《中国与世界经济》（China & World Economy）2022年第1期目录和摘要
Special Issue:
Development, Inequality, and Common Prosperity
Guest Editors: Shi Li, Ximing Yue
China & World Economy / 1–4, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
Guest Editors’ Introduction
Shi Li, Ximing Yue
China & World Economy / 5–27, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
The Rise of China’s Global Middle Class in an International Context
Terry Sicular, Xiuna Yang, Björn Gustafsson
Abstract
We estimate the size of the global middle class in China and 33 other countries and analyze China’s expanding middle class in an international context. The “global middle class” is defined in terms of being neither poor nor rich in the developed world. China’s global middle class has grown rapidly and has been catching up with the middle class in developed countries. By 2018 China’s global middle class constituted 25 percent of China’s population; in absolute size it was nearly double the size of the global middle class in the US and was similar in size to that of Europe. Cross-country analysis of the relationship between the middle-class share of the total population and GDP per capita reveals an inverted-U pattern. China is not an outlier from the cross-country pattern but the speed with which its middle-class has expanded is unusual. The only other countries with similarly large, rapid expansions of the middle class are transition economies.
China & World Economy / 28–57, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
Growth and Common Prosperity in China
Nanak Kakwani, Xiaobing Wang, Ning Xue, Peng Zhan
Abstract
This paper introduces a decomposition method that quantifies the contributions to common prosperity of labor market performance and social policies and extends the idea of shared prosperity to a new measure of inequity in opportunities. The resulting common prosperity indices and opportunity equality indices are then applied to five waves of the Chinese Household Income Project data from 1988 to 2018. This paper shows that the labor market performance and social policies have been improving over the last 30 years and have helped China move towards common prosperity for everyone. The indices developed in this paper allow us to quantify the extent of shared prosperity that a country has achieved and to carry out empirical studies on which policy is working and which is not. It can also help us identify the fundamental causes of inequality and aid us in achieving equality in opportunity among all members of society.
China & World Economy / 58–81, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
Evaluating the Redistributive Effect of Social Security Programs in China over the Past 30 Years
Meng Cai, Jing Xu
Abstract
China has improved its social security system in recent decades, with the aim of achieving universal coverage and improving the equity of income distribution. Based on data from the five rounds of Chinese Household Income Project surveys from 1988 to 2018, this paper examines the long-term redistributive effects of social security programs in China. Our results show that social security programs have reduced income inequality consistently, and the positive redistributive effects have been improving for the past 30 years. Social security transfers have had an increasingly essential role in rural areas, especially after 2002 when China started to establish a comprehensive rural social safety net and expanded the coverage of the social security program. The redistributive efficiency of the social security system has also increased recently.
China & World Economy / 82–105, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
Exploring China’s Potential Child Poverty
Yangyang Shen, Sabina Alkire
Abstract
This paper estimates child poverty in China using 2018 data from the China Household Income Project. Applying the Alkire–Foster drawer approach, we constructed a multidimensional poverty indicator system that accounted for multiple factors contributing to a child’s development and well-being, based on which we estimated multidimensional poverty experienced by children. Children’s poverty varied by age, gender, rural/urban settings, and geographic region. By extending the Alkire–Foster drawer approach, two important features of child poverty in China were found, which had normally been neglected by per capita poverty measures: poor children in nonpoor families and unequal allocations to different children within the same families. The results showed that more than 40 percent of multidimensionally poor children lived in nonpoor families. Unequal resource allocation within families was observed in half of the families. These two features of child poverty require more policy attention and the Chinese government should prioritize addressing multidimensional child poverty.
China & World Economy / 106–135, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
The Consumption-Stimulating Effect of Public Rental Housing in China
Xiaokuai Shao, Yujin Cao, Yangchuan Teng, Jidong Chen, Liutang Gong
Abstract
China’s public rental policy creates opportunities for poor households to rent apartments at low rental prices. In addition to such an impact, we argue that public rental housing increases the purchasing power of the poor and therefore enhances the income elasticity of consumption, i.e., the percentage of consumption increment due to a 1 percent increase in income. Based on a nationwide dataset from China, the Chinese Household Income Project 2018, we find that public rental housing significantly increases the marginal impact of household disposable income on consumption. Specifically, our analysis suggests that public rental apartments could increase the income elasticity of consumption demand by
18 percent among all rental households and by 24 percent among rental households with below-average income. We also find that the effect of public rental housing on income elasticity of consumption is stronger for service consumption than for nonservice consumption. These results suggest that a well designed public rental policy could not only promote consumption in favor of the service industry but also alleviate the undesirable consequences of the unbalanced consumption structure caused by income inequality.
China & World Economy / 136–165, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
Self-employment in Rural China: Its Development, Characteristics, and Relation to Income
Björn Gustafsson, Yudan Zhang
Abstract
Changes in the employment structure in rural China were studied with a focus on off-farm
self-employment. Data from the Chinese Household Income Project surveys were used, covering the same 14 provinces from 1988 to 2018. We found that the proportion of adults in rural China with self-employment as their primary form of off-farm employment increased from only 2 percent in 1988 to 11 percent in 2013, with no further increases through 2018. In 1988 and 1995, the rate of self-employment was highest in the eastern region but this regional pattern subsequently disappeared. The probability of being
self-employed in rural China was higher among married males than among unmarried persons. Having a migration experience increased the likelihood of being self-employed. Since 1995, self-employed households have had a higher average income than other categories of household. Based on estimates of income functions, we conclude that the income premium from being self-employed increased rapidly from 1988 to 1995 to become remarkably large when only a few adults were self-employed. However, as a larger fraction of the rural population entered self-employment, the payoff from being self-employed has rapidly diminished, although it was still substantial in 2018.
China & World Economy / 166–195, Vol. 30, No. 1, 2022
Self-employment in Urban China: Entrepreneurship or Disguised Unemployment?
Xinxin Ma, Shi Li
Abstract
To explore the mechanism of entry to the self-employed sector in urban China, this study tested two hypotheses: the entrepreneurship hypothesis and the disguised unemployment hypothesis, investigating the impact of mass entrepreneurship and innovation policies on business start-ups. Three main findings emerged. First, the entrepreneurship hypothesis was rejected for both local urban residents and migrants in 2013 but was supported for both groups in 2018. Second, the causality relationship between mass entrepreneurship and innovation policies and business starts-ups was not significant. Third, the results differed by group. The entrepreneurship hypothesis was supported for the younger generation of migrants in 2018 but was clearly rejected for the less educated, both in the local urban resident and migrant groups in 2013 and 2018. Robustness checks confirmed these conclusions.
中国与世界经济
英文刊公众号
扫码关注最新动态
欢迎订阅