Abstract
Until China began its post-Mao economic reforms, the country did not have a genuine labor market. State-owned enterprises were the only source of demand for labor. Administrative agencies assigned workers to firms, so individual choice played no part in the determination of labor supply. Then China began the process of transitioning from a state-run economy to a more market-driven one. The early reforms focused on agriculture and product markets but slowly the government freed firms to make labor demand decisions and freed workers to choose their own places of work, creating a genuine labor market. How did this emergent labor market respond to shifts in the supply and demand for labor as China’s urban economy grew rapidly?
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© 2012 International Economic Association
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Chi, W., Freeman, R., Li, H. (2012). Adjusting to Really Big Changes: The Labor Market in China, 1989–2009. In: Aoki, M., Wu, J. (eds) The Chinese Economy. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137034298_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137034298_6
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