Much of the hype about Shanghai is heavily based on impressions (and on GDP data). The “Shanghai miracle” is assumed but not demonstrated. The “tyranny of numbers,” in the words of Alwyn Young (1995), has led me to question the very foundation of this miracle. As in the rest of this book, I rely heavily on micro data for analysis. Three sources of data have been especially important in uncovering the economic dynamics of Shanghai: the well-designed rural and urban household surveys by the NBS; the series of private-sector surveys on larger and more established private enterprises; and a
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