Author	Mosk, Carl
Title	Traps embraced or escaped [electronic resource] : elites in the economic development of modern Japan and China / Carl Mosk
Imprint	Singapore ; Hackensack, N.J. : World Scientific Pub. Co., c2011
Connect to	http://ebooks.worldscinet.com/ISBN/9789814287531/9789814287531.html
Descript	xv, 260 p. : ill

Countries commencing industrialization with relatively low levels of agricultural productivity, hence low wages, enjoy advantages that can also prove host to daunting challenges. The chief advantage is a relatively elastic supply of labor for manufacturing; the chief challenge is how to free up farm labor for factory employment through the raising of labor productivity in farming. Key to raising agricultural labor productivity is providing incentives to increase effort levels including hours worked - access to markets being crucial - and improving the quality of labor as measured by health indicators and educational attainment. The willingness of elites to promote improvements in infrastructure - physical infrastructure in the form of roads and railroads and hydroelectric systems; human capital enhancing infrastructure augmenting the educational attainment and health of populations in rural areas; and financial infrastructure - and to invest directly in factories is crucial to the process by which labor is transferred from farming to manufacturing activities. During the period 1850 to 1935 elites in China tended to resist the requisite changes while elites in Japan did not. This legacy played a crucial role in shaping the nature of post-1950 economic development in the two countries

pt. I. Introduction. 1. The argument. 2. Elites and traps -- pt. II. Coping with the Western challenge, 1840-1911. 3. Qing China, 1840-1911. 4. Tokugawa and Meiji Japan -- pt. III. Traps, 1910-1955. 5. Growth acceleration in Japan, 1910-1938. 6. Agriculture and industrialization in Republican China, 1911-1935. 7. Militarism, 1930-1945 -- pt. IV. Consequences, 1945-2005. 8. Elites in decline. 9. Miracle growth and its aftermath in Japan. 10. Command and control and its aftermath in China. 11. Conclusions

1. Economic development -- China -- History -- 19th century
2. Economic development -- China -- History -- 20th century
3. Economic development -- Japan -- History -- 19th century
4. Economic development -- Japan -- History -- 20th century
5. Elite (Social sciences) -- China
6. Elite (Social sciences) -- Japan
7. Electronic books