Publication: Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China: An Overview
No Thumbnail Available
Published
2008
ISSN
01161105
Date
2012-03-30
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
This overview introduces the background of the study "Inclusive Growth toward a Harmonious Society in the People's Republic of China (PRC)", under which all the papers in this special volume were prepared. It summarizes key findings of these papers as grouped into three parts: (i) Inclusive Growth and Policy Options; (ii) Balancing Efficiency and Equity Objectives: International Experiences; and (iii) Empirical Analysis of Income Inequalities in the PRC. In concluding, this overview argues that building a harmonious society is the most important development challenge that the PRC faces, and that a development strategy anchored on inclusive growth provides an effective approach to addressing this issue.
Link to Data Set
Digital Object Identifier
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Achieving Equity and Efficiency Simultaneously in the Primary Distribution Stage in the People's Republic of China(2008)This paper establishes a theoretical framework addressing the long-debated issue of efficiency and equity. Empirical evidence shows that a comparative-advantage-following development strategy promotes growth and narrows the income gap, achieving both efficiency in production and equity in income distribution. A review of the past three decades of reform reveals that development in line with the comparative advantage of the People's Republic of China accounts for its outstanding economic performance. The dominant causes of the country's current problems are the remaining distortions in prices and government interventions in resource allocation. Therefore, to put the government's "scientific development outlook" into practice and to realize development with quality and speed, the country should deepen marketoriented transformation by eliminating these distortions and interventions. The inclusiveness of development can be further strengthened with financially sustainable social security and transfer payment policies.Publication Income Growth, Inequality and Poverty Reduction : A Case Study of Eight Provinces in China(2009)This paper examines the growth performance and income inequality in eight Chinese provinces during the period of 1989-2004 using the China Health and Nutrition Survey data. It shows that income grew for all segments of the population, and as a result, poverty incidence has fallen. However, income growth has been uneven, most rapidly in coastal areas, and among the educated. A decomposition analysis based on household income determination suggests that income growth can largely be attributed to the increase in returns to education and to the shift of employment into secondary and tertiary sectors.Publication Reranking and Pro-poor Growth: Decompositions for China and Vietnam(2009)Reranking in the move from one income distribution to another makes it impossible to infer from changes in Lorenz and generalised Lorenz curves how income growth among those toward the bottom of the initial income distribution compares to that among those toward the top, and whether there has been income growth among those who were initially poor. Decompositions allowing for reranking indicate that economic growth in China and Vietnam has been better for households who were initially poor than changes in the Lorenz and generalised Lorenz curve and poverty growth curve would suggest.Publication Banking Structure and Economic Growth : Evidence from China(2009)With panel data for 28 Chinese provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) during 1985-2002, this paper assesses the effect of banking structure on economic growth. Banking structure is defined as the relative importance of banks of different size in the banking sector. The market share of small banking institutions is taken as a proxy to measure the banking structure. In dealing with the potential endogeneity problem, this paper constructs an instrumental variable for banking structure with the information on the commercialization reform of state-owned banks initiated in 1994. The estimation results from a two-way fixed-effect model show that increases in the market share of small banking institutions enhance economic growth in contemporary China.Publication Was Vietnam's Economic Growth in the 1990s Pro-poor? An Analysis of Panel Data from Vietnam(2011)International aid agencies and almost all economists agree that economic growth is necessary for reducing poverty, yet some economists question whether it is sufficient for poverty reduction. Vietnam enjoyed rapid economic growth in the 1990s, but a modest increase in inequality during that decade raises the possibility that the poor in Vietnam benefited little from that growth. This article examines the extent to which Vietnam's economic growth has been "pro-poor," giving particular attention to two issues. The first is the appropriate comparison group. When comparing the poorest x% of the population at two points in time, should the poorest x% in the first time period be compared to the poorest x% in the second time period (some of whom were not the poorest x% in the first time period) or to the same people in the second time period (some of whom are no longer among the poorest x%)? The second is measurement error. Estimates of growth among the poorest x% of the population are likely to be biased if income or expenditure is measured with error. Household survey data show that Vietnam's growth has been relatively equally shared across poor and nonpoor groups. Indeed, comparisons of the same people over time indicate that per capita expenditures of the poor increased much more rapidly than those of the nonpoor, although failure to correct for measurement error exaggerates this result.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.