. The Fall and Rise of State-owned Enterprises (II): The Institutional Root of the Chinese Dual Head Economy

6.1. How to Measure and Identify Successful SOEs

6.2. From Central Planning to Dual-Track

6.3. The Logic of SOE Reform: From Dual-track System to State Monopoly

6.4. The Nature of the Chinese State Sector: From Dual-track System to State Monopoly

6.5. Conclus

Chapter 7. TVE and the Economic Environment

7.1. Market Environment: Is there a Chinese Index?

7.2. The 'Old' Reform

7.3. The 'New' Reform

7.4. The Nature of the Chinese Economic Environment

Chapter 8. Conclusions

8.2. Conclusion I: the micro structure of TVE ownership

8.3.  Conclusion II: SOE sector as the economic environment

8.4. Conclusion

This book provides a historical economic analysis of two key issues relating to township and village enterprise (TVE) development in China. Firstly, the nature of the evolving relationship between TVEs and local government; in particular how TVE entrepreneurs have used institutionalized power to secure the political influence needed to defend their financial independence. Secondly, the relationship between TVEs and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and the role of SOEs in China's economic transition.

This study highlights the importance of the role of SOEs in the "dual-track pricing system" and its impact on other parts of the economy. Township and village enterprises were key to China's success in the late twentieth century, but have more or less disappeared as an entity over the past decade or so. By measuring the structural difference of the SOE sector before and after 1998-2003 SOE reform, Jin explains their fast catch-up in productivity since the mid-1990s, as well as