As regional inequality looms large in the policy debate in China, this volume brings together a selection of papers from authors whose work has had real impact on policy, so that researchers and policy makers can have access to them in one place.

This study by Shenggen Fan makes three important and original contributions. It is the first study to report regional patterns of productivity growth in Chinese agriculture. There have been dramatic differences in output and productivity growth among Chinese regions. The second contribution is to measure the separate effects of technical change and institutional reform on productivity growth. Much of the rapid growth in agricultural production and in productivity since the late 1970s has been a consequence of an important series of institutional reforms. The third contribution is the first...