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Introducing the Socialist Market Economy

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The Socialist Market Economy in Asia

Abstract

This introductory chapter outlines developments in China, Vietnam and Laos over the recent decades and places these cases in the literature on development as well as in the contemporary world economy. It discusses the socialist market economy in relation to theories on the developmental state and other forms of state-led developmentalism, as well as in relation to regional economic integration and production networks. This includes discussing the three countries’ positions in the theory of the ‘flying geese’, as well as their overall strategies and policies towards both protectionism and integration. The chapter outlines overall development trends in the socialist market economies and their performance on economic and social indicators, and discusses to what extent they are ‘development success stories’. The chapter ends by outlining how the respective chapters in the book contribute to address the overarching issues in our analysis.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Calculated based on data.worldbank.org.

  2. 2.

    For the 2019 fiscal year, low-income economies are defined as those with a GNI per capita of $995 or less in 2017; lower middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $996 and $3895; upper middle-income economies are those with a GNI per capita between $3896 and $12,055; high-income economies are those with a GNI per capita of $12,056 or more.

  3. 3.

    Alternative explanations have been presented, that the ‘weighted combination’ of macroeconomic and microeconomic reforms in China can be regarded as true ‘shock therapy’, while the Russian reforms despite initial macro-financial shock have been slow and inconsistent and, for that reason, less successful than in China (See Kazakevitch, Gennadi and Russell Smyth 2005. Gradualism Versus Shock Therapy: (Re)Interpreting the Chinese and Russian Experiences. Asia Pacific Business Review 11 (1): 69–81).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Oslo, Norway

    Jo Inge Bekkevold

  2. Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Arve Hansen

  3. Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Kristen Nordhaug

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  1. Jo Inge Bekkevold
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  2. Arve Hansen
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Correspondence to Arve Hansen .

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  1. Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Arve Hansen

  2. Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, Oslo, Norway

    Jo Inge Bekkevold

  3. Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Kristen Nordhaug

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Bekkevold, J.I., Hansen, A., Nordhaug, K. (2020). Introducing the Socialist Market Economy. In: Hansen, A., Bekkevold, J.I., Nordhaug, K. (eds) The Socialist Market Economy in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6248-8_1

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