From Click to Boom : The Political Economy of E-commerce in China - Lizhi Liu

From Click to Boom

The Political Economy of E-commerce in China

By: Lizhi Liu

Paperback | 12 November 2024

At a Glance

Paperback


$57.50

or 4 interest-free payments of $14.38 with

 or 

Aims to ship in 15 to 25 business days

When will this arrive by?
Enter delivery postcode to estimate

How the world’s largest e-commerce market highlights a digital path to development

How do states build vital institutions for market development? Too often, governments confront technical or political barriers to providing the rule of law, contract enforcement, and loan access. In From Click to Boom, Lizhi Liu examines a digital solution: governments strategically outsourcing tasks of institutional development and enforcement to digital platforms—a process she calls “institutional outsourcing.”

China’s e-commerce boom showcases this digital path to development. In merely two decades, China built from scratch a two-trillion-dollar e-commerce market, with 800 million users, seventy million jobs, and nearly fifty percent of global online retail sales. Contrary to conventional wisdom, Liu argues, this market boom occurred because of weak government institutions, not despite them. Gaps in government institutions compelled e-commerce platforms to build powerful private institutions for contract enforcement, fraud detection, and dispute resolution. For a surprisingly long period, the authoritarian government acquiesced, endorsed, and even partnered with this private institutional building despite its disruptive nature. Drawing on a plethora of interviews, original surveys, proprietary data, and a field experiment, Liu shows that the resulting e-commerce boom had far-reaching effects on China.

Institutional outsourcing nonetheless harbors its own challenges. With inadequate regulation, platforms may abuse market power, while excessive regulation stifles institutional innovation. China’s regulatory oscillations toward platforms—from laissez-faire to crackdown and back to support—underscore the struggle to strike the right balance.

More in Business Aspects of E-Commerce

Self-Made : Build a Big Life from a Small Business - Olivia Carr
By My Hands : A Potter's Apprenticeship - Florian Gadsby

RRP $49.99

$38.75

22%
OFF
E-commerce 2023-2024 : business. technology. society : 18th Edition - Carol Traver
The Art of SEO : Mastering Search Engine Optimization - Eric Enge
Digital Marketing : 2nd Edition - 2024 Release ISE - Raj Sachdev
MoneyGPT : AI and the Threat to the Global Economy - James Rickards
Social Media Marketing - Tracy L. Tuten

RRP $143.00

$124.80

13%
OFF
Small Business For Dummies : 6th Edition - Eric Tyson

RRP $49.95

$38.50

23%
OFF