Institutional Reform and Agricultural Productivity Growth in China

For six years following 1978, agricultural output in China grew more than twice as fast as the average growth rate over the previous twenty-five years. This impressive growth followed the introduction of the package of economic reforms associated with the household responsibility system (HRS) in 1979 - the privatization of farming and the support of rural development. The control of farmland changed from a team to a household-based system, the incentives to work the land improved, and the new system resulted in efficiency gains.