Inequality and Growth in Modern China

This volume provides comprehensive updated coverage of inequality and poverty issues in China. Some of the methodologies developed herein are published for the first time and may be used in other contexts and for other countries. The use of different data sources and state-of-art research techniques ensures that the findings and conclusions can be substantiated and that the policy recommendations are reliable and robust. Contributors to this volume are renowned experts in their respective areas, including, notably, Justin Lin, Xing Meng, Kai-yuen Tsui, and Guanghua Wan. For these reasons, those with an interest in income distribution in general and China's development in particular, will find this volume essential reading.

Rapidly rising inequality in China has contributed to the sluggishness of domestic demand and emerging poverty. It has thus exerted considerable pressure for commodity exports and represents a root cause of increased trade disputes. These have profound ramifications for the US, EU, and other economies, and the international business community. Consequently, economists and sociologists, among others, are increasingly focused upon inequality and poverty issues in China and relevant policy implications.

This volume, arising from a two-year UNU-WIDER project, addresses issues that include the inequality-growth relationship, regional/personal variation in incomes and human well-being such as education, the determinants of inequality and poverty or their changes, gaps in innovation capability, and the role played by China's development strategies in affecting inequality.

Guanghua Wan is a known China specialist and applied economist, author of an expansive list of books and published papers in the top refereed journals. His recent work focuses on inequality and poverty in China and elsewhere and has appeared in the Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Review of Development Economics. He is among the leading group of researchers to develop and apply the regression-based inequality decomposition framework. Dr Wan has served as a consultant to many international organizations and advises the Chinese government on rural development, income distribution, and science and technology policies. He is honorary professor of several leading universities in China including Fudan University and Zhejiang University.