An essay on economic reforms and social change in China

WPS4057 1 An Essay on Economic Reforms and Social Change in China Assar Lindbeck Institute for International Economic Studies Stockholm University and Research Institute for Industrial Economics, Stockholm World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4057, November 2006 The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the view of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries they represent. Policy Research Working Papers are available online at http://econ.worldbank.org. _____________________________________________________ The author is grateful for useful comments on earlier versions of the paper from Charles Abelmann, Dario Caldara, Gregory Chow, Peter Heller, Bert Hofman, Robert Holzmann, Nick Lardy, Peter Nolan, Martin Ravallion, Zmarak Shalizi, Gordon Tullock, Shuilin Wang, Hans Wijkander, Solveig Wikstr