Was the Chinese system of property management and social relations really inefficient and the European system that much better? Also I'm curious as to what school of thought that Pomeranz comes from as this would help me understand his argument better.
In response to your second question, there's an article by Peer Vries in the journal History Compass that summarizes the historiography of the Great Divergence. Kenneth Pomeranz is considered one of the "California School" historians. The school is called by that name because many of its members are/were professors at West Coast universities (Pomeranz at UC Irvine, Wong at UCLA, Goldstone at UC Davis, Marks at Whitter College, etc). I hope that helps you with your research.