However, its state sector is still running severe deficits. Even though its productivity might be improved since the reform started, its financial situation, nevertheless, has been worsening mainly as a result of increased competition from the rapidly expanding non-state sector. Therefore, the reform of this sector has become an urgent problem.

All the papers collected in this book are closely related to the various issues that the reform of the state sector has to solve.

Among the contributors are Professor Merton H Miller, a Nobel laureate and expert on firm finance and governauce, Mr Ji Lin, the vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Dr Justin Y Lin, the director of Center of China's Economic Research at Beijing University, Professor Gang Fan, the well-known Chinese Economist and vice director of the Institute of Economic Research at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Guoqiang Tian, an expert on mechanism design at Texas A & M University, and many other researchers and professors from China and the North America's research institutes and universities. Therefore, this book will be extremely useful and relevant to those economists as well as government decision-makers working in the field of the transitional economy.

Contents:

• Speeches Delivered at the Opening Session
• Which to Reform First, Internal Institutitions or External Environment — A Debate
• Review and Prospect: Historical and International Comparisons
• Macroeconomic Stability and the SOE Reform
• Reforming the Labor Market, Housing Sector, Medical Care, Insurance and Innovation System — A Sectoral Approach