China’s Trade Patterns and International Comparative Advantage

DR ZHANG received his PhD from Australian National University (ANU) in 1993. Prior to that, he was a researcher in the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a lecturer in the Department of Economics at Renmin University in Beijing. After completion of his study, he was a visiting research fellow in the Department of Economics in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the ANU before joining the Department of Economics at the University of Melbourne as a lecturer in July 1994. Since then he has taught International Economics, Chinese Economy, Economic Growth and Development and Economic Development of East Asia. His main research interests are in international economics and development economics.

'Xiao-Guang Zhang's new book provides a much-needed empirical study of China's changing trade patterns. Zhang finds that reform has shifted trade flows in the direction of national comparative advantage. He also shows that rapid growth has begun to erode comparative advantage in the labour-intensive manufacturers that powered China's remarkable export surge.' - Professor Thomas G. Rawski, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh 'China's Trade Patterns and International Comparative Advantage is the most comprehensive study available of China's evolving pattern of trade. It explains how the increasing openness associated with trade reforms has influenced the structure of domestic prices which, in turn, has led to a growing convergence of China's trade patterns and its underlying comparative advantage.' - Nicholas R. Lardy, Frederick Frank Adjunct Professor of International Trade and Finance, School of Management, Yale University

• Tables and Figures Abbreviations Preface Introduction Reforming a Centrally Planned Foreign Trade System Factor Intensity of China's Tradable Commodities China's Foreign Trade Patterns and Performance Measuring Comparative Advantage Tradable Goods Price Structure in China, 1978-95 Shadow Prices of Primary Factors of Production in China, 1978-95 China's International Comparative Advantage 1978-95: DRP Results China's Trade Patterns and Its Comparative Advantage Summary and Conclusion Bibliography Index