Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This edited volume analyzes land utilization data from farm surveys taken in China between 1929 and 1933. This data, which was the foundation for John Lossing Buck's seminal work
Land Utilization in China (1937), was thought lost to history until rediscovered in 2000. The book presents the first modern analyses of agricultural economics in Republican China using Buck's micro-data, covering important topics such as nutritional poverty, tenancy issues, land productivity, surplus labor, workers' incomes, credit supply, and regional differences. Through using modern analytical methods, this book presents a more accurate picture of the agricultural economy in the Republican Era and will be of particular interest to agricultural economists, economic historians, and Chinese studies scholars.
Synopsis
1. China's Agriculture in the 1930s: An Overview
2. John Lossing Buck and Land Utilization in China3. Calamities and Conflict Affecting Rural China 1929-19334. The Discovery and Restoration of Buck's Original Data5. Reliability of John Lossing Buck's Land Utilization Survey Data: A preliminary test of grain yields6. Tenancy Issues in Northwest China during the Republican Era7. Regional Differences in Surplus Agricultural Labor during China's Republican Era, Based on Buck's Rural Survey Data8. Agricultural Poverty and Inequality in 1930s China: Estimates of Gini and Engel Coefficients from Buck's Data9. An Analysis on the Inverse Relationship between Yield and Farm Size in Rural China in the 1930s10. The relationship between farm size and land productivity in early 20th Century China11. Estimating the Demand for Farm Credit in the Republican Era12. The Change in China's Cropland Utilization and Productivity over nearly a century in China: a comparison study based on Buck's survey13. A Comparison of Certain Changes in Chinese Agricultural Operations between Buck's Republican Era and Modern China14. Concluding Thoughts