Public versus Private Ownership of Firms: evidence from rural China

Abstract In studying economies in transition from planned to market, no single issue has received more attention from economists and policymakers than the one of property rights and ownership of firms. In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, one observes mass privatisation of old state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and the emergence of new private (including newly privatised) enterprises. In China, old SOEs also declined even without privatisation, and new private enterprises flourish. However, there is a puzzle concerning China’s successful Township-Village Enterprises (TVEs).