To get the prices right for food: a “Gerschenkron state” versus the market in reforming China, 1979–2006

This article provides an empirical assessment of China’s state price policies and strategies in relation to (1) market-rebuilding for the agricultural sector and (2) food security for China.1 It traces main changes in government grain pricing, urban food subsidies, grain procurement and the administrative control over food circulation from 1979 to 2006 in a bid to transfer a non-market economy to a market one, commonly known as the post-Mao reforms.