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Critically examines the regime's 'surplus squeeze'. Shows that such a strategy is detrimental to the long-term generation of sizable economic surplus and the provisioning of basic needs. Argues that a viable alternative is the New Economic Policy model of a mixed economy where the state, cooperative, and private sectors grow side by side for a while on the basis of labor accumulation. (Abstract amended)

"Placing the concept of surplus at the forefront of archaeological discussions on production, consumption, power, strategy, and change, this volume reaches beyond conventional ways of thinking about top-down or bottom-up models and offers a comparative framework to examine surplus, generating new questions and methodologies to elucidate the social and political economies of the past"--

Abstract
Economics has traditionally split consumers from producers by assigning them fixed roles. In the Internetworked economy as it is becoming, this is no longer true as value is increasingly jointly created among individuals, as a function of their co-creation experiences. We construct a framework that reconnects economics with value creation that goes beyond artifacts as the central unit of analysis, toward platforms of engagements of which artifacts themselves are only a part. Engagement platforms are now both the means and ends of value creation, and economic theory must take into account both the potential value generated to individuals through "production" experiences of co-creating artifacts (through co-production engagement platforms), as well as co-creating
"consumption" experiences (through co-consumption engagement platforms). We show how starting with joint value creation re-shapes our thinking about the nature of "surplus," expanding traditional economic thinking about supply and demand toward a more convergent space of markets shaped by co-creation experiences.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Background -- 1.2 Purpose of this book -- 1.3 Modelling approach -- 1.4 Structure of the book -- Part One: Grain Price Policy Analysis -- 2 The rural economy and the institutional environment -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Planning and agricultural performance before reforms -- 2.3 Rural reforms since 1978 -- 2.4 The dual characteristics of the new institutional environment -- 2.5 Unchanged aspects of the rural economy -- 2.6 Summary -- 3 Grain price adjustments: the debates and issues -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Adjustments to state purchase prices -- 3.3 Issues: the upward price adjustment and price distortions -- 3.4 The debates -- 3.5 Summary -- 4 Emergence of the rural non-farm economy -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 New rural policies -- 4.3 Structural changes -- 4.4 The motivations for farm labour mobility -- 4.5 Farm household income changes -- 4.6 Summary and conclusions -- Part Two: Supply Response Analysis -- 5 Review of supply response issues -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Supply response analysis in general -- 5.3 Theoretical analysis of supply response in China -- 5.4 Empirical analysis of Chinese grain supply response -- 5.5 Summary and conclusions -- 6 An analytical framework -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Alternative theoretical frameworks -- 6.3 Alternative empirical approaches -- 6.4 Other issues -- 6.5 Summary -- 7 Household own-consumption and grain marketable surplus -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Chinese farm households -- 7.3 Model specification -- 7.4 The data -- 7.5 Results -- 7.6 Summary -- 8 Off-farm income and grain marketable surplus -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Labour supply features and modelling implications -- 8.3 Model specification -- 8.4 The data -- 8.5 Empirical estimation

If one wishes to give individuals what they deserve, one must find some way of appraising those characteristics that render them deserving. In modern democratic societies, it seems attractive to base this appraisal on an aggregation of the valuations individuals hold of the desert bases under consideration. Some have argued that the market can provide such an appraisal. However, I argue that the market does not provide a satisfactory democratic appraisal that is relevant for desert, as it allows for the existence of net consumer surplus. Nevertheless, I submit that a procedure that does not leave any net consumer surplus would succeed where the market fails. Taking the average valuation of the individuals in society for a given desert base would meet this requirement. Hence, I claim that such a procedure can provide the satisfactory democratic appraisal that the market cannot, and can be used to give individuals what they deserve.

An investigation of Lewis's development and use of the concept of surplus and a comparison of it with Marx's surplus value shows that this attempt to update Marxian theory with mainstream concepts was unsuccessful. Marginal productivity theory and Marx's theory of surplus value cannot be consistently developed within Lewis's analysis. Still Lewis's approach, employing classical economics from Smith to Marx, is of value to radical political economists in undeveloped capitalist economies.