Beyond the Property Rights Approach

Welfare Policy and the Reform of State-Owned Enterprises in China

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3885276
AutoresEdward Gu (0000-0002-7212-3865, Beijing Normal University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2001
Volumen32
Número1
Páginas129-150
Fecha de publicación2001-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-7660.00199
OpenAlexW2034109192
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13

During the pre-reform era, Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) operated not only as firms, but also as mini-welfare states, providing employees with lifetime employment, inexpensive housing, free health care, and pensions. Since China's market transition began in the late 1970s, however, SOEs have had to bear increasingly heavy burdens for welfare provisions to their employees. The steep increase in welfare spending has not only eroded the base of state revenue, but has also impeded further SOE reforms. To lighten welfare burdens upon SOEs and to remove institutional obstacles to marketization and privatization embedded in the existing welfare system, the Chinese state has imposed many welfare reforms aimed at shifting responsibilities for welfare provision from SOEs to a combination of government, enterprises, communities, and individuals. This article examines the belated welfare reforms in China's state sector and their impact upon the reform of SOEs. It finds that reform implementation has been sluggish. To achieve the policy goal of welfare reforms, high degrees of state autonomy and capacity are needed

Autonomy · Business · China · Economic policy · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Market economy · Marketization · Political science · Property rights · Revenue · State (computer science) · Welfare · Welfare reform · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Finance · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies