How China Escaped the Poverty Trap

by Yuen Yuen Ang

Overview

WINNER OF THE 2017 PETER KATZENSTEIN BOOK PRIZE
"BEST OF BOOKS IN 2017" BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS
WINNER OF THE 2018 VIVIAN ZELIZER PRIZE BEST BOOK AWARD IN ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY

"How China Escaped the Poverty Trap truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences."
― Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee

Acclaimed as "game changing" and "field shifting," How China Escaped the Poverty Trap advances a new paradigm in the political economy of development and sheds new light on China's rise.

How can poor and weak societies escape poverty traps? Political economists have traditionally offered three answers: "stimulate growth first," "build good institutions first," or "some fortunate nations inherited good institutions that led to growth."

Yuen Yuen Ang rejects all three schools of thought and their underlying assumptions: linear causation, a mechanistic worldview, and historical determinism. Instead, she launches a new paradigm grounded in complex adaptive systems, which embraces the reality of interdependence and humanity's capacity to innovate.

Combining this original lens with more than 400 interviews with Chinese bureaucrats and entrepreneurs, Ang systematically reenacts the complex process that turned China from a communist backwater into a global juggernaut in just 35 years. Contrary to popular misconceptions, she shows that what drove China's great transformation was not centralized authoritarian control, but "directed improvisation"—top-down directions from Beijing paired with bottom-up improvisation among local officials.

Her analysis reveals two broad lessons on development. First, transformative change requires an adaptive governing system that empowers ground-level actors to create new solutions for evolving problems. Second, the first step out of the poverty trap is to "use what you have"—harnessing existing resources to kick-start new markets, even if that means defying first-world norms.

Bold and meticulously researched, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap opens up a whole new avenue of thinking for scholars, practitioners, and anyone seeking to build adaptive systems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501764561
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Series:	Cornell Studies in Political Economy
Pages:	344
Sales rank:	1,062,462
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Yuen Yuen Ang is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow and the inaugural recipient of the Theda Skocpol Prize for Emerging Scholar, awarded by the American Political Science Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction: How Did Development Actually Happen?
Part 1 FRAMEWORK AND BUILDING BLOCKS
1. Mapping Coevolution
2. Directed Improvisation
Part 2 DIRECTION
3. Balancing Variety and Uniformity
4. Franchising the Bureaucracy
Part 3 IMPROVISATION
5. From Building to Preserving Markets
6. Connecting First Movers and Laggards
Conclusion: How Development Actually Happened Beyond China
Appendix A: Steps for Mapping Coevolution
Appendix B: Interviews

What People are Saying About This

Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap truly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences.

Kellee S. Tsai

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap addresses an enduring question in political economy: Why are some nations rich and others poor? This core question is explored through a secondary question about the sequential relationship between effective governance and economic growth: Did growth follow or result from state capacity? Yuen Yuen Ang states that the government and economy coevolved, meaning they adapted to each other. She identifies a three-step sequence to this coevolutionary process and shows, surprisingly, that the first step of development is actually to build markets with 'weak' institutions, that is, features inconsistent with norms of good governance. Ang crafts this original and compelling argument using a rich base of fieldwork, including more than three hundred interviews that introduce readers to real voices on the ground.

Ha-Joon Chang

Sometimes the best way to answer a difficult question is to ask a different question. In this book, instead of asking the usual question—How has China developed despite having low-quality institutions?—Yuen Yuen Ang asks how China has used those institutions to kick-start economic development, which then set off a mutually reinforcing cycle between institutional development and economic development. This innovative and sophisticated book is an outstanding contribution not only to the study of Chinese economic development but also to the long-running debate on the role of institutions in economic development.

James Mahoney

In this major new contribution, Yuen Yuen Ang offers a fresh synthetic explanation for the stunning economic transformation of China in recent decades. She shows how China experienced sustained rapid economic development by transforming weak institutions in ways that strengthened states and markets simultaneously. This book points toward a potential model of growth for other countries and is a must-read for all scholars interested in explaining development trajectories in the Global South.

Peter Katzenstein Book Prize Committee

Ang's project contributes to multiple debates, including but not limited to China. Theoretically, her systematic engagement with diverse literatures circumvents disagreement over which came first, democracy or development, to make a field-shifting move to non-linear complex processes.

Nancy Birdsall

Development economists have struggled to explain the extraordinary growth of the state-led Chinese economy—despite apparent violations of the usual 'micro rules.' Yuen Yuen Ang unpacks the process with convincing detail, explaining the underlying logic of a story so apparently different from the textbook models. Are there lessons here for today’s low-income economies? How China Escaped the Poverty Trap is worth reading with that in mind.

Editorial Reviews

As if explaining modern Chinese economic development was not enough of a challenge, Ang has two even loftier goals. The first is methodological. She expresses a frustration with political science's causality obsession and modeling approaches that deliver isolated snapshots of complex processes.... Ang's second ambition is to apply this coevolutionary schema to how we understand economic development generally.

Perspectives on Politics

This book is a triumph, opening a window onto the political economy of China’s astonishing rise that takes as its starting point systems and complexity. Its lessons apply far beyond China’s borders.

Oxfam Blog

The book combines methodological rigour, employing a complexity perspective hitherto unknown in standard political economy analyses... with rich original empirical data drawn from more than 400 interviews.... This is an important book with a bold thesis that, at its most ambitious, demands a rethinking of the history and evolution of capitalism.... In terms of policy implications, Ang's thesis has the potential to upend much that the global development establishment holds dear.

The Straits Times

While adaptive approaches to development have become new buzzwords, Yuen Yuen's work brings rigor to this conversation.... This analytical lens has enormous potential for thinking through the adaptive challenge, whether at the national level, subnational level or sectoral level.

The World Bank

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap... is an original and insightful take on what is perhaps the biggest development puzzle of my lifetime.

Building State Capability Blog

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap is an innovative account to explain why China has economically developed in spite – or because – of its low-quality institutions. It is both a theoretically original and empirically rich study of Chinese economic development and required reading for those who want to understand China's and our own future.

VoegelinView

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap is an innovative account to explain why China has economically developed in spite - or because - of its low-quality institutions. It is both a theoretically original and empirically rich study of Chinese economic development and required reading for those who want to understand China's and our own future.

-- "VoegelinView"

How China Escaped the Poverty Trap... is an original and insightful take on what is perhaps the biggest development puzzle of my lifetime.

-- "Building State Capability Blog"

Ang provides specialists and nonspecialists alike with a fresh inside-the-black-box account of how the Chinese state... has actually practiced (not merely preached) innovation, problem solving, and effective implementation.... Future studies of bureaucratic life in China and elsewhere must reckon seriously with Ang's account.

-- "Governance"

As if explaining modern Chinese economic development was not enough of a challenge, Ang has two even loftier goals. The first is methodological. She expresses a frustration with political science's causality obsession and modeling approaches that deliver isolated snapshots of complex processes.... Ang's second ambition is to apply this coevolutionary schema to how we understand economic development generally.

-- "Perspectives on Politics"

China's transformation cannot be attributed to a single cause; rather, it arose from a contingent, interactive process--Ang calls it 'directed improvisation.' She formalizes this insight which has the potential to influence future studies of institutional and economic change beyond China.

-- "Foreign Affairs"

The author has certainly filled the gaps in the literature on the political-economic analysis of China's historic transformation from a low-income to a middle-income country through adoption of a co-evolutionary approach to development. Overall, this interesting book goes deeper beneath the broad political-economic surface of Chinese society. It should appeal not only to researchers on Chinese society, but also to practising political economists.

-- "Ecoomic Record"

The book combines methodological rigour, employing a complexity perspective hitherto unknown in standard political economy analyses... with rich original empirical data drawn from more than 400 interviews.... This is an important book with a bold thesis that, at its most ambitious, demands a rethinking of the history and evolution of capitalism.... In terms of policy implications, Ang's thesis has the potential to upend much that the global development establishment holds dear.

-- "The Straits Times"

This book is a triumph, opening a window onto the political economy of China's astonishing rise that takes as its starting point systems and complexity. Its lessons apply far beyond China's borders.

-- "Oxfam Blog"

This book is an invaluable addition to the scholarship on the political economy of development.

-- "Pacific Affairs"

While adaptive approaches to development have become new buzzwords, Yuen Yuen's work brings rigor to this conversation.... This analytical lens has enormous potential for thinking through the adaptive challenge, whether at the national level, subnational level or sectoral level.

-- "The World Bank"

From the Publisher

This book is an invaluable addition to the scholarship on the political economy of development.

Pacific Affairs

China's transformation cannot be attributed to a single cause; rather, it arose from a contingent, interactive process—Ang calls it 'directed improvisation.' She formalizes this insight which has the potential to influence future studies of institutional and economic change beyond China.

Foreign Affairs

The author has certainly filled the gaps in the literature on the political-economic analysis of China's historic transformation from a low-income to a middle-income country through adoption of a co-evolutionary approach to development. Overall, this interesting book goes deeper beneath the broad political-economic surface of Chinese society. It should appeal not only to researchers on Chinese society, but also to practising political economists.

Ecoomic Record

Ang provides specialists and nonspecialists alike with a fresh inside-the-black-box account of how the Chinese state... has actually practiced (not merely preached) innovation, problem solving, and effective implementation.... Future studies of bureaucratic life in China and elsewhere must reckon seriously with Ang's account.

Governance

"While adaptive approaches to development have become new buzzwords, Yuen Yuen's work brings rigor to this conversation.... This analytical lens has enormous potential for thinking through the adaptive challenge, whether at the national level, subnational level or sectoral level."

The World Bank

"In this major new contribution, Yuen Yuen Ang offers a fresh synthetic explanation for the stunning economic transformation of China in recent decades. She shows how China experienced sustained rapid economic development by transforming weak institutions in ways that strengthened states and markets simultaneously. This book points toward a potential model of growth for other countries and is a must-read for all scholars interested in explaining development trajectories in the Global South."

James Mahoney

"Development economists have struggled to explain the extraordinary growth of the state-led Chinese economy—despite apparent violations of the usual 'micro rules.' Yuen Yuen Ang unpacks the process with convincing detail, explaining the underlying logic of a story so apparently different from the textbook models. Are there lessons here for today’s low-income economies? How China Escaped the Poverty Trap is worth reading with that in mind."

Nancy Birdsall

"Sometimes the best way to answer a difficult question is to ask a different question. In this book, instead of asking the usual question—How has China developed despite having low-quality institutions?—Yuen Yuen Ang asks how China has used those institutions to kick-start economic development, which then set off a mutually reinforcing cycle between institutional development and economic development. This innovative and sophisticated book is an outstanding contribution not only to the study of Chinese economic development but also to the long-running debate on the role of institutions in economic development."

Ha-Joon Chang

"Ang's project contributes to multiple debates, including but not limited to China. Theoretically, her systematic engagement with diverse literatures circumvents disagreement over which came first, democracy or development, to make a field-shifting move to non-linear complex processes."

Peter Katzenstein Book Prize Committee

"How China Escaped the Poverty Traptruly offers game-changing ideas for the analysis and implementation of socio-economic development and should have a major impact across many social sciences."

Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Prize Committee

"How China Escaped the Poverty Trap addresses an enduring question in political economy: Why are some nations rich and others poor? This core question is explored through a secondary question about the sequential relationship between effective governance and economic growth: Did growth follow or result from state capacity? Yuen Yuen Ang states that the government and economy coevolved, meaning they adapted to each other. She identifies a three-step sequence to this coevolutionary process and shows, surprisingly, that the first step of development is actually to build markets with 'weak' institutions, that is, features inconsistent with norms of good governance. Ang crafts this original and compelling argument using a rich base of fieldwork, including more than three hundred interviews that introduce readers to real voices on the ground."

Kellee S. Tsai

"Ang's book contains a very compelling account of how the Chinese bureaucracy has evolved in ways that promote growth during the past thirty-five years."

Journal of Economic Literature

"Future studies of bureaucratic life in China and elsewhere must reckon seriously with Ang's account; she has set an admirably high bar and capably filled a conspicuous scholarly vacuum. It is encouraging that the development policy community is also taking note.... As an opening statement, her book is compelling, important, and deserving of a wide audience."

Governance - Michael Woolock

"This book is a triumph, opening a window onto the political economy of China’s astonishing rise that takes as its starting point systems and complexity. Its lessons apply far beyond China’s borders."

Oxfam Blog - Duncan Green

"Ang's book contains a very compelling account of how the Chinese bureaucracy has evolved in ways that promote growth during the past thirty-five years."

Journal of Economic Literature - Daniel Berkowitz

"The book combines methodological rigour, employing a complexity perspective hitherto unknown in standard political economy analyses... with rich original empirical data drawn from more than 400 interviews.... This is an important book with a bold thesis that, at its most ambitious, demands a rethinking of the history and evolution of capitalism.... In terms of policy implications, Ang's thesis has the potential to upend much that the global development establishment holds dear."

The Straits Times - Linda Lim

"The first takeaway of the book, that a poor country can harness the institutions they have and get development going is a liberating message... This provocative message challenges our prevailing practice of assessing a country's institutions by their distance from the global best practice.... The second part of the book is equally thought provoking. While adaptive approaches to development have become new buzzwords, Yuen Yuen's work brings rigor to this conversation.... This analytical lens has enormous potential for thinking through the adaptive challenge, whether at the national level, subnational level or sectoral level."

The World Bank - Yongmei Zhou