Rising Inequality in China and the Move to a Balanced Economy

China faces serious external(i.e.trade) and internal(i.e.structural) imbalances.Both are related to income inequality,reduction of which will help to increase domestic demand.This paper discusses how income inequality has evolved over time.This is followed by an exploration of the consequences of high inequality.Driving forces underlying the rising inequality are analyzed before providing concrete policy recommendations.It is found that inequality declined in the early period of reform,until the mid to late 1980s,and then began a rising trend up to 2010.Major determinants of inequality include:location,institutional and policy factors,trade and globalization,and education inequality and human capital gaps along rural-urban and spatial divisions.To achieve a balanced economy and a harmonious society,development policies in China must shift from emphasizing growth to prioritizing equality.In addition,government interventions can target rural-urban disparity through rapid urbanization,and tackle regional inequality by developing financial markets, ensuring progressive allocation of fiscal resources,promoting trade and foreign direct investment in inland China,creating more formal jobs and supporting the service sector.     

On the Coordinated Development of Urbanization and Rural Economy in China

Urbanization is one of important missions in china＇s modemization. The most vital task in the advancement of urbanization is to increase peasants＇ income and appropriately solve the issues concerning agriculture, rural areas and peasants, thus ensuring the accelerated development of rural economy. This paper mainly discusses five issues that urgently need solving in the development of rural economy and urbanization. They include peasant＇s qualification and right of the real management entity in the market, financial support, circulation and transference of agricultural land, welfare and social security of peasants and fairness of taxes on peasants.     

New Thoughts to Increase Farmers＇ Earnings

This paper suggests that farmers＇ earnings are hard to be increased because farmers＇ material capital and manpower capital are very low. Solving the farmers＇ problem of little growth in income doesn＇t merely satisfy farmers＇ currency increase, but has the strategic eyes to increase the growth speed over that of citizen. This paper has evaluated four kinds of thoughts of increasing farmers＇ income discussed at present. It points out that relying on external forces to develop agricultural industrialization and regulate rural economic structure, lead to the income that farmers get from is limited. Merely lightening the burden of farmers can not be the main approach to increase earnings, only investing more in agriculture may create condition for increasing income and diverting country redundant labors. But we must improve farmers＇ culture quality and capital accumulation firstly. At last, it proposes thoughts and suggestions to solve the problem.     

The Empirical Research on the Effects of FDI on Regional Employment in China

Because of the severity of unemployment, how to solve this problem has gradually become a topical subject in China from the perspectives of both academics and practitioners in recent years. The severity of employment can be observed not only on the constant soaring of some macroscopically total amounts such as the total unemployment and the rate of unemployment, but also on the extremely uneven distribution of regional employment. There are many reasons for the uneven distribution of regional employment, among which the enormous disparity in FDI＇s regional distribution in China is an essential influential factor. This article aims at explaining the interrelationship and function mechanism between 1＂]）I and the change of our country＇s regional employment, and putting forward the corresponding regional policy suggestions through the empirical research on the FDI＇s regional distribution and its employment effect.     

Determinants of Household Income Mobility in Rural China

This article uses multivariate regression and decomposition analyses to assess household income mobility determinants and their contributions to income mobility in rural China from 1989 to 2006. The findings indicate that households with lower initial income level, higher share of wage income, higher educational level of household members, larger number of non-agricultural employed household members and younger heads are more mobile. Moreover, besides initial income, change in the share of wage income, change in the share of non-agricultural employed household members, and change in average year of education of household members are the most important factors that account for income mobility. These findings necessitate more emphasis on policies that promote non-agricultural employment and education to enhance household income mobility in rural China.     

Regional Inequalities and Its Determinants in Rural China：An Empirical Study Based on Agricultural Household Level Data

Using 1000 agricultural household survey data in 2002, this paper employs Gini coefficient and the Theft index to explore the regional inequalities and its determinants in rural China. We first measure the overall rural income inequality, and then decompose it by region and by factor （source of income） respectively. Third, we construct an econometric model to analyze the determinants affecting the income inequality indexes. Our main finding is that although Gini coefficient and Theft index is at a normal level, we need to point out that there exists a risk that the income inequality may climb up with the misbalanced growth of regional economy without taking adequate policy into account. At the end of this paper, policy suggestion is given： governments should offer more financial support for the less developed rural areas, where income level is quite low. An alternative choice is to enhance the transfer payment for the low-income people, and help them to get access to profitable economic project. In the long run, it is especially important to strengthen the farmers＇ professional training, and to increase their migrant ability to nonagricultural career.     

China＇s New Rural Income Support Policy： Impacts on Grain Production and Rural Income Inequality

I. Introduction Since the beginning of 2004, the Chinese Government has replaced its centuries-old policy of taxing agriculture by a new policy aimed at subsidizing agriculture and stimulating rural incomes. To this end, agricultural taxes – standing at around 8 percent of agricultural incomes – were drastically reduced. By now they are abolished in most provinces. Inaddition, farmers growing grain receive a direct income subsidy, new seed varieties and mechanization are subsidized, and la…     

Using the practice of foreign agricultural logistics for reference

China is a big agricultural country, but because of region, technology, policy and other reasons, Chinese agricultural products have not got a good circulation in nationwide scope. With the diversion of bottleneck which affects peasants＇ income from production field to circulation field, developing agricultural logistics has been a breakthrough to solve rural problems. The paper proposes some references, which are useful to solve ＂three agricultural problems＂, increase peasants＇ income and develop rural economy.     

Labor Market Reform, Income Inequality and Economic Growth in China

The year 1996 was a turning point both in terms of Chinese labor market reform aria m China＇s economic growth pattern. Before 1996, labor market reform was mainly implemented through adjustment of people＇s occupation and income structure. Since 1996, employment restructuring has led to differentiation in terms of employment status. Labor market reform in the former stage resulted in slow growth in wages, whereas reform in the latter stage enhanced economic efficiency. Both stages have enabled the Chinese economy to apply its comparative advantage of low labor cost. Labor market reform has also increased income disparity and, therefore, new challenges are posed in sustaining economic growth. China needs to adjust its development strategies and introduce labor market reform that can improve income equality, so as to achieve sustainable economic development.     

Empirical Analysis of Wealth Distribution Disparity of Chinese Residents and Its Changes

I. Introduction The widening wealth gap between the rich and the poor is currently becoming a focus of attention in China. It has two implications: excessive income gap and huge wealth disparity.A number of research papers have appeared on the subject of Chinese people’s income gap. However, there has been limited research on the distribution of people’s wealth. The already published research papers show especially a lack of empirical study of the dramatic changes in wealth distribution in…     

China＇s Urban Employment and Urbanization Rate： A Re-estimation

The present paper argues that China＇s existing population and employment statistics are misleading, and have failed to include many of the migrant and labor force flows between urban and rural areas. The paper reconciles the differences between official census data and other survey statistics and attempts to recalculate China＇s urban population and employment figures. Our analyses indicate that official statistics of 2012 underestimate China ＇s urban employment by approximately 47 million while overestimating rural employment by 31 million. The adjusted urbanization rate exceeded 55 percent in 2012, almost 3 percentage points higher than the official statistics. Nevertheless, there remains much potential for rural-to-urban migration. More specifically, if the current bottlenecks in household registration, social security and public welfare systems can be removed or relaxed, China＇s urbanization rate could rise by another l O percentage points or even more over the next decade.     

中国劳动力市场绩效与挑战

I. IntroductionChinas labor market has undergone significant changes in the past 20years. A more market-oriented labor market has emerged with growing importance of the urban private sector, asstate-owned enterprises (SOEs) have downsized. At the same time, rural employment growthhas slowed, and migrants have sought jobs in the more dynamic coastal provinces. Despitethe progress in reforms, a sizable surplus of labor still exists in the rural sector (about150million) and SOEs (about 1011 mi…     

The Relationship Between Government Policy and Financial Performance： A Study on the SMEs in Iraq

The study examined the relationship between government policies and financial performance in small and medium enterprises （SMEs） in Iraq. The study aimed at establishing the relationship between government policies and financial performance of SMEs. In the Republic of Iraq, it is estimated that 99% of the business entities are SMEs. They also contribute to GDP and provide employment. Notwithstanding the recognition of the important roles SMEs play in Iraq, their development is largely constrained by a number of factors, such as the existence of laws, regulations, and rules that impede the development of the sector. The study provided some relevant recommendations to policy makers, development agencies, entrepreneurs, and SME managers to ascertain the appropriate strategy to improve the SME sector in Iraq.     

China＇s Labor Transition and the Future of China＇s Rural Wages and Employment

This paper contributes to the assessment of China＇s rural labor markets. According to our data, the increase in off-farm employment that China experienced during the 1980s and 1990s continued during the 2000s. Our analysis shows that migration has become the most prevalent off-farm activity, although the destination of migrants is shifting from outside of one＇s province to destinations closer to home. The present paperfinds that large shares of male and female individuals, especially those under 40 years, are working off the farm. These findings represent an important contribution to the labor economics field. First, the results of the present paper reveal that the labor transition from the agricultural sector to the non-agricultural sector for key segments of China＇s rural labor force is nearly complete. Second, although a large share of China ＂s rural labor force work in agriculture, most of these workers are older men and women （and likely would not be willing to take low-wage, labor-intensive jobs）. Third, the rising unskilled wage rate in China is partially a result of the tightening of the labor force in the young age cohorts. Finally, due to factors associated with the one child policy and other demographic transition forces, successive age cohorts will continue to fall in absolute number in the coming decade. Assuming China＇s growth continues, we expect to see further wage increases since it will take higher wages to coax more workers to work off the farm.     

Rural Informal Taxation in China： Historical Evolution and an Analytic Framework

The present paper examines the historical evolution of China's rural taxation system from the pre-reform period to the late 1990s. We propose that because of information asymmetry between the upper-level and the lower-level governments, local governments had to be granted some informal tax autonomy to fulfill the upper-level policy mandates. This easily led to excessive local informal taxation on farmers. As market liberalization of the grain sector progressed, the low-cost tax instruments implemented through the traditional approach of implicit taxation gradually eroded. Local governments in agricultural regions had to resort to informal fees collected directly from individual rural households while the more industrialized regions shifted to non-agricultural taxes that are less costly in terms of tax collection. Hence, political tension between farmers and local governments in agriculture- based regions emerged and rural tax reform became necessary.     

Blue Box Policy Reform in the Doha Round Negotiations： Effects and China＇s Position

This paper uses an agricultural trade policy simulation model to quantitatively evaluate the effects of Blue Box policy reform on agricultural production and trade, and further provides specific proposals regarding China ＇ s reform position. The results indicate that, if the reform could achieve a reduction in distorting supports in more developed countries, China＇ s total agricultural production would increase, accompanied by a decrease in agricultural imports and a slight increase in exports. In terms of social welfare, producers would gain significantly, consumers would lose and government would not suffer greatly, which is in accordance with current agricultural policies in China. As a core member of G20, China should approve a subsidy level as low as possible required by Blue Box to achieve ＂substantial reductions in trade-distorting domestic supports＂.     

Does Property Right Transformation Improve Township and Village Enterprises Performance？

I. Introduction The township and village-owned enterprises (TVE) in rural China have ever been both an engine of the Chinese economy and an important contributor to the success of Chinese economic reform. They were established by the township and village authorities in the 1980s to achieve three main purposes: to provide government revenue, to increase ruralresidents’ income, and to create employment opportunities for the tremendous rural surplus labor force. The extent of the achievements…     

The Reform of China＇s Rural Land System

This paper discusses the reform of China‘s rural land system in the past more than 20 years. It reviews the course of China‘s rural land system reform since 1978 and the enormous contribution that the household contract responsibility system made to China‘s agricultural and rural development. Then it summarizes the current situation and existing problems in China‘s rural land system. Finally, it offers some policy suggestions on how to perfect the rural land system.     

Neighborhood Effects and Regional Poverty Traps in Rural China

The present paper investigates how neighborhood effects are connected to chronic poverty. We examine a large sample of groups of households and find that neighborhood effects are significant in a majority of groups, especially in the poorest groups. People living in poor communities tend to suffer from poverty over time. It is of theoretical and empirical importance to explore how neighborhood effects are interrelated with chronic poverty and the channels through which this occurs. Unlike other econometric analyses, we establish a multilevel econometric model to show that： （i） it is difficult for an individual living in a neighborhood with a high proportion of agricultural labor, low education levels, and poor transport and telecommunication infrastructure to escape from poverty traps; （ii） neighborhood effects dominate in poor communities; and （iii） although poverty is affected by group-level factors, individual factors still play a dominant role in regards to escaping poverty when income surpasses a threshold level Therefore, policy priority should be given to providing social protection and public services, especially in poor rural areas.     

Elasticity of Energy Demand and Challenges for China＇s Energy Industry

I. Introduction Since late 2002, China’s energy demand and resources have become one of the most prominent issues in international discussions of energy. In our earlier studies of China’s energy demand as relates to transportation and urbanization (Gates and Yin, 2002; Yin and Gates, 2002), we took more of a long-term view and raised the possibility that even if China’s economy continued to grow rather slowly, which was the prevailing perception at the time, there would still be strong d…