Conferences on China's Economic Transition -Toronto, Canada, Summer 2002 and Pittsburgh, Summer 2003

中国的长期繁荣是世界经济史上的一个重要事件。从20世纪70年代末开始，中国经历了20年的非凡增长，提高了物质福利的各项指标，使数亿人摆脱了绝对贫困，并使中国从近乎专制的国家一跃成为前所未有的全球大国。然而，目前的研究对这一增长过程的经济、政治和社会层面及其未来前景的基本问题仍未得到解答。为了解决这些问题，本项目发起了一项主要的跨学科努力，重点关注中国过去二十年的长期繁荣。它寻求对中国持续快速增长的基础和动力进行全面和综合的分析，这将具有开拓性和政策相关性。这个项目建立在两个早期的努力之上：一个是由休·帕特里克和亨利·罗索夫斯基执导的，他们出版了开创性的著作《亚洲新巨人：日本经济如何运作》。第二场研讨会由托马斯·罗斯基（Thomas Rawski）组织，启发了一系列著作，这些著作有助于深化中国历史研究的经济内容，并将中国经验纳入全球经济史研究。该项目的计划包括定于2002年夏季和2003年夏季举行的两次会议。会议考虑三组论文：五篇概述，从几个跨学科的角度阐述主题、问题和方法；15篇专题论文，聚焦中国近期经济经验的具体维度，如开放、国际贸易和外国直接投资、农业、财政政策、产业组织和企业治理；以及三个解释性研究，考虑中国20年的繁荣对中国未来发展、面向中国的经济学研究以及更广泛的经济学和社会科学研究的影响。第一次会议将运用综述的主要成果，丰富和整合专题研究的大纲。第二次会议将审查已完成的专题研究，并应用其结果来扩展和深化解释性论文的初稿。这些论文将产生大量的出版物，包括一本暂定名为《成功的转型》的书，以及至少一本将以中文和英文出版的特刊。该项目的研究成果将为未来以中国为重点的经济研究提供一个跳板，扩大与中国有关的政策讨论的信息库，并促进将中国近期的经验整合到发展、转型和社会变革的研究中。

China's protracted boom is a major episode in world economic history. Beginning in the late 1970s, China experienced two decades of extraordinary growth that raised every indicator of material welfare, lifted several hundred million from absolute poverty, and rocketed China from near autarchy into unprecedented global prominence. Current research, however, leaves fundamental questions about the economic, political and social dimensions of this growth process and its future prospects unanswered. To address these issues, this project initiates a major interdisciplinary effort focused on China's long boom of the past two decades. It seeks a comprehensive and integrated analysis of the underpinnings and dynamics of China's protracted growth spurt that will be both path breaking and policy relevant. This project builds on two earlier efforts: one directed by Hugh Patrick and Henry Rosovsky that produced the path-breaking volume Asia's New Giant: How the Japanese Economy Works. A second, organized by Thomas Rawski, inspired a series of volumes that have contributed to deepening the economic content of Chinese historical studies and integrating Chinese experience into the study of global economic history. The project's plan includes two conferences scheduled for summer 2002 and summer 2003. The conferences consider three groups of papers: five overviews that lay out themes, issues, and methods from several interdisciplinary perspectives; fifteen thematic papers that focus on specific dimensions of China's recent economic experience, e.g. openness, international trade and foreign direct investment, agriculture, fiscal policy, and industrial organization and enterprise governance; and three interpretative studies that consider the implications of China's twenty-year boom for China's future evolution, for China-oriented economics research, and for broader studies in economics and social science. The first conference will apply key results from the overviews to enrich and integrate the prospectuses for the thematic studies. The second conference will review the completed thematic studies and apply their results to expand and deepen the initial drafts of the interpretive essays. These papers will result in substantial publications, including a book, tentatively entitled The Transition That Worked, and at least one special journal issue, that will appear in Chinese as well as English. The results of this project will provide a springboard for future China-focused economic inquiry, expand the information base underpinning China-related policy discussions, and stimulate the integration of recent Chinese experience into research on development, transition, and social change.