Contribution To Economics and China's Economic Development
Chueng's contribution to economics and China's economic development can be roughly grouped in the following areas,
- New Institutional Economics
- how different kinds of contractual arrangement affect transaction costs, which are often ignored by neoclassical economists
- realizing the importance of transaction costs (as Cheung often mentions in his writings, if there is no transaction costs (the original starting point assumption by Coase), there is no difference in using different institutional arrangements (e.g. market or government)).
- the nature of the firm (a government, to a certain extent, is a firm and can be more efficient than the market in some areas),
- Methodology
- emphasis on economic explanation (according to Cheung, economic explanation is the ONLY objective of the study of economics);
- the analysis of relevant and observable real world constraints: Adam Smith's tradition,
- downward sloping demand curve: Neoclassical tradition,
- theories must be potentially refutable but not yet refuted (Cheung considers many mainstream concepts not observable, leading to the non-refutable nature of many theories (such as utilities, welfare))
- focus on capturing the underlying and relevant constraints to explain economic phenomena that might seem odd and strange on the surface.
- China's economic development
- Considerable influence among the Chinese speaking population (most of his work after 1982 are written in Chinese);
- Prediction of China's institutional reform (which, in general, has been quite accurate)
- Analysis of the deficiencies in the Chinese state owned enterprises
Read more about this topic: Steven N. S. Cheung
Famous quotes containing the words contribution to, contribution, economics, china, economic and/or development:
“Sometimes I think that idlers seem to be a special class for whom nothing can be planned, plead as one will with them—their only contribution to the human family is to warm a seat at the common table.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“By what a delicate and far-stretched contribution every island is made! What an enterprise of nature thus to lay the foundations of and to build up the future continent, of golden and silver sands and the ruins of forests, with ant-like industry.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”
—Anonymous.
An axiom from economics popular in the 1960s, the words have no known source, though have been dated to the 1840s, when they were used in saloons where snacks were offered to customers. Ascribed to an Italian immigrant outside Grand Central Station, New York, in Alistair Cooke’s America (epilogue, 1973)
“In a country where misery and want were the foundation of the social structure, famine was periodic, death from starvation common, disease pervasive, thievery normal, and graft and corruption taken for granted, the elimination of these conditions in Communist China is so striking that negative aspects of the new rule fade in relative importance.”
—Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989)
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“A defective voice will always preclude an artist from achieving the complete development of his art, however intelligent he may be.... The voice is an instrument which the artist must learn to use with suppleness and sureness, as if it were a limb.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)