Beyond Market and Government: Influence of Ethical Factors on Economy (China Academic Library) - Hardcover

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Li Yining's career has spanned some of the most turbulent periods in twentieth-century Chinese history. He has witnessed at firsthand the many changes that have taken place in China over the past eighty years, and his personal experiences have had a profound influence on the development of his academic ideas. Li Yining was born in Yizheng, Jiangsu Provence in 1930. He enrolled in the Department of Economics at Peking University in 1951, where he was introduced to western economic theory and history by influential scholars such as Luo Zhiru and Chen Daisun. Li joined the Peking University faculty in 1955, but for the next twenty-five years his research was interrupted repeatedly by political initiatives. In 1958, Li spent a year engaged in manual labour with colleagues in west Beijing. In 1964-5, and again during the years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), he was frequently dispatched to rural areas where he undertook farm work while being 're-educated' by local farmers. It was not until November 1976 that Li was able to return to Peking University and full-time academic research. His personal experience of the damage done to the national economy by political movements and the poverty he saw in rural areas challenged his belief in traditional socialism and changed his economic views. Since 1979, Li has published numerous books and articles while teaching at Peking University. He is renowned as one of China's foremost economists. During the 1980s, applying modern economic theories distilled from his decades of study, Li set forth a series of reform proposals which have played a central part in China's transition to a socialist market economy. His advocacy of corporate reform and the shareholding system has been crucial to China's economic development over the last three decades. Alongside his commitment to transitional and development economics, Li has also published widely on comparative economic history and economic ethics,interests that have informed his approach to economic policy. In 1993 Li Yining was instrumental in the establishment of Peking University Business School, now the Guanghua School of Management, which is firmly established as one of the most prestigious business colleges in China. Li has long been a passionate campaigner against poverty in China, and in 2005 he instigated the formation of the Peking University Institute of Poverty Research. He is actively involved with numerous charities in China, working to improve the lives of people in underdeveloped areas. His voice continues to be heard on the issue of the eradication of poverty in China. Li is also known as a highly accomplished poet who has used poetry to express his thoughts throughout his career. Li has been married to He Yuchun since 1958, and they have two children.

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This book explores how moral factors exert influence on economy from an economic and philosophical point of view. The book takes an in-depth look at topics such as efficiency and coordination, fairness and identification, law and self-discipline, and the third distribution, which have long been the focus of public attention.

As expounded in this book, in places where regulation by market or government does work, there are still some gaps that the two modes of regulation cannot reach owing to the limitations of their influence. Each does compensate for the other’s limitations, but only up to a point. The gap can only be filled by custom and morality. In this sense, regulation by custom and morality can be viewed as a regulatory mode beyond market and government.

In a market economy, market regulation of resource allocation as a basic mode can be called “primary regulation” and government regulation, as a high-level mode, “secondary regulation.” Regulation that relies on the force of custom and morality, a regulation beyond market and government, can be called “the third regulation.”

A variety of causes can give rise to market failure or government paralysis, rendering regulation by market or government ineffective or extremely limited. But even in such circumstances, custom and morality still exist and continue working as normal. What affects resource allocation, socio-economic operations and living standards is not just the power of market or government, but that of custom and morality.

This book is one of the three published writings that best reflect Professor Li Yining’s academic standpoint. Although written in economic language, the book also incorporates sociology, history and philosophy, and will help the reader make better judgment calls in the face of changing market conditions and economic policies.