"The Urban-Rural Income Gap and Inequality in China"
Speaker: Terry Sicular, Associate Professor of Economics, University of Western Ontario
Professor Sicular will present the key findings of research undertaken with colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Goteburg, and Beijing Normal University. Studies of China's inequality almost universally report that the gap between urban and rural household incomes in China is large, has increased over time, and contributes substantially to overall inequality. Whether or not concerns about the urban-rural income gap are justified depends, among other things, on the true magnitude of the gap and also on the factors that underlie the gap. Using a new and rich data, this study investigates the size of China's urban-rural income gap, the contribution of that gap to overall inequality, and the factors underlying the gap in 1995 and 2002. The analysis improves on past estimates by adjusting for spatial price differences and including migrants. It also measures the extent to which the urban-rural income gap is due to differences in household and individual characteristics, rather than the advantages of location of residence.
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