1. ¹PricewaterhouseCoopers, San Jose, CA, USA
2. ²Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA

Correspondence: Louis Putterman, E-mail: Louis_Putterman@Brown.Edu

Abstract

After three decades of reform, state ownership still plays a significant if diminishing role in China's industrial sector. We survey studies that focus on the impact of reform on China's SOEs both during the early reform years from 1979 to 1992 and during the years of privatisation and corporatisation since 1993. Most studies find evidence that reforms led to productivity growth in both periods, with both the performance gap and the formal distinction between SOEs and non-SOEs appearing to narrow since the late 1990s.