Abstract
The book, published by Routledge Press, analyzes how and why neoclassical and new institutionalist economics replaced Marxist economics and historical materialism as the dominant political-economic paradigms inside China. The analysis links the rise of neoclassical economics to the political economic projects that key groups inside and outside China wanted to enable. The book analyzes the different ways that Marxist and neoclassical economists thought about rural restructuring, the reorganization of the international sector, and the performance of state owned enterprises. It finds the reconstruction of the Chinese economics profession in the image of the American profession reflected the impact of classical liberalism, the daily language of marketspeak, and abandonment of questions about the construction of socialism. The history confirms other observations that find American economics PhD programs acting as licensing agencies for a globalized economics profession.
