Business, Government & the International Economy
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- March 16, 2023
- Other Article
How Putin Uses Hanoi’s 1960s Playbook to Divide the American Public on Foreign Policy
By: Jeremy Friedman- March 16, 2023
- Other Article
How Putin Uses Hanoi’s 1960s Playbook to Divide the American Public on Foreign Policy
By: Jeremy Friedman -
- March 2023
- Case
Russia: A Drama in Three Acts (B)
By: Rawi Abdelal, Kateryna Olkhovyk and Davit GasparyanSupplements the (A) case.
- March 2023
- Case
Russia: A Drama in Three Acts (B)
By: Rawi Abdelal, Kateryna Olkhovyk and Davit GasparyanSupplements the (A) case.
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- 2023
- Working Paper
Rule by Market: The Chinese State in Factor Markets
By: Meg RithmirePolitical economy on China and beyond generally has been premised on a trade-off between state and market power. In the context of China’s reforms, markets and market mechanisms were hypothesized to replace state power in allocating important economic resources. Yet, even as market mechanisms have been introduced in important realms, the state appears to retain power over supply and demand, and, by extension, prices. This paper examines the introduction, and eventual adjustment and constraint, of markets in two important arenas: land and equity markets. Through process tracing and by analyzing a large body of policy documents from various levels of government in both arenas, I uncover a cycle by which the Chinese state embraced market mechanisms to address problems of misallocation, met uncomfortable outcomes of instability and “bubble” behavior during partial liberalization, and reconfigured state control over supply and demand of land and capital while retaining market mechanisms to facilitate competition but not set prices. In both arenas, the Chinese state “rules by market,” by which market mechanisms facilitate, rather than replace, state control over allocation of resources. Rule by market is characterized by authoritarian responses (including populist crackdowns and the use of the state’s coercive apparatus) to respond to market instability as well as institutional reconfigurations involving “red lines” to structure exchange, the setting of indirect price controls, and the rise of novel institutions to enforce these. Rule by market helps make sense of a number of empirical puzzles in China’s political economy, such as bubbles that never seem to pop and cycles of liberalization and crackdown, and suggests amendments to several ideas about how the CCP has managed markets with monopolized political power.
- 2023
- Working Paper
Rule by Market: The Chinese State in Factor Markets
By: Meg RithmirePolitical economy on China and beyond generally has been premised on a trade-off between state and market power. In the context of China’s reforms, markets and market mechanisms were hypothesized to replace state power in allocating important economic resources. Yet, even as market mechanisms have been introduced in important realms, the state...
About the Unit
The BGIE Unit conducts research on, and teaches about, the economic, political, social, and legal environment in which business operates. The Unit includes scholars trained in economics, political science, and history; in its work, it draws on perspectives from all three of these disciplines.
The following demonstrates one way of classifying the approaches the Unit takes to learning and teaching.
- The Unit examines the “rules” and policies established by government and other non-business institutions that affect business in the United States.
- The Unit turns to history to understand the origins of today’s business environment as well as some of the alternatives that have emerged from time to time.
- The Unit examines other countries’ business environments and their historical development.
- The BGIE group is deeply interested in the impact of globalization and the way rules are emerging to govern international economic transactions as globalization proceeds.
Recent Publications
How Putin Uses Hanoi’s 1960s Playbook to Divide the American Public on Foreign Policy
- March 16, 2023 |
- Other Article |
- Jurist
Copper Nationalization in Chile
- March 2023 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
Russia: A Drama in Three Acts (B)
- March 2023 |
- Case |
- Faculty Research
Mossadeq’s Gambit: The US, UK, and Iranian Oil Nationalization
- March 2023 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
Stalin’s Capitalists: American Business and Soviet Industrialization
- March 2023 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
Rule by Market: The Chinese State in Factor Markets
- 2023 |
- Working Paper |
- Faculty Research
ALDDN: Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria
- March 2023 |
- Teaching Note |
- Faculty Research
Harvard Business Publishing
Seminars & Conferences
There are no upcoming events.