Development of Public Housing in Post‐reform China

This paper explores the dynamic nature of the transformation of public housing regimes in urban China since the abolishment of the urban welfare housing system in the late 1990s. We summarize the latest progress in the development of public housing in post‐reform China and investigate the driving forces behind these developments. A close examination of the public rental housing program in Shanghai helps to show that the recent revival of public housing in Chinese cities is mostly driven by the desire for economic growth. We conclude that the state provision of housing could be a short‐run state remedy to alleviate economic imbalance and social inequality. However, in the long run China needs to seek more effective solutions to solve the low‐income population's housing affordability problems.     

Financial inclusion as a pathway to welfare enhancement and income equality: Micro-level evidence from Nigeria

While the importance of financial inclusion as a means of poverty and income inequality reduction has long been recognised, the paths to welfare enhancement and income equality through financial inclusion remain partially acknowledged. Using micro-level data on 1 750 rural Nigerian households, this study examines the finance-welfare nexus by constructing a multi-variable financial inclusion index. The results first show that financial inclusion exerts a strong positive influence on household welfare. However, the decomposition analysis shows that middle- and high-income households gain more from financial inclusion in comparison to the targeted low-income households. Second, informal livelihood strategies, such as environmental resource extraction, crops, and livestock production, revealed reduced welfare disparities across income distributions. Therefore, for financial inclusion to alleviate welfare inequality and ensure income convergence, rural financial markets must be redesigned to allow wider access to credit, specifically for low-income and vulnerable households.     

Housing inequality and housing poverty in urban China in the late 1990s

This paper discusses housing inequality and housing poverty in urban China in the late 1990s, using original household surveys. Focuses are on the distributive implications of the privatization of public-owned housing and the wave of rural–urban migration. Estimates of the imputed rent function for owned housing purchased at discount prices indicates that meritocracy and political credentialism work differently as determinants of housing inequality. The paper confirms that there has been a large disparity in housing conditions between urban and migrant households, and that a new type of housing poverty has been emerging among migrant households.     

Income and consumption inequality in China: A comparative approach with India

We analyse income and expenditure distribution in China in a comparative perspective with India. These countries represent extreme cases in the relationship of inequality to both wellbeing indicators. Income is more highly concentrated than expenditure in India, especially at the top of the distribution. Both types of inequality are similar in China, although expenditure is more unequally distributed than income in urban areas. China has a much stronger correlation in individual ranks and levels between the two wellbeing distributions. As a result, expenditure inequality is higher in China than in India, but income inequality much lower. This results partially from differences in population composition, such as China being more urbanized and having smaller households, but mostly from differences in conditional income distributions, especially by attained education of the household head. We show that hybrid measures of wellbeing combining income and expenditure can be useful for such cross-country comparison.     

Preferential policies and income inequality: Evidence from Special Economic Zones and Open Cities in China

This paper examines whether cities with preferential policies have higher inequality in household disposable income per capita than cities without preferential policies in urban China. “Preferential policies” refers to the autonomy and deregulation given to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Open Cities, allowing them to experiment with market policies and reforms, as the country moves from a state-controlled economy towards a market-oriented economy. While the effect of these policies on economic growth is extensively documented, their relationship with income inequality remains undetermined. Subgroup decompositions of income inequality, using the China Household Income Project's urban datasets of over 6000 households and 20,000 individuals from of up to 70 cities from 12 provinces, were used to identify income inequality gaps between cities with and without preferential policies. The results reveal that while income inequality increased in urban China from 1988 to 2007, the change was lower for cities awarded preferential policies across regions. Furthermore, the decompositions by region indicate that cities receiving preferential policy treatment had higher income growth but a lesser increase in income inequality than cities without preferential policies in each region. Finally, cities receiving preferential policies were able to increase the share of income of the poorest 40% of households while reducing the share of the richest 10%.     

Are house prices too high in China?

This short note defines a new measurement of housing affordability in terms of permanent income. Using this new measurement, we find that housing affordability in China is very strong relative to other developed economies, although the ratio of housing prices to current income in China is much higher than those of developed nations.     

Family structure and home ownership: Evidence from China

This paper studies how individuals, particularly low-income individuals, have financed housing purchases since the housing market was privatized in urban China in the 1990s. To the surprise of many policy makers and economists, more than 80% of the households in urban China owned private housing by the end of 2010. In contrast to most developed countries, we find that male siblings are important borrowing resources to purchase housing. Conditional on the number of siblings, having more brothers instead of sisters increases the probability of owning housing among male individuals born during the baby boom (1949–1978) in urban China. However, there is no such brother effect for females. The brother effect is stronger for males with low income or low levels of education and is also stronger when brothers are wealthier. Our results are robust to different model specifications. Our results suggest that females are likely to be excluded from family-based informal financial market for housing purchase among baby boom generations in China.     

Transport expenditure and affordability: The cost of being mobile

Measuring and understanding the transport expenditure patterns of households and individuals is critically important for formulating pro-poor transport policies, as well as for monitoring their effectiveness. This paper reviews evidence on transport expenditure and affordability in South Africa, focusing especially on low-income and mobility constrained persons. The results indicate that a person's location along the urban–rural continuum significantly affects both their transport expenditure levels and the perceived severity of their transport affordability problems. Public transport users in displaced urban settlements and isolated deep rural locations and medium-income car commuters in suburbs and urban townships face the highest transport expenditure and affordability problems. Disabled and elderly people were found to have similar expenditure patterns and perceptions as travellers at large. Spatially targeted interventions in both transport supply and land use policy are suggested to address transport affordability problems in South Africa.     

E-commerce and Consumption Inequality in China

Consumption inequality may impede economic development and hinder the achievement of common prosperity. Using three waves of the China Family Panel Studies from 2014 to 2018, this paper investigated the impact of e-commerce on consumption inequality, as measured by the Kakwani index. The results indicate that e-commerce can reduce household consumption inequality. A mechanism analysis shows that e-commerce can narrow household income inequality, increase the purchasing power of low-income households, and promote the consumption of households with limited access to offline markets, thereby reducing the consumption gap. A heterogeneity analysis suggests that the positive role of e-commerce in reducing consumption inequality can be more significant among vulnerable households, such as households with elderly members and less-educated households. E-commerce can have varying impacts on consumption inequality across different subcategories of household expenditure, with the greatest impact seen in entertainment and education expenditure. These findings provide new evidence for the role of e-commerce in reducing consumption inequality in the digital economy, and the implications of this are discussed.     

The dynamics of housing affordability for the population of Russia in 2008–2014

The article discusses the dynamics of affordability for the Russia’s population of purchase of ownership of housing in the period between the two crises of 2008 and 2014. We conducted a comparative analysis of the results of housing affordability assessment made using different methods. We constructed a typology of Russian regions, i.e., subjects of the Russian Federation on a classical housing affordability index. We made an estimate of the proportion of housing affordable for acquisition by the population and the proportion of households with the opportunity to purchase standard housing. Multivariate calculations conducted will improve the objectivity and reliability of the assessment of housing affordability level. It is shown that the financial affordability of housing in Russia after the crisis of 2008 has increased in all considered indices.     

中国开征碳税对价格、福利及公平影响的测度

本文利用投入产出和线性需求模型分析了碳税的价格影响、福利成本以及再分配效应。征税导致占中低收入居民支出比重较大的基本消费品价格大幅上涨,如电热水气、房屋、公共交通、食品等;从等价性变化、补偿性变化的角度看,城镇居民的福利损失随收入降低而上升,而农村居民中中等收入家庭损失最大;Atkinson公平指数显示碳税前后贫富差距有所扩大。因此,碳税具有一定累退性。但是,碳税边际福利成本及其收入差距影响并不大,因此政府可以通过转移支付手段缓解其负面冲击。     

高校扩招与教育回报率的城乡差异——基于断点回归的设计

文章基于中国家庭收入调查项目数据（2007年与2013年）,在断点回归设计的框架下分析1999年实施的高校扩招政策对城乡居民受教育年限、收入及教育回报率的影响。结果表明：第一,高校扩招政策的实施使农村居民的平均受教育年限提高了0.59年左右,使城镇居民的平均受教育年限提高了0.85年左右。第二,在断点回归的设计下,农村居民的教育回报率大约为11%,城镇居民的教育回报率大约为8%,高于OLS的估计。虽然实证结果显示教育回报并不存在城乡间的马太效应,但并不意味者城乡间教育发展与收入差距缩小。第三,高校扩招政策一方面显著促进了城镇居民低收入群体教育回报的提升,有效抑制了城镇居民中可能出现的收入差异扩大的"马太效应"。另一方面,高校扩招政策使得农村居民高收入群体教育回报高于低收入群体,在一定程度上导致了农村居民收入差异扩大的"马太效应"。     

调控政策、住宅价格与居民住房支付能力——基于PanelData模型的区域差异分析

高房价是近年来我国政府关注的焦点,而与之相关的居民住房支付能力强弱则成为关键问题之一。本文以区域差异为视角,加入政策调控因素,引入虚拟变量,构建Panel Data模型以定量考察各因素对居民住房支付能力的影响程度。结果表明,住宅价格对西部地区的影响低于东、中部,而居民收入和消费支出水平对东部地区的影响高于中、西部;数量型货币政策工具对西部地区居民住房支付能力的影响最为显著,价格型货币政策工具对东部地区的影响最大。据此政府应该根据各地区居民住房支付能力的差异、影响因素的不同而制定相应的有效政策,提高居民住房支付能力。     

Recent changes in the housing status of blacks in los angeles

In the aftermath of reductions in federal housing assistance programs during the 1980s, many cities are experiencing severe shortages of affordable housing. It is particularly difficult for low income and minority households to find and maintain adequate, low-cost housing. This article describes how Los Angeles has responded to this need through implementation of a particular housing policy and financing strategy. It specifically examines what impacts this program has had in producing affordable housing in the city’s low-income, minority neighborhoods. Recommendations for further public action on housing needs in Los Angeles are also offered.     

INCOME INEQUALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES, 1961–91

Household income inequality in the Philippines remains high and the trends for three decades have been fairly stable except for a sharp decline in the mid-1980s. Gini coefficient of income inequality has been consistently close to 0.50. Urbanization and education of household head are the most important factors determining the level of income inequality while the contribution of age of head is limited. The increase in the number of urban households results in an increase of overall inequality while the increase in the number of household heads with a college education tends to decrease the inequality. Among the household income sources, wage income is the largest contributor to total income inequality. Wage rate inequality appears to be a major source of wage income inequality.     

The Influence of Demographics and Household-Specific Price Indices on Consumption-Based Inequality and Welfare: A Comparison of Spain and the United States

Previous research has suggested that inequality is lower in Spain than in the United States when it is based on income. For the present article, both inequality and social welfare are examined, with household consumption expenditures used as a proxy for household welfare. For tractability, equivalence scales depended only on the number of people in the household. Household-specific price indices were used to express the 1990-1991 expenditure distributions in 1981 and 1991 winter prices. Our results reveal that inequality and welfare comparisons are drastically different for smaller and larger households. When all households are considered, the two-country comparison suggests that the income inequality ranking can only be maintained for expenditure distributions when economies of scale are small or nonexistent. However, welfare is always higher in the United States than in Spain. Because inflation during the 1980s in both countries was essentially distributionally neutral, all results appear to be robust to the choice of time period.     

The long-term evolution of national income inequality and rural poverty in China

Using the five waves of the China Household Income Project surveys conducted during 1988–2013, we investigate long-term changes in national income inequality and rural poverty in China. National income inequality rose markedly to 2007 and thereafter fell slightly. Income growth was widely shared, but inequality increased because the high-income percentiles had faster income growth than lower percentiles and because the gap between urban and rural household incomes widened. The fall in income inequality after 2007 reflects faster income growth among low-income percentiles and the impacts of newly introduced redistributive policies. The paper also finds a considerable, ongoing poverty reduction in rural China. A poverty decomposition analysis indicates that this rural poverty reduction was mostly due to income growth rather than redistribution.     

新疆吐鲁番地区城镇低收入群体生活状况、面临的困难及对策建议

为了解当前吐鲁番地区城镇低收入群体的生活状况,国家统计局吐鲁番调查队根据全地区城镇住户抽样调查资料,结合居民消费价格(CPI)监测资料,对2010年吐鲁番地区低收入居民家庭收入、消费、住房、医疗、教育、就业等方面问题进行了实地调研分析,研究物价上涨对低收入群体生活的影响程度,社会保障水平是否完善等问题,最后提出了一些提高吐鲁番地区城镇低收入群体生活水平的建议。     

Unemployment, Poverty and Income Disparity in Urban China

This paper studies the issues of unemployment and poverty that have been appearing recently in urban China. It estimates the urban unemployment rate, poverty rate and income disparity using a new sample survey data set. Meanwhile, it analyzes the relationship between unemployment and poverty, and the effects of poverty on urban inequality. The main findings are that: (i) the urban unemployment rate reached 11.6% in 1999 and was a major cause of urban poverty; (ii) growing urban poverty is becoming the significant source of worsening urban inequality; and (iii) migrant households have an increasing influence on urban poverty and the pattern of urban income distribution. The paper concludes that urban income distribution has worsened since 1995, and urban unemployment and poverty are the major factors in this worsening.     

The quest for affordable urban housing: A study of approaches and results in Harare,Zimbabwe

Approaches aimed at achieving housing affordability have long emphasised the housing unit. Conventional wisdom prescribes that affordability will be enhanced if the unit cost of a house is reduced. Classic solutions include the reduction of standards, use of indigenous technologies and materials, adopting self-help modes of delivery and addressing market imperfections. This study shows that while it is not unwise to reduce the cost of housing, there is a limit to this approach. Unit costs cannot be reduced indefinitely and non-cost-reducing strategies are therefore called for. The approaches hinge on improving the economic status of low-income groups by implementing measures that reduce household expenditure and/or boost their incomes.