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6 - The Evolution of the Migrant Labor Market in China, 2002–2007
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- By John Knight, Beijing Normal University, Deng Quheng, Université de Lyon-CNRS-GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne, Li Shi, Beijing Normal University
- Edited by Shi Li, Beijing Normal University, Hiroshi Sato, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Terry Sicular, University of Western Ontario
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- Book:
- Rising Inequality in China
- Published online:
- 05 July 2013
- Print publication:
- 31 October 2013, pp 230-254
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Summary
Introduction
Migration simply did not figure in the first of the China Household Income Project (CHIP) volumes, which was based on a 1988 national household survey (Griffin and Zhao 1993). This was partly because that survey relied entirely on samples drawn from the annual national household survey of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which contained only rural households and urban hukou (household registration) households. That sampling procedure in turn reflected the underlying reality: rural-urban migration was restricted, limited, and unimportant. The same is true of the volume based on the 1995 CHIP survey (Riskin, Zhao, and Li 2001), although it contains an analysis of migrants based on the rural sample (Li 2001). The 2002 CHIP survey was the first to include a separate sample of rural migrants to the cities, and migrants were integrated into several of the chapters in the resultant volume (Gustafsson, Li, and Sicular 2008). A sample of rural-urban migrants was again included in the 2007 CHIP survey, on which the current volume is based. The greater emphasis given to migrants and migration in each succeeding CHIP survey reflects an important development in the Chinese economy. What has been referred to as the greatest migration in human history is now critical to an analysis of China's economic growth, income distribution, poverty alleviation, and labor market. Indeed, it is the subject of a separate volume that is also based on the 2007 survey (Meng and Manning 2010), but that volume does not address the question posed in this chapter.
The famous Lewis model (Lewis 1954) provides a good framework for evaluating the success of a developing economy and for explaining the ways in which the fruits of economic development are spread. Within a competitive market economy, it is only when the economy emerges from the first, labor-surplus, classical stage of the development process and enters the second, labor-scarce, neoclassical stage that real incomes generally begin to rise.
7 - A New Episode of Increased Urban Income Inequality in China
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- By Deng Quheng, Björn Gustafsson, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden
- Edited by Shi Li, Beijing Normal University, Hiroshi Sato, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Terry Sicular, University of Western Ontario
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- Book:
- Rising Inequality in China
- Published online:
- 05 July 2013
- Print publication:
- 31 October 2013, pp 255-288
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Summary
Introduction
The development of income inequality in urban China is a hot topic. There is agreement that income inequality has tended to increase over the years, but evidence indicates that the development has not been smooth. For example, previous studies based on the China Household Income Project (CHIP) have found that earnings inequality at the individual level as well as income inequality at the household level in urban China increased profoundly from 1988 to 1995. However, although from 1995 to 2002 earnings inequality continued to increase, income inequality at the household level decreased modestly (Gustafsson, Li, and Sicular 2008). Rapid growth in incomes caused urban poverty, assessed by a poverty line representing constant purchasing power (“absolute poverty”), to diminish rather substantially (Appleton, Song, and Xia 2010). What has happened more recently, during the initial phase of the Hu Jintao–Wen Jiabao leadership (2002–2007)? In this chapter we aim to shed new light on developments during this period using data from the CHIP urban household survey.
Our first research question is, How did income, income inequality, and poverty develop? To answer this question, we show income growth curves and report estimates of income inequality. Furthermore, we show cumulative density functions and report summary measures on absolute and relative poverty for 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. The second research question is, What were the forces for change during the period from 2002 to 2007? To understand this, we decompose the Gini coefficient of disposable household per capita income by income components for 2002 and 2007. The third research question is, How have various categories of the population fared during the period from 2002 to 2007? To answer this question we look at differences among groups based on ownership, sector, age, and education.
Appendix I - The 2007 Household Surveys
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- By Luo Chuliang, Beijing Normal University, Li Shi, Beijing Normal University, Terry Sicular, University of Western Ontario, Deng Quheng, Université de Lyon-CNRS-GATE Lyon Saint-Etienne, Yue Ximing, Renmin University of China
- Edited by Shi Li, Beijing Normal University, Hiroshi Sato, Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Terry Sicular, University of Western Ontario
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- Book:
- Rising Inequality in China
- Published online:
- 05 July 2013
- Print publication:
- 31 October 2013, pp 445-464
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Summary
To track the dynamics of income distribution in China, the Chinese Household Income Project (CHIP) has conducted four waves of household surveys, in 1988, 1995, 2002, and lastly 2007. These surveys were carried out as part of a collaborative research project on incomes and inequality in China organized by Chinese and international researchers, with assistance from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The CHIP project participants and other researchers have analyzed the data from the first three waves and published a wide range of articles, reports, and books. Descriptions of the CHIP surveys and key findings can be found in Griffin and Zhao (1993); Riskin, Zhao, and Li (2001); and Gustafsson, Li, and Sicular (2008). This volume not only contains analyses based on the data from the fourth wave, 2007 but also uses data from the earlier waves to understand trends over time.
Eichen and Zhang (1993) describe the 1988 survey, and Li et al. (2008) describe the 1995 and 2002 surveys. This Appendix provides basic information about the 2007 survey. The CHIP surveys are closely related to the NBS household survey. Li et al. (2008) discuss how the NBS household survey samples were selected. Additional details about the NBS household surveys can be found in recent NBS statistical reports and publications.
7 - What Has Economic Transition Meant for the Well-Being of the Elderly in China?
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- By Edward Palmer, Professor of social insurance economics Department of Economics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden, Deng Quheng, Assistant professor Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
- Edited by Björn A. Gustafsson, Li Shi, Beijing Normal University, Terry Sicular, University of Western Ontario
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- Book:
- Inequality and Public Policy in China
- Published online:
- 25 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 07 April 2008, pp 182-203
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Summary
Introduction
Since reorientation to a market economy in 1978, China has experienced remarkably high economic growth. Growth has most certainly been both an effect of and a motor for the transition process and has raised the living standard, especially of the segments of the country participating directly in growth-related activities. At the same time growth has created greater inequality in incomes between regions and between the rural and urban populations (see Chapters 2 and 3 of this volume). The question addressed in this chapter is how has the economic well-being of the elderly, a large group that does not benefit directly from the growth process, been affected by the past two decades of rapid growth and development? To answer this question, this chapter examines the determinants of the income status of both the rural and urban elderly in China.
From the outset it is important to note that there is a big difference in how old age security is provided in rural and urban China. In 2003 around 60 percent – 800 million – of China's population of almost 1.3 billion persons lived in rural China, where the older generation relies almost exclusively on the family network for income support in old age. In contrast, workers in urban China who have been employed in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) or as civil servants are covered by a pension plan.