Floaters,moonlighters, and the underemployed: A national labor market with Chinese characteristics

A national labor market has emerged as one of the most fundamental institutional changes in the PRC. Foreign direct investment has played a direct role. The Chinese national labor market, albeit with noticeable distortions, has provided a stable and abundant supply of cheap unskilled or low‐skilled labor and subsidized skilled labor and professionals, and enhanced labor mobility and autonomy in general. The national labor market has been strongly blessed by Beijing, as it feels it can effectively rely on the hukou (household registration) system to stabilize the massive underemployment at a time of comprehensive dislocations caused by the advancing market economy. The sociopolitical impact of the national labor market, however, is mounting as urban unemployment rises, the numbers of floating laborers grow and become increasingly restless, and the PRC government has become more apparently pro‐employer at the expense of labor.     

Book reviews

Bo Yibo, Ruogan Zhongda Juece yu Shijian de Huigu (Reminiscences on Several Important Decisions and Events), Volume Two. Zhonggong Zhongyang Dangxiao Chubanshe, 1993. 567–1298 pp.

Li Honglin, Mingyun ‐ Li Honglin zizhuan (Fate ‐ the autobiography of Li Honglin) Taibei: Wentong tushu, 1993.

Jing Sheng, Yi Feng and Xin Ping, Haiwai Huaren Shiuejia Fajia Mijue (The Success Secrects of the Overseas Chinese Businessman) Shenyang: Liaoning People's Publishing House, 1992, 266 pages.

Li Bulou, ed. Chongji yu sikao: Xifang sichao zai Zhongguo (Impact and Reflections: Western Ideologies in China). Wuhan: Hubei renmin chubanshe, 1991. 290 + 16 pp.

Jia Pingwa, Feidu [Ruined Capital]. Beijing, Beijing chuban she. 1993, p.518.     

Book reviews

Chen Kuide, ed., Zhongguo dalu dangdai wenhua bianqian (197801989) (Cultural change in Contemporary Mainland China, 1978–1989) Taibei: Guiguan, 1991. 278 + iv pp.

Yizi Chen. China: the Ten Years Reform and Democratic Movement in 1989. Pp. ix, 209, Taipei, Taiwan, Lianjing Press, 1990.

Wu Xiaomei et al., Zhongguo xiandai zuojia yu dongxifang wenhua [Modern Chinese Writers and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou: Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 272 pp. 2.12 Yuan.

Zhao Xueyong, Shen Congwen yu dongxifang wenhua [Shen Congwen and Eastern and Western Cultures]. Lanzhou daxue chubanshe, 1990. 226 pp. 1.75 yuan.

Zhongguo Waijiaoguan Huiylilu: Xin Zhongguo Waijiao Fengyun (Memoirs by China's Diplomats: Diplomatic Winds of New China). Edited by Waijiaobu Waijiaoshi Bianjishi (Editorial Office of Diplomatic History of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Beijing: Shijie Zhishi chubanshe, 1990. 196 pp. 3.20 yuan

Zhao Wei, Zhao Ziyang zhuan (Biography of Zhao Ziyang)

Ruan Ming: Lishi Zhuanzedian Shangde Hu Yaobang (Hu Yaobang At the Turning Point of History), New Jersey: Global Cultural Publishing House, 1991     

Fable pour économistes

Sommaire. Cette fable satirique veut décrire, en puisant fortement dans le vocabulaire ésotérique des économistes, la manie qu'ont ces demiers d'aborder un problième par le biais d'un modèle et la tentation qu'ils possèdent de pérorer a partir de ce modèle sur ce que devrait être la réalité. Donc, il était une fois, une tribu appelée les Economix. Etant les sages de la contrée, ils observaient la nature (économique) afin d'extrapoler des com-portements permanents et universels pour les autres membres de la tribu, les chasseurs. Toutefois, survint une querelle épique sur l'analyse du comportement de l'oiseau, l'objet de leurs observations. Après quelques moments de reflexion, l'on organisa un symposium et les deux écoles présentèrent leurs modèles. La première, après avoir observé, dans des conditions données, Ie comportement de l'oiseau, émit l'opinion que la meilleure représentation de l'oiseau en vol l'était par un avion à hélice tandis que la seconde avança, sur des prémisses totalement différentes, une fusée à un étage, comme étant la représentation de l'essence même de l'oiseau. Cependant, le symposium prit une toumure inattendue lorsque l'on s'engagea à parler de l'aéronef en tant qu'aéronef plutôt que de l'aéronef comme étant une simple approximation (par l'homme) de l'oiseau. Durant ce temps-là, les chasseurs (non-Economix), privés de leurs sages, cuntinuaient leur chasse quotidienne en utilisant beaucoup d'information a priori que les Economix ne pouvaient insérer dans leur moditle. En effet, les non-Economix n'avaient jamais oublié que la réalité est concriète! Abstract. The purpose of this satirical fable is to illustrate, by borrowing freely from the esoteric vocabulary of the economists, the craze they have for approaching problems by way of a model and their temptation to spout, basing themselves on that model, on what reality should be. So, once upon a time, there was a tribe called the Economix. Being the wise men of the country, they watched (economic) nature in order to extrapolate continuing and universal behaviour patterns for the other members of the tribe, the Hunters. However, a spectacular quarrel developed about the behavioural analysis of the bird, subject of their study. After some time to think it over, it was decided to organize a symposium for the two schools to present their models. The fist one, having observed - in controlled conditions - the behaviour of the bird, suggested that the best representation of the bird in flight was a propeller lane, while the second school, basing itself on a completely different set oP premises, contended that a one-stage rocket was the representation of the very nature of the bird. However, the symposium took an unexpected turn when it was decided to discuss the aircraft as an aircraft, rather than as an approximation of the bird (by man). In the meantime, the Hunters (non-Economix), deprived of their wise men, went on with their daily hunt, using a lot of a riori information that the Economk could not incorporate in their models. The non-Economix, you see, had never forgotten the concrete character of reality.     

Book reviews

Tibor Szamuely, The Russian Tradition. (Edited and with an Introduction by Robert Conquest.) London: Secker & Warburg, 1974. x+443 pp. £5.00.

Mahmoud Abdel‐Fadil, La Planification des prix en économie socialiste, Essai méthodologique. (Préface de Henri Bartoli.) Série: Sciences Economiques —3. Paris: Publications de l'Université de Paris I—Panthéon‐Sorbonne, 1975. 296 pp.

Jan Adam, Wage, Price and Taxation Policy in Czechoslovakia 1948–1970. Veröffentlichungen des Osteuropa‐Institutes, München. Reihe: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Heft 15. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1974. 231 pp. DM 66.60.

Stephen Osofsky, Soviet Agricultural Policy. Toward the Abolition of Collective Farms. (Praeger Special Studies in International Economics and Development.) New York: Praeger, 1974. xi+300 pp. $20.00.

Peter J. Potichnyj, Soviet Agricultural Trade Unions, 1917–70. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and London: OUP, 1972. xix+258 pp. £6.25.

Roy A. Medvedev, On Socialist Democracy. (Translated from the Russian and edited by Ellen de Kadt.) London: Macmillan, 1975. xxii+405 +xv pp. £12.00.

The Bolsheviks and the October Revolution. Minutes of the Central Committee of the Russian Social‐Democratic Labour Party (bolsheviks) August 1917‐February 1918. Translated from the Russian by Ann Bone. London: Pluto Press, 1974. x+331 pp. £6.60. £2.70 (paperback).

G. I. Tunkin, Theory of International Law. Translated, with an introduction, by William E. Butler. London: Allen & Unwin, 1975. First published in Great Britain in 1974. xxv+497 pp. £8.00.

Bohdan R. Bociurkiw and John W. Strong (eds.), Religion and Atheism in the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe. London: Macmillan, 1975. xviii+412 pp. £10.00.

R. S. Mathieson, The Soviet Union: An Economic Geography. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1975. xvii+342 pp. £7.50.

Violet Conolly, Siberia Today and Tomorrow. A Study of Economic Resources, Problems and Achievements. London and Glasgow: Collins, 1975. 248 pp. £4–95.

Burton Paulu, Radio and Television Broadcasting in Eastern Europe. Minneapolis: Minnesota UP and London: OUP, 1974. xi+592 pp. £13.25.

John McLeish, Soviet Psychology: History, Theory, Content. London: Methuen, 1975. xii+308 pp. £6.95.

Robin Edmonds, Soviet Foreign Policy 1962–1973: The Paradox of Super Power. London: OUP, 1975. xiv+197 pp. £4.50.

Michael MccGwire, Ken Booth and John McDonnell (eds.), Soviet Naval Policy. Objectives and Constraints. (Praeger Special Studies in International Politics and Government.) New York: Praeger and London: Pall Mall Press, 1975. xxvi+663 pp. $32.50. £14.25.

Jerome M. Gilison, The Soviet Image of Utopia. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1975. 192 pp. £4.85.

Victor Serge and Natalia Sedova Trotsky, The Life and Death of Leon Trotsky. London: Wildwood House, 1975. 296 pp. £6.95.