Unmaking China's Development - The Function and Credibility of Institutions

"Peter Ho argues that understanding China''s economy necessitates an analytical refocusing from Form to Function, detached from normative assumptions about institutional appearance and developing instead a "Credibility Thesis". In this reading, once institutions endogenously emerge and persist through actors'' conflicting interactions, they are credible. Ho develops this idea theoretically, methodologically, and empirically by examining institutions around the sector that propelled, yet, simultaneously destabilizes development: real estate - land, housing and natural resources. Ho shows how this sector can further both our understanding of institutions and issues of capital, labor, infrastructure and technology"--