Market Structure and Agricultural Growth (Theory and Chinese Empirical Research)

Author: Hong Minrong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: Agricultural growth marketization is not only a fundamental trend worldwide but also a crucial aspect of China's economic reform practices. How to organically integrate agricultural growth with marketization has become a major issue and challenge in modern agricultural growth, holding immense significance for China's economy and even social development. In agricultural growth marketization, market structure is a unique and important issue. Generally, the basic characteristics or problems of agricultural growth under a market economy are attributed to the so-called "small production, large market," where countless individual farmers face an equally numerous consumer base, with both individual producers and consumers occupying only a minuscule share in the market. The essence of "small production, large market" is a direct and popular description of the fundamental characteristics of the agricultural market structure. The essential features of the agricultural market structure can be understood from two aspects: On one hand, from the perspective of the product market, it is generally considered to be perfectly competitive or nearly perfectly competitive. On the other hand, from the perspective of the factor market, it often exhibits incomplete competitive characteristics. These two features give the market structure a different significance and impact on agriculture compared to other industries, making the market operation characteristics of agriculture distinct from those of other industries, or alternatively, giving agriculture a unique set of growth characteristics and methods under market conditions. Many issues in agricultural growth, such as price, supply and demand, input, technological progress, and others, are directly related to the inherent market structure of agriculture or triggered by specific market structure characteristics. Therefore, the discovery and research of many agricultural growth issues can, in fact, be guided or initiated by analyzing the market structure. It is evident that market structure analysis holds special significance for agricultural research and that the analysis of agricultural market structure also has uniqueness in market structure research. The theme of this book lies in focusing on the relationship between market structure and agricultural growth, or using market structure as a key entry point for studying the marketization of agricultural growth. This book attempts to theoretically elaborate on the characteristic of "small production, large market" in agriculture, combining international experiences and drawing from the practices of China's agricultural growth, to analyze the features of the agricultural market structure and the characteristics of its market operation, study the impact of specific market structures on farmers and agriculture, and explore ways and policies to promote agricultural growth through market structure.