Question

In a 3-4 page paper, please explain corruption and growth in China. Provide 5 sources.

Answer 1

(I am providing you with points with which you can build 3-4 page paper. I hope it helps. Thanks)

Corruption in China

• Economic corruption as the use of public office for personal gain. Thus illegal or immoral acts solely between private individuals may be bad but they are not examples of corruption.
• After the beginning of the post-Mao reform period, China experienced a marked worsening of corruption.
• The pre-reform period was not free from corruption, but a series of large-scale mass campaigns during had largely driven corruption underground.
• Bribes most often were paid not in cash but in kind, with cigarettes, liquor, and meat the common mediums.
• In the post-Mao period, the scale of corruption increased exponentially as officials cashed in on their ability to manipulate the allocation of valuable resources, including land and capital.
• At a very broad level economic reform in China resulted in the creation of vast new economic value and the reassignment of this new value from the state to the market. Control over land and other productive assets whose value had been minimalized in the old command economy.
• The costs of corruption far outweigh the benefits in China. Since World War II, many countries have attempted the transition from low- to high-income status, but only 13 have succeeded and all had low levels of official corruption.
• Three economic implications of corruption stand out.
  • First, most of the academic studies based on cross country experiences have shown that corruption retards economic growth.
  • Second, the more a country develops, the more likely it is that corruption diminishes but in China’s case the opposite seems to be happening.
  • The third, many studies conclude that by contributing to an economic decline, corruption leads to political instability. This in turn has encouraged speculation that corruption in China might eventually lead to political liberalization.