Reveal the core concerns of China
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China’s Three Rural Issues — rural areas, agriculture, and farmers — have been the core concerns of the Chinese government in the course of socioeconomic transformation and domestic economic development. Addressing the Three Rural Issues is a crucial task for those involved in development finance. Using theoretical and empirical methods, The Development of Rural Finance in China analyzes and summarizes the features of China’s rural households in the rural credit market and looks at the economic behavior of the supply and demand sides through the prisms of various frameworks: nation, society, system, and culture.
Content Highlights
Provides an in-depth analysis of peasants' financing behaviors and demands, as well as the structures and policies of rural financial systems through extensive field study
Reviews China's reform of rural finance, examines China's agricultural credit market, and discusses the marketization of rural finance and transformation of rural society
Book Review
"Rural development is receiving increased attention not only from the Chinese government, but also from scholars. A hot issue in both circles are the causes of the observed increase in the income gap between urban and rural areas. One important contributing factor is examined by Chen and Ma (2012) in their book The Development of Rural Finance in China. Using China’s state-owned commercial banks’ loan data for the period 1998 – 2004, they argue that there exists a capital outflow from the agricultural to the industrial sector through the formal financial system. Existing government policies that tend to favour the industrial sector are the driving force of this rural capital outflow. Their argument is substantiated in five chapters which address rural households’ financial behaviour, the adverse situation of rural finance in China, the agricultural loan market, rural financial institutions, and the transformation of rural households and the financial layout.
In their book, Chen and Ma (2012) provide convincing empirical evidence that development of rural finance is important for reducing the urban-rural income gap and for solving the so-called Three Rural Issues (the development of the countryside, the agricultural sector, and rural household incomes). The main contribution of the book lies in the empirical evidence that it provides on the positive impact of rural finance supply on rural household incomes and agricultural production, and on the relationship between rural households’ financial demands and their available fixed assets."
--Nico Heerink, Associate Professor, Wageningen University and Research Centre
About the Authors
Chen Yulu is the President of Renmin University of China, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People's Republic of China, Vice President of the China International Finance Society, Deputy Secretary-General and Standing Director of the China Society for Financing and Banking. His major publications include Modern Finance (2000), Mixed Operation of the Financial Industry in China (2009), Research on International Balance of Payments (1998), etc.
Ma Yong is a Research Fellow of the International Monetary Institute at China Financial Policy Research Center of the Renmin University of China. His areas of research include macro-economics, financial stability, and China’s rural finance.
