Economic Reform in China and India: Development Experience in a Comparative Perspective, J.C.H. Chai, K.C. Roy. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK (2006). v + 295 pp., Price 130 dollars, ISBN: 184064987

摘要

The development experiences of China and India, particularly after economic reforms in the two countries, have attracted considerable attention and interest among researchers and policy makers. China has been implementing economic reforms since the late 1970s and India since the early 1990s, though some pro-business economic reforms were initiated in India in a limited scale in the early 1980s. Both countries experienced significantly higher growth rates of GDP with substantial reduction in poverty during the post-reform period. After growing at a moderate rate of 3-3.5 percent annually during 1950-79, India's growth performance improved significantly since 1980, as the growth rate jumped to about 6 percent during the 1980s and 1990s, and has been approaching 7-8 percent in the new millennium. However, China outperforms India as her growth rate of GDP increased from 5 to 6 percent during 1949-1978 to about 10 percent during 1980-2004. China outperforms India in terms of economic as well as social development while India has been well ahead of China in terms of political development. The obvious questions to which researchers and policy makers have been looking for answers are: Why has China been able to perform better than India and what are the underlying factors? Would India be able to catch up with China, and what are the prospects that the walking elephant (India) catching up with the flying dragon (China)?