View this email in your browser [https://wiiw.ac.at/files/mailings/event-201804121122-en.html]   Dear colleague, we cordially invite you to the following event: CHINA'S ESCAPE FROM THE "BIG BANG": THE 1980S PRICE REFORM DEBATE IN RETROSPECT ISABELLA MARIA WEBER a lecturer in economics at Goldsmiths, University of London THURSDAY, 26 APRIL 2018, 5:00 PM (17:00 CEST) wiiw, Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, lecture hall (entrance from the ground floor) China’s rise and Russia’s fall shape today’s global political economy. This new great divergence originates from the different policies pursued in the transition from a command economy. Russia applied a ‘big-bang’ doctrine with rapid price liberalisation at its core. In contrast, a policy of experimentalist gradualism manifested in the dual track price system laid the foundations for China’s economic success. But China came close to implementing a big bang in the 1980s and the gradual approach was defended in a fierce reform debate. The talk sheds light on this critical crossroads of the 1980s. First, it is shown how exchanges between Eastern European émigrés and Chinese reform economists, which were facilitated by the World Bank, bridged previous reform debates in the socialist world with China’s first attempts of the early 1980s. Second, the economic logic underlying the alternative pathways of ‘big bang’ and gradualism are analysed. Third, it is discussed how China ultimately came to escape a ‘big bang’ in price reform. ...more [https://wiiw.ac.at/china-s-escape-from-the-big-bang--the-1980s-price-reform-...] WE KINDLY ASK YOU TO REGISTER [https://wiiw.ac.at/bc-e-er-381.html] for the event. Best regards, Julia Grübler [https://wiiw.ac.at/julia-gruebler-s-866.html] _Organiser_            Robert Stehrer [https://wiiw.ac.at/robert-stehrer-s-16.html] _Scientific Director_ wiiw The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies Rahlgasse 3, 1060 Vienna, Austria wiiw@wiiw.ac.at, wiiw.ac.at [https://wiiw.ac.at] T: +43 1 533 66 10 [tel:+4315336610] [http://www.facebook.com/wiiw.economic.studies] [http://www.twitter.com/wiiw_news] [http://www.linkedin.com/company/vienna-institute-for-international-economic-...] [http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyNuSfsgzgBsIf7AaH8Vk-Q] [https://wiiw.ac.at/rss.php] Copyright ©2018 wiiw, all rights reserved.