Sustaining agricultural growth in China : a case for land privatization?

Abstract

With the decollectivization of agriculture based on a system of private incentives, China's agricultural output increased significantly. After the successful implementation of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in agrarian China after the 1978 economic reforms, agricultural productivity finally surpassed the levels in the early 1950s. This led to significant increases in Chinese peasants' real incomes but agricultural productivity began to decline after 1984 for a myriad of reasons. This thesis seeks to do two things. Firstly, it intends to account for the increases in agricultural output during the post-78 period and to explain the causes of agricultural stagnation after 1984. Secondly, having investigated the causes of agricultural growth and decline after the introduction of the HRS, I will deliberate the case for and against land privatization as a policy prescription to sustain agricultural growth in China.