From Poverty to Prosperity: The A-C Theory to Explain China's Growth Miracle and Its International Applicability

This book uses a new political economy theoretical framework (A-C theory) to explain why China has been able to create economic growth miracles in the past few decades and achieve prosperity from poverty in a relatively short period of time. The A-C theory is based on two core concepts: "economic accessibility" and "political cohesion", emphasizing that the combination of cohesive political governance and access to an open economic system is the institutional basis for driving a country’s economy on the road to prosperity―from poverty to wealth. Among them, cohesive political governance is usually political governance that creates a peaceful and stable social order, effectively builds a consensus, and promotes collective action, as opposed to conflictual political governance. An open-access economic system is one that guarantees people the opportunity to participate voluntarily in economic activities, as opposed to a restricted-access economic system. It is the shift from conflict-based political governance to cohesive political governance, from access to a restricted economy to access to an open economy, and the formation of a benign interaction between single-peak unbiased political governance and access to an open economy, which has resulted in more than 40 years of rapid growth. Under this framework, this book examines the development facts of China since the Xinhai Revolution, analyzes typical countries and panel data from 209 countries and regions to further test the historical and international applicability of the theory.

Chen Changsheng has a PhD in economics, serves as the director of the Macroeconomic Research Department of the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council, P. R. China. Chen is also the spokesperson of DRC and the director of its Big Data Laboratory for Macro Decision-making. As a leading talent in philosophy and social sciences, Chen is selected for the national "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", leading cultural expert and member of the "Four Groups of Talents" Project (in the theoretical field), the special allowances receipant from the State Council, member of the 13th National Youth Federation Standing Committee and Chairman of the Economic Division. Chen's research interest lies in macroeconomic policy research, and he has lead multiple policy research tasks assigned by the central government, major research programmes, and international cooperation projects. Chen has participated in the drafting of documents for the Central Economic Work Conference, Government Work Reports, and the preparation of the National Five-Year Plan over an extended period.

YANG Guangpu has a PhD in economics, serves as an Associate Research Fellow at the Department of Macroeconomic Research of the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council, P. R. China. Before joining DRC, Yang had studied at Peking University (PKU), University of Hong Kong (HKU), and National University of Singapore (NUS). He had also taught various courses at various departments at NUS, including Macroeconomics, Money and Banking, International Finance, Econometrics, as well as Public Economics. Yang was a visiting scholar at the The Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford (2019-2020). Yang's research interest lies in International Finance and Open Economy Macroeconomics, with a recent focus on the construction of macroeconomic indices, the international coordination of macroeconomic policies, the estimation and evolution of productivity, and the implementation of competition policies. Yang has published a number of academic papers on journals like the Journal of International Money and Finance.

Li Chengjian has a PhD in economics, serves as an Associate Research Fellow at the Department of Macroeconomic Research of the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council, P. R. China. , and a member of the 10th Council of the Chinese Society of Finance. Li's research interest lies in macroeconomics, finance and taxation, social security, big data macroeconomics. Li has participated in multiple policy research tasks assigned by the central government, major research projects, and international cooperation projects. Li has published a number of academic papers on journals like the Journal of Population Economics, Economics Letters and China Economic Review.