Determinants of the repartitioning of property rights between the government and state enterprises

This research uses A Survey of State Enterprises: 1980-1989, a retrospective survey conducted in 1991 by the Chinese Academy of Social Science. The data set is a balanced one; no firms dropped out during the 10 years. The survey questionnaires were sent out to 800 state enterprises. Valid responses from 769 firms, located in 21 cities in four provinces (Sichuan, Jiangsu, Jilin, and Shanxi), were returned. This data set was not designed to be a random sample of the state enterprises, as large firms were overrepresented, making up more than 70% of the sample; the median firm had 931 employees. The data set consists of two parts. Part one, filled out by accountants of the firms surveyed, contains quantitative tables with details of the production inputs, outputs, internal incentives, wages, and profits. Part two, answered by the managers of the firms, includes information about the industry affiliations, governance status, when the firms were granted the discretion to plan output and what product to produce, when the firms adopted the Management Responsibility System, and whether the manager had the discretion to determine wage setting.